STORIES


How to make the perfect cold brew

Follow these easy steps to make your own refreshing cold brew at home!

1. Order Cold Brew Blend and select the “French Press” grind

2. Add 8 ounces of cold water for every ounce of coffee

3. Soak for 18 hours to make a concentrate

4. Filter and dilute to 2 parts concentrate to 1 part water

5. Add ice!

 

Need help choosing a single origin?

LET US HELP YOU EXPLORE NEW YORK COFFEE

Trying a new coffee can be a bit intimidating. To make your journey easier we enlisted the help of Jay (our Director of Coffee, pictured above) to pair our core classic blends with similar single origins. Scroll through the pairings below to explore...

 

You’re a fan of Highline’s floral notes and light body? Then you should try Gakenke from Burundi. This vibrant, layered coffee is a standout amongst this year's single origin lineup.

71 House is renowned for its medium body and smooth, sweet flavor; its chocolaty notes overlap with the classic Brazilian flavor profile of Fazenda Vassourão

Blackstrap Espresso is renowned for it’s full- bodied flavor - switch it up with perennial staff favorite Los Alisos! You won’t be disappointed with this organic coffee’s complex, floral notes.

Explore these New York Coffee Bundles!

Explore New York Coffee with our curated Bundles! These trios offer a great chance to try something new or give someone the perfect New York Coffee gift. Either way, you'll get free shipping!

FEATURING: 

71 House, Blackstrap Espresso, Highline

We've bundled our three essential New York blends. Explore this range of profiles that exemplify the balanced, sweet flavor we're known for.

 

FEATURING:

Blackstrap EspressoGotham, Hudson

When done right, dark roasted coffee should deliver balanced flavors from perfectly caramelized sugars. The delicious range displayed in our dark roast lineup is worth exploring.

FEATURING:

Highline, Colombia Microlot Series, Gakenke

This bundle represents our staff favorites for this season. Each is well balanced and sweet, yet all exhibit a diversity of flavor. And they taste delicious iced!

Baroida, Papua New Guinea | Partner Spotlight

Known for its remote location and cultural diversity, Papua New Guinea holds a unique place in the coffee world. The eastern highlands, home of the Tairora tribe, were mostly cultivated for sweet potatoes and other crops to feed the tribe’s families.

In the early 1960’s, Ben Colbran bought the land and began planting coffee. The farm is named for a the traditional spirit who is believed to live in a rock in the river running through the farm.

Today the Baroida farm is owned and managed by Ben’s son, Nichol Colbran. He manages the farm with the assistance of his sons Rhett & Chris.  

The Colbrans have perfected their style of coffee processing through decades of experience and built a full wet mill on-site for their washed process coffees. They also handle their own exporting and are focused on traceability. We have been buying coffee from them since 2016.

Nemba, Burundi | Partner Spotlight

The Kayanza province is one of the best coffee producing regions in Burundi. Located in the north of the country, it is renowned as the water source of the Nile River. The Nemba Washing Station collects cherries from over 2,600 local coffee farmers.

During the season, Nemba processes more than 400 tons of coffee. Each farmer who works with the Nemba washing station is organised into a group of 30, headed by a lead farmer who acts as a spokesperson to facilitate communication and organization with the station. The washing station is managed by an Agronomist to keep the quality of everything grown to the highest standard, we buy their top 5%.

Due to Kayanza's high altitude, the coffee grown there has a high level of acidity mixed with a fruit-like sweetness. Bold, fruity coffees are a hallmark of the East African flavor profile, and specifically Burundi.

We have been buying coffee from the Nemba Washing Station since 2018.

Partner Spotlight | Porch Sitting with Sergio, Los Alisos, Peru

Dan Streetman, our green coffee buyer, believes in developing relationships with our producers. He makes a point to visit them as often as possible. This is a story of a morning in Peru; spent with Sergio Palermo, who provides our latest single origin selection in cafes: Los Alisos.

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It’s 7:30 am, and I’m sitting on the front porch of Sergio Palermo, a coffee producer who lives outside the small town of Chirinos, Peru.  We’d agreed to meet for breakfast and while his wife Blanquita prepares coffee and food for us, we’re chatting to pass the time. My mind is racing to keep up with Sergio’s rapid Spanish, his slang and his unfamiliar accent.  Luckily, the morning chill is cutting the sluggishness of my travel-weary brain, especially since we’re still patiently waiting for the coffee.

I’m struck by the casualness and familiarity of the conversation, this is only the third time I’ve met Sergio, and he is quickly skipping from subject to subject regaling us with the various things that have transpired over the past year. The weather, a visit from his niece who lives in Boston, how he has been rehabbing from a torn meniscus, not shying away from our questions. Eventually the coffee comes, and it’s easier to keep up.

As the conversation continues I’m starting to get a strong sense of who Sergio is, just from his pace of conversation and tone of voice you can pick up that he is charismatic and energetic.  From the way others in the community discuss him, you know he is a leader, respected not only for his work ethic, but also his technical prowess. In a longer conversation you see a man of experience, pragmatism and charm. Matter of factly he discloses that he and Blanquita bought their farm because the area they were from was running out of ground water, and the economic opportunities were drying up, then quickly cracks a joke. He’s incredibly talkative, a simple question leads to multiple tangents and the conversation barely breaks for us to eat breakfast, before I know it the morning is quickly passing us by.

After the meal, we walk out to the field to see the trees, and talk more directly about Sergio’s coffee.  We pick some coffee cherries as we admire the stunning view and pepper him with questions about coffee production in the area. He replies with ease, his biggest concern: “When will the sun come out?” so his coffee can dry. Sergio explains the parts of the process he can control. They’re just doing the job the correct way. “No problem.”  Picking with care, de-pulping, washing are all straight forward, but the one thing he can’t control, the weather, is his biggest challenge. Especially here at the top of this plateau (nearly 1900 meters above sea level) the intermittent rain and damp fog caused by the persistent cool nights at this elevation give him lots of grief when it comes to drying the coffee. After he explains that he employs neighbors and family members to help with the harvesting, Sergio takes us to visit his wet-mill and secadora (dryer). 

After a brief review of his depulping, fermentation and washing process, we go to the secadora to turn the coffee. The secadora is essentially a small barn with a corrugated translucent plastic roof to let the sun in and increase the temperature. Almost like a greenhouse, the building is at least 5 degrees warmer than outside even this early in the morning.  Here we go deeper into the challenges of drying, Sergio shows us how he doesn’t have enough space even though he has expanded the number of raised beds by adding new racks that help capture some of the vertical space. Sergio’s plan is to put in a cement floor, so that area too can be utilized for drying, along with the benefit of it holding in some of the heat. The floor will have to wait for the time being, as he’s still finishing expanding the patio in the house.

After the tour of the farm operations, we head back to the house to sit on the porch. A representative from the Co-op arrives, signifying that our time is drawing to a close.  As the Co-op administrator sits down, I realize we’re not in a hurry. I sit back to relax and take in the ensuing conversation, Sergio pops up, regresses into a side room, and comes out bearing a box of novelty shot glasses.  He hands me one, insists that I take it as a memento of my visit and shortly after returns with an oversized bottle of Johnny Walker. He insists that we have a dram and consecrate our time together, as we wistfully discuss what will come over the next year until my next visit.

Now Open! Irving Farm New York at Grand Central

We're obsessed with our new cafe in Grand Central Terminal's Graybar passage.

Coming or going, this cafe offers a perfect opportunity to pick up a bag of your favorite Hudson Valley roasted coffee or an espresso on the way to your train.

This new location joins our 6 other cafes in Manhattan’s landmark neighborhoods and showcases our new look.



New York's native coffee roaster for 20 years.

Know Your Coffee | Don Pancho Varieties, Honduras



Similar to wine, coffee plants have many varieties.

Think of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chianti. These wines are made through very similar processes but come from three different varieties of grapes. 

Coffee varieties include Bourbon, Gesha, Pacas, Parainema, Caturra, Catuai and many others. In the same way that different grapes result in varied flavor profiles, acidities and body in wines; coffee varieties affect the flavor and experience of a cup of coffee.

We partnered with Roberto Portillo at the Don Pancho farm in Honduras to bring three separate varieties from one farm. All the factors in these coffees are controlled except the tree variety. They all carry the bright fruit forward profile of a typical Honduran coffee, yet the variety creates differences to enjoy.

We spoke to Roberto recently and he shared with us about how his father (Don Pancho) planted the Bourbon variety when he started the farm 40 years ago. In 2012, when we began our partnership, the farm had expanded to growing Pacas, and soon added the Parainema

Single Origin coffees from a specific farm or co-op may often be composed of several varieties from one farm combined for their final offering, but from the Don Pancho farm, we are able to offer each variety stand-alone.

Try the trio as 4oz bags or your favorite in 12oz.