We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jená Bhone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jená, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

For both Burnt Umber Coffee and Petals & Poison, our biggest mission is to create a space that is comfortable, safe, unique, and inspiring. We have always strived to have customer service be our number one priority. As a family owned and operated business, it is meaningful to us to make a connection with our customers. We want to make sure every person who walks through our doors feels our love for people.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Petals & Poison is created from the heart and soul of Jená Bhone. She specializes in Gothic Victorian inspired items such as the original Into the Unknown Candle Rings, Mourning Brew Tea Blends, and the coveted Nu Antiques. Petals & Poison was brought to life from her love of gothic romance, creating pieces that would be considered a “Nu Antique” due to the feeling that the modern world has lost sight of the beauty nostalgia brings. Most of Petals & Poison’s products offered are designed to be heirlooms to ensure that they could be passed down from generation to generation. The Mourning Brew Tea blends are inspired by many things including the Victorian Mourning Era, the Edwardian Era, and many other unique themes. All Tea blends are made and packed with love and in small quantities to ensure freshness.

Her sister company, Burnt Umber Coffee, is a family owned and operated specialty coffee shop in West Garden Grove. At Burnt Umber, coffee and tea culture collide in a Gothic Victorian aesthetic. Come in for your daily brew and pastry or make reservations for their Afternoon Tea. They offer a one-of-kind experience (with photo opportunities) for each.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The best way to build your audience in my opinion is to be authentic and post what you love. It’s very easy to become mechanical and to try to please others. But ultimately, it’s your business, page, and your art. There is a little bit of method to the madness, but when you pinpoint what it’s really about, people want to connect with you and understand you. They want to feel like a part of your life and your business. It’s important to be confident in who you are and people will love you and your business because they’ve grown to know you and have that special connection with you.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

For this question, I’m going to focus a little bit on the background of Burnt Umber Coffee. Burnt Umber is unique because it’s family owned and operated. We are all cofounders and business partners! My family and I are extremely close and we would consider ourself “coffee crawlers”. We have visited over 100 specialty coffee shops in the past 2 years. Coffee has always been a love language for my parents, sister, and I. Long story short, we put our heads together to create something that was aesthetically driven but had the heart of a mom n pop shop.

Contact Info:

• Website: hype.co/@petalsandpoison
• Instagram: @petalsandpoison // @burnt.umber.oc
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/FRN17vy54g
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@petalsandpoison www.tiktok.com/@burnt.umber.oc

Image Credits
Jená Bhone