I’ve never claimed to be a math whiz, but I think this equation is pretty sound:
good coffee
+
new york state
+
nice packaging design
+
some crows
=
something we would like
Right?
As you might imagine, we gravitated directly to this lovely looking coffee whilst looking to replenish our all-important coffee stash recently. I had recognized the coffee maker—Irving Farm—but seem to remember their original packaging being much less on the awesome side before.
As it turns out, the roaster got their start right here in New York City at a small cafe just up from Union Square known as 71 Irving Place. Realizing they wanted to be more intimately involved with the process, bean-to-cup, the founders of Irving Farm moved a little further uptown. Okay, a lot further, to a farm 90 miles up the Hudson Valley in the Dutchess County village of Millertown. There, they roast their a variety of carefully sourced beans. From their site:
“In sourcing the special coffees we bring to Irving Farm, our primary criteria is quality. We are diligent searchers: on a constant journey, personally traveling to the farthest-flung locales, in search of coffees that are not only beautiful in the cup, but with whose farms we can forge a lasting tie. By building direct relationships and opening long-term channels of communication with producers and others up and down the line, we not only ensure a supply chain that is as transparent as possible, but one that is as strong as possible. Built on mutual respect, common goals, and dedicated to fostering learning from one to another, it is these foundations on which good coffee becomes great coffee.”
The particular bag we zeroed in on—partly due to the philanthropic aspect involved; partly due to the extra-awesome packaging design—was their Rainforest Foundation Project blend, pictured above. It’s a blend of three beans—one from an 80-family co-op in Honduras, one from another cooperative in Peru that’s Fair Trade + Bird Friendly certified and started almost fifty years ago, and a final one from a co-op in East Timor that’s been celebrated by one Ms. Hilary Clinton. The coffee’s certified USDA Organic and Rainforest Alliance and Irving gives a dollar for each bag sold to RA. Oh, and it tastes great. Important.
Visit Irving Farm’s site—which is really well-designed, by the way—to find out more about their sourcing, roasting, and where you can find their products.
You can also order their coffees via the company’s online shop.
Spookily pretty farmhouse photo pilfered from the Irving Farm site.
