The first sip of coffee has the power to set the tone for your whole day.
Think about all the ‘first sips’ you’ve taken at work before. While staring down a calendar stacked with meetings or perhaps preparing for a day of deep focus, that first sip hits your tongue and your brain registers the work ahead of you.
At that moment, it all comes down to the quality of coffee. Either you’re energized and eager to take on your work… or you’re calculating the bare minimum number of cups you can tolerate to survive the day.
Industrious is proud to work with artisanal coffee roasters that ensure every sip our members take is great: the first, the last, and all the ones in between.
One of those roasters is Philadelphia’s own Bean2Bean Coffee Co. We proudly serve their coffee in the Philadelphia area at Industrious Two Liberty Place, Industrious Fashion District, and Industrious Avenue of the Arts, and feature their roasts at our locations nationally as part of a rotating program supporting BIPOC-owned businesses.
We spoke with Obel Hernandez Jr., Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Bean2Bean Coffee Co., to learn more about what sets their coffee apart — and the special relationships coffee can create.
1. Tell us about your company. How did it get started?
Bean2Bean was started by my father, Obel Hernandez Sr. He started out as a temp worker for Maxwell House and worked his way up to the lead coffee taster. Following that job he went to roast for Caribou Coffee. He is also a certified coffee grader for the New York Stock Exchange, in which there are only about forty (40) in the world.
2. Where do you source your beans from?
We source our beans from all over the world. Central & South America, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Kenya, etc.
3. How do you approach roasting and roast types (light, medium, dark)?
We roast coffees based on the origin. Each coffee growing region has different nuances that can be highlighted based on the roast level. For instance, we roast our Ethiopian coffee light because if we roasted it any darker it would lose the fruity notes that we loved when we cupped the coffee.
4. What sets your coffee apart?
What sets our coffee apart is the over 35 years of coffee experience we have. We use those years of experience to source the best specialty coffees from around the world through direct trade and strong relationships with our importing partners.
As a company, what sets us apart are our values. We use the acronym S.A.G.E.
S upport
A rtistry
G enerosity
E ducation
5. How do you feel coffee connects us or plays a role in a sense of community?
There is something about bringing people together that has always captivated me. Similar to sports and music, coffee can bring people together from different parts of the world who would otherwise have nothing else in common. As an entrepreneur, I’m using coffee as the social stimulant to bring people together.
6. Is there anything else you’d like people to know about Bean2Bean Coffee Co.?
Bean2Bean is an expression of our passions and personalities. In the same fashion that music, art and food are universal languages that unite people, our family-owned business roasts our coffees to create a special relationship with you. We capture a lifestyle that coffee drinkers aspire to be – creative, thoughtful and outside the conventional norm.