Founded in 2015 by Chi "Sum'' Ngai and Kaleena Teoh, Coffee Project New York is the beloved, award winning coffee shop, roastery and training center that is based in Long Island City, New York. With cafes in the East Village, Chelsea and Brooklyn, it is very admirable that the business is passionate about giving back to their local communities.
Most recently, the Coffee Project New York team opened a roastery and New York's only Specialty Coffee Association Premier Training Campus in Long Island City, established for the city's professional coffee community. Sum, a certified Q grader and roasting championship competitor, and her team source their high-grade coffees from all over the world, with a specialty focus on coffees with a social conscience, from small scale cooperatives and family farms who focus on improving work conditions and benefits for farm workers.
We had the pleasure of interviewing the founders, Chi "Sum" Ngai and Kaleena Teoh. They gave us some fascinating insights about Coffee Project New York.
What was your earliest interest in coffee and the coffee trade?
The coffee world definitely chose us, rather than the other way around! Born and raised in Malaysia, we grew up with a strong coffee culture, so when we quit our day jobs to open the first Coffee Project New York in the East Village in 2015, it was already a perfect fit for us.
At the time, we worked 7 days a week as a true Mom-and-Pop business, but we knew relatively little compared to what we know now about specialty coffee, coffee science, and coffee production. As the business grew to include more baristas, more fun coffee experimentation, and eventually a roastery and training lab, so did our love for coffee. As we continue to learn, our interest in coffee continues to grow and develop.
What have been some of the challenges of establishing Coffee Project New York?
Coffee Project New York faced the same challenges all specialty coffee shops face when starting out: high entry costs (many of our decorations and fixtures in our original East Village location were hand-made by us to save cash), establishing the shop as a part of the local community (after all, daily coffee drinkers are our main business), and demonstrating to each customer that our coffee is special and exceptional.
As many food and beverage industry workers know, employees in our sector come and go at a much higher rate than others. After our very first staff turnover in the East Village, we made the decision to provide as much career growth and development as possible for our employees. We aim to keep our baristas professionally secure, happy, and fulfilled. As such, many of our baristas are also coffee careerists, and take their work very seriously.
A unique challenge for us was that when we decided to take the plunge, leave behind our careers, and open Coffee Project New York, we didn't know much about coffee at all. So each day was really a learning experience. Since then, we've worked hard to set ourselves apart: we've taken classes and exams, educated ourselves, worked for certifications, and learned so much about the coffee business as a result. Now, we teach what we've learned.
Tell us a little about your team.
Coffee Project New York was founded by Chi Sum Ngai (widely known as Sum) and her partner Kaleena Teoh. Born and raised in Malaysia, Sum and Kaleena opened their first cafe together in the East Village in 2015. Sum has since become a certified Q Grader, a designation for evaluating and grading coffees that is analogous to the prestigious "Master Sommelier" in the wine world, and she currently oversees Coffee Project New York's roasting program. Kaleena received a teaching certification from the Specialty Coffee Association and serves as our Director of Education, where she teaches workshops and professional certification classes at our Academy in Long Island City.
Two of our management team, Andres Morales and Sirada "Peace" Sakulclanuwat, ranked nationally at the 2020 U.S. Brewer's Cup Championship; many of our baristas are coffee competitors, aspiring roasters, or studying for professional certification.
We'd love to know about some of the initiatives you have taken to give back to your community.
We've partnered with Youth Options Unlimited (YOU) Boston to provide professional training to youths with at-risk backgrounds. Many of these students go on to find work as baristas. We love career development work because it both enriches students and strengthens our bonds within the coffee community.
Coffee Project New York also has been highly active in the community as a result of COVID-19. We sold lattes to fundraise for Relief Opportunities for All Restaurants (ROAR) NY, we gave away gift cards for local black-owned coffee shops to our customers to celebrate Juneteenth, and during the lockdown last year, we established A Hundred A Day, a mutual aid effort to donate coffee every day to front-line medical workers in hospitals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Most recently, we released a limited-edition coffee roast with Heart of Dinner, to fundraise for care packages for the isolated elderly Asian-American community in NYC.
What are some of your upcoming launches and plans for the future?
We recently launched packages and an event for Valentine's Day and we're working on some upcoming initiatives timed to International Women's Month and Asian-American Heritage month. We also have some new ready to drink offerings launching as well. Stay tuned for more details!
For more information and locations of Coffee Project New York, please visit their web site at https://coffeeprojectny.com/.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Coffee Project New York
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