Driftaway Coffee was started by Anu Menon and Suyog Mody, two Georgia Tech engineering graduates who had spent years at a digital marketing agency before deciding to build something of their own. Coffee had become a weekend ritual after a wedding gift of an espresso machine and grinder, and after moving to Brooklyn they found it a hassle to keep finding beans roasted in the past two or three weeks. So they tested a freshly roasted coffee subscription, chose to roast it themselves, and designed the packaging after vintage baggage tags to mark the journey coffee makes from seed to cup. The whole operation is roasted and shipped from its Greenpoint roastery.

Driftaway is immigrant-owned and woman-led, and its mission is an equitable value chain that prioritises women and minority producers, such as indigenous farm owners in Guatemala and Black-owned farms in Brazil through BD Imports’ Black Producers’ Coffee Program. Its operations are carbon neutral through offsetting, it packs in compostable bags, it shares feedback both ways with its farmers and it makes public what it pays for green coffee. In 2026 Roast Magazine named it Roaster of the Year in the Macro Roaster category, by its own account the first New York roaster to win in the award’s 22-year history.

The weekend coffee shop and pour-over bar inside the roastery has a six-seat coffee omakase, a flight brewed in front of the guest while the educators, often the founders themselves, explain where each coffee came from and who grew it; seats are booked through Resy, and walk-ins order pour-overs, espresso drinks and seasonal specials at the counter. Online, the range runs from Ethiopian naturals and Colombian Chiroso lots to Indian coffees from Ratnagiri, a cold brew blend, the She Roars espresso blend and a decaf, with virtual tastings and corporate events alongside.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Driftaway Coffee