New York is never the same. Every time I’ve been to the Big Apple, the city felt renewed. During my last visit in November of 2023, I also got to see the city through the eyes of someone who had never been. It was my partner Michal’s very first visit to America and he was wide-eyed and excited the whole time we were there.
They also say New York is the city that never sleeps. Well, on our first night, we were severely jet-lagged and rose at 5 am to try and start our day. Funnily enough, all breakfast places we could find nearby only opened at 7. Yet, while we were roaming the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn, we were drinking mostly drip coffee like cool New Yorkers do. I am not going to lie, I think we visited 15 or 16 different coffee shops in those 5 days. But one that managed to escape us was Loveless whose roastery and café is in Bushwick. Sadly, we didn’t manage to get all the way out there so I decided to bring them to me instead. BAM!
Loveless is a funky and really friendly roastery that was originally set up under the name Spectrum Coffee by long-term friends Will Douglas and Joe Wieczorek. Having come up in the New York coffee scene together, Will and Doug witnessed the city’s slow but steady adoption of specialty coffee over the years. Last time I was there many years ago, Blue Bottle had just arrived and was THE thing. These days, there are plenty of excellent coffee roasters and bars to choose from such as Loveless.
The name is a reference to a Japanese RPG (role-playing games, in case you didn’t know. I didn’t) and a shoegaze album by none other than My Bloody Valentine, widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 1990s. But despite the name, the company is full of love and takes its business very seriously. The coffees it sources and roasts on its Loring offer a range of complex flavour profiles and it prides itself on employing a so-called ‘New York Nordic’ roasting style that was inspired by Norway.
In addition to being good people and doing their best for the local community in Bushwick, Loveless also makes a point of doing its best to preserve the environment and reduce its impact. As we all know, coffee growers are particularly vulnerable to climate change and the impact this will have on growing conditions. Raising awareness of this fact is one important step towards helping people live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
During the most recent public cupping in Barcelona where I invited many local Coffeevine subscribers and other customers to join, the Kenyan coffee from Loveless was picked as one of the absolute favourite coffees on the table. It was the last one in the row of a dozen coffees but it immediately stood out thanks to its exceptional clarity, vibrant and fresh cup profile and clean aftertaste. It’s a classic washed Kenyan coffee that was produced by the Kiunyu Factory in Kirinyaga.
To receive this outstanding coffee and its companion coffee from Rise in Bangkok, order our Global roasters selection or the Total Package with all coffees including our European roasters selection for March.
Pre-orders close on 15.03.2024 / Ships globally on 20.03.2024
