Partners Coffee Revamps Single Origin Packaging, Debuts Summer Blend

Brooklyn-based roaster Partners Coffee has unveiled its first-ever summer seasonal blend along with new packaging design for its single origin coffees aimed at bringing consumers closer to its sourcing and sustainability practices.

The revamp marks the first branding overhaul for Partners (previously Toby’s Estate from 2013 to 2019), which sells roasted-to-order beans direct from its website and also operates five cafe locations in the New York City area.

While its blends will retain their existing bold color schemes, Partners’ single origin releases now sport a new look with cream-colored bags with gold foil printing, along with a monochrome label at the top with details about the crop and tasting notes.

The new labels are one way Partners is fine tuning its sustainability messaging, a subject that can be particularly noisy within specialty coffee; nearly every producer touts some kind of certification, process or story outlining its contributions to responsible environmental and economic practices. As its name suggests, Partners has made close long-term relationships with its global network of farmers its cornerstone, allowing for more consistent and predictable output, per green coffee buyer Samuel Klein.

Along with the new bags, Partners is also rolling out its first-ever summer blend: Block Party, a “warm weather equivalent” to its Miracle on North 6th St. blend, boasting a flavor profile inspired by mulled wine with notes of “strawberry, blueberry, watermelon, and pink lady apple bathing in rich caramelized sugars.” Klein further described the project as “an opportunity to source some things from supply chains that might otherwise be a little outside of our wheelhouse or the normal market.”

Outside of bagged coffee, Partners is standing pat with innovation: it currently offers a pair of 12 oz. refrigerated cold brew RTDs — regular and nitro-infused — at select stores in New York City, but it’s not a major piece of the business. There’s also instant coffee (in collaboration with Swift Cup Coffee) and pre-filled pouches for making cold brew at home.

But while its packaging may look different, Partners’ core proposition remains the same.

“One of the really important things on our end is that we’re dedicating a lot of attention to our relationships with coffee producers and trying to listen as much as possible to what their challenges are, what their risks are, and how we as a partner to them can grow in the best and most sustainable way,” said Klein. “And I think that’s going to be something that’s going to be a really interesting challenge in the future to try and figure out.”