Meet Charmaine M | Owner/ Baker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Charmaine M and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Charmaine, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My thought process behind my business was providing something to our community that they didn’t have.

What should our readers know about your business?
My business is Lemon Thyme Macarons. I started off being so fascinated with the petit French almond meringue cookie. With all its technical challenges macarons are very temperamental. After much practice , we started our business in 2017 with popups at local farmers markets.

We grew from there and started our coffee and bakery trailer in Roslyn, WA (home of The Northern Exposure). We serve Filipino inspired drinks such as Ube Lattes and Halo- Halos. We also serve Cuban coffees due to me being born and raised in Miami, FL. The coffee trailer is a representation of my culture and childhood.

It was definitely not easy to get where we are today. During my slow months it was a lot of side job hustling to get me thru the winter months. But with patience and consistency, I am proud to say I do this full time.

The lessons I’ve learned throughout this process was three things: one, get an LLC or decide which business branch you want to proceed to before starting (an accountant and lawyer told me I didn’t need to because my business was “too small” at the time).Two, people will discourage you but keep pushing forward, you will get there thru networking and opportunities. Three, focus your energy on which “magic” products you want to provide in order to grow your business.

If you meet us at the coffee trailer or any macaron popup shop, our branding speaks for itself. We love serving people and making them feel important. My branding has a lot of color and vibrancy and we want to reflect that onto our clients.

Our story is just a Miami girl who moved to a small mountain town of 1,000 people (Roslyn, WA) who want to spread a sparkle of Miami + Filipino culture thru her business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Don’t let our small town fool you! I can perfectly describe it as the Netflix show “ Virgin River”

First, we’d go local shopping, Mary Maletzke’s Photography store has a wonderful vibe of the outdoors and has an incredible retail space. Her photography and does amazing branding shoots (our branding shoot is done by her.)

Basecamp Books + Bites: you can grab coffee + lunch browse thru gifts and books at this cute place!

Gypsy and James. Amanda’s store is colorful filled with home decor and local artists across the United States. Her store gives me joy to be in.

We’d drink at Heritage Distillery or Swiftwater Cellars in Suncadia!

We would walk thru Roslyn onto the historical cemetery (weird I know) but Roslyn has so much rich history. The cemetery back in the day was sorted into races due to the different languages when people immigrated to the town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A shoutout would be to my husband. He is so selfless in supporting my dream. While he is not working on wildland firefighting + volunteer structure fires, he helps me with my business in anyway he can.

Website: lemonthymemacarons.com

Instagram: @lemonthymemacarons

Facebook: Facebook.com/lemonthymemacarons

Image Credits
image credit Mary Maletzke Photography