Entrepreneurial dreams fulfilled, 1 cup at a time Collaboration key word as drink carts rise via social media-powered pop-ups By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 6:05 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025

When John Daniel Miranda rolls up, he’s bringing his espresso machine, his batched matcha and enough cups to serve roughly 60 drinks per hour.

He might park Chico, his coffee cart company, inside a clothing store. Another day may bring set-up at a wedding, a farmers market, an event like Nuit Blanche.

“I actually thought I wouldn’t get this much inquiries,” Miranda said. “I thought I would have to do all the legwork to get people to work with us.”

That hasn’t been the case. Since launching in June, Miranda has booked around 25 pop-up showings; he has a wintertime residence at a local shop in the works.

Chico joins a seemingly growing number of pop-up drink stands in Winnipeg. Mobile stations like Sonder, Kopi and Caiko have launched since July. They share their specials on social media: bright purple and green ube matchas, black sesame cold brews, sea salt cream lattes.

Miranda has taken inspiration from online: “You see a lot of entrepreneurs — not just in Winnipeg, but all over the world — starting their own coffee carts. It’s knowing that you can make money out of it, but also, it’s fun.”

For Miranda, it’s been years in the making. He recalled falling in love with specialty coffee and starting work as a Thom Bargen barista.

About a year into the job — in 2022 — Miranda thought about launching his own coffee cart, with the ultimate goal of a brick-and-mortar shop. He liaised with café owners throughout Winnipeg, but ultimately kept his idea on hold. Plans shifted this January.

Miranda, 23, visited family in the Philippines. He played games with neighbourhood children while there.

“It brought me back to my childhood,” Miranda said. “They inspired me to follow my dreams, looking at how good I have it in Canada.”

“They inspired me to follow my dreams, looking at how good I have it in Canada.”

 

He immigrated to Manitoba as a nine-year-old. Why not start a coffee business with the aim of supporting himself, his parents and children back in the Philippines, he thought recently.

Upon returning to Winnipeg in February, Miranda tapped a friend with a landscape architecture background. Owen Swendrowski-Yerex began working on a plumbing-equipped coffee cart — one that holds an espresso machine, grinder, five-gallon water jug and a six-gallon waste jug.

Meanwhile, Miranda hit the pavement, searching for pop-up opportunities. His first came in June, through the Collab Shop in the Exchange District.

“It was a sell-out day,” Miranda reminisced. “I was very emotional at the end of the day.”

He poured drinks for roughly 11 hours. Then he packed up, went home and prepared for a wedding pop-up in Morris the next afternoon.

Social media, word of mouth and a physical presence in different spaces have led to new bookings, Miranda relayed. He’s not a one-man show: friends and his girlfriend Vivian Tran regularly help with Chico’s operations.

Miranda hopes to open a permanent location — one with pour-over coffee — in the next five years. The cart is a way to begin without the hefty investment of a brick-and-mortar, he noted.

“Each one of us, we have something different to share,” he said, considering his drink cart peers. “Yes, there are a lot popping up, but they also have their specialty drinks.

“(It) gives the consumer more reason the check them out.”

Jessie Margolis sought Chico for the grand opening of After Denali (Denali’s brick-and-mortar consignment shop) after seeing the coffee brand at other locales.

“Coffee and shopping go hand in hand, and we saw potential for a strong collaboration,” Margolis told the Free Press in an email.

“Coffee and shopping go hand in hand.”

There’s crossover between the businesses’ customers, Margolis said, and placing Chico in After Danali offered greater exposure for both brands. Chico and companies like it announce their whereabouts ahead of time on social media, often to hundreds or thousands of followers.

Unique Bunny tapped Maro Matcha, a pop-up that launched this spring, for similar cross-pollination.

Matcha has exploded in popularity. Its production nearly tripled between 2010 and 2023 in Japan, according to multiple media outlets who cited Japan’s agriculture ministry.

Drinkers of the green tea align with Unique Bunny’s customer base, said Mark Yang, marketing manager for the Asian skincare chain. The partnership both supports Maro and “lets more local people know what is Unique Bunny,” Yang said.

He’s planning a matcha pop-up later this month; it follows an initial venture with Maro in September.

Savannah Luff, event manager of co-working hub Createful Spaces, partnered with Maro Matcha and other companies on a pop-up event last weekend.

Hundreds visited McDermot Avenue, Createful Space’s home base — and matcha was a driving force for some, Luff said.

“It’s kind of a street that people drive through a lot without stopping,” Luff continued. “Anything that can really create more (of a) concept that downtown is a great place to be, to come down … really does enhance and bring vibrancy back.”

Pop-ups work because people like discovering new things, said Sijie Sun, a University of Manitoba marketing professor.

“This is kind of like limited edition,” Sun said. “(Consumers think), ‘I need to get it before it’s done.’”

Social media has likely propelled drink carts’ popularity because of users’ ability to share pop-up locations, Sun noted. Still, location uncertainty can impact brand awareness, he said.

Winnipeg houses established pop-up drink vendors, Miranda noted: Knapsack Coffee, for example, launched in a Boler trailer four years ago.

“(But) I’ve never seen a big rise like this, the past few years,” Miranda said. “It’s such a cool thing that people are following their dreams.”

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com