Partners Coffee makes great brew through sustainable actions
It started with a dual passion for great coffee and protecting the environment. Over 10 years later, it’s a local establishment and growing mail order coffee roaster. New products are released regularly to keep the palette curious and content.
Partners Coffee Roasters is proudly based out of New York, but built its brand on the relationship with coffee farmers around the world. In addition, the company thinks it’s critical to find “partners” in its producers, baristas, roasters, fellow small businesses and customers.
Related: Get freshly-roasted coffee delivered to your home
“Partners Coffee is built on the strength of our relationships at origin,” the company said. “We source coffee from all over the world from people we know and trust.”
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The result is a business that supports coffee growing communities around the world and, in return, “has become synonymous with high quality, sustainably-sourced, accessible specialty coffee.”
Partners Coffee is committed to sourcing sustainably grown beans in a way that supports the farmers who grow them. They buy from the same producers year after year to ensure a quality product and stable supply chain. Partner maintains certain requirements for the growing methods and only works with growers who share its vision. This means practices such as natural fertilization and maintaining clean, primarily organic farms. They put a priority on traditional agricultural techniques and processing methods, including drying and milling practices.
Knowing what to expect from the raw materials creates the foundation for roasting success. With this in mind, Green Buyer Samuel Klein travels for three months of the year to multiple coffee growing regions in Colombia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Honduras, Peru and more, to cultivate those relationships and expand offerings.
Once the beans are received at home base in Brooklyn, each batch of craft coffee is roasted by hand in small batches. Each batch is then put through a rigorous experimentation and testing to ensure it meets the Partners Coffee standards.
Furthermore, community is at the heart of Partners Coffee, both locally and abroad. They are involved in a variety of community projects in conjunction with producers in other countries. There are also supporting campaigns within New York, including those that make improvements to housing, schooling and other facilities that benefit future generations.
They often invest in the local community through donations and work with nonprofit organizations. One example is SeedCo, which provides work and life skills to youth. They also hire from employment organizations such as America Works, which creates work opportunities for veterans.
The dedication to sustainable practices is seen in the product packaging too. At a retail level, bags are sourced from a zero-waste manufacturing chain. Then, they are collected at retail stores and repurposed into a landscaping material.
Partners Coffee offers a variety of coffees, ranging from light to dark roasts. They recently released a cold-brew option (see review below) and also produces Partners Premium Teas, which are custom blended. It includes Moroccan mint, lemon ginger, Partners Breakfast and caffeine-free apple cider, all of which are packaged in biodegradable sachets.
Review of Rockaway Cold Brew
I love coffee. I take it black so there’s no disguising the flavor of the brew. Partners offered to send me coffee to sample, which I enthusiastically agreed. My shipment arrived quickly and was packed in plastic-free and recyclable packaging.
The package included a bag of the Rockaway Cold Brew. For a bit of background, I’ve dabbled in cold brew at the local drive through, but never invested in the process at home (unless you count allowing my morning coffee to get cold, even after repeated reheats).
Anyway, this product is great. It’s ultra-easy to use. The bag comes with four pre-filled and portioned pouches of pre-ground coffee. Simply drop the pouch in a pitcher, glass jar or thermos, add 24 ounces of water (three cups) and let it sit for 24 hours. We left ours in the fridge.
Several family members with varying tastes tested it out after 24 hours and again after 48 hours. I was impressed with the balanced flavor. I like my coffee very dark and found it to have the richness I would expect. Others may want to water it down a bit. The young adults in the house added their favorite creams, sugars and syrups and reported it matched the quality of the kind they buy at the local coffee cart.
I didn’t do the math, but the company reports, “Each pouch makes 22-ounces of smooth, rich and classic cold brew concentrate (with four pouches total, that’s less than eight cents a cup)!”
Overall, Rockaway Cold Brew by Partners Coffee is extremely convenient with a great taste. It’s also a great feeling knowing the company is dedicated to ethical and sustainable production practices. I look forward to afternoon iced-brew pickups if summer ever arrives in my area.