Coffee Project New York began in 2015, when co-founders Chi Sum Ngai and Kaleena Teoh quit their jobs and started a passion project in the East Village. It now covers retail, roasting, wholesale and education, with a mission to improve the quality of life for every person in the coffee supply chain, from producers to consumers. Many of its coffees come from cooperatives and family farms that work to improve conditions for farm workers, and where direct trade is not possible it buys through importers that care about farmers’ livelihoods.

The roasting team is overseen by head roaster Chi Sum Ngai, on a San Franciscan SF25, an SF1 for sample roasting and a fully electric Stronghold S7 Pro for small-batch competition coffees. The roastery in Long Island City shares its home with the Academy, by its own account New York’s first Specialty Coffee Association Premier Training Campus, equipped with four espresso machines including a Victoria Arduino Black Eagle Maverick and a La Marzocco Linea PB, a Ground Control Cyclops batch brewer and a Tone Touch 3 pour-over brewer. The calendar runs from barista, pour-over and tasting intensives to SCA Coffee Skills certificates, Q Grader courses and roaster training, open to professionals and enthusiasts alike. The range splits into house blends, single origins and an Enthusiast Series of competition lots.

The cafés are in Chelsea, the East Village, the Financial District, Hell’s Kitchen, Tribeca and on the Upper East Side, with one in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and the Academy café in Long Island City. Each has a food menu and a pour-over list beside the espresso drinks.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Coffee Project New York