Not all coffee is the same. This is obvious to people who drink wine or eat cheese or care about olive oil. But for some reason, coffee gets a pass. People drink whatever is closest, whatever is cheapest, whatever requires the least thought.
La Colombe is what happens when someone applies the same logic to coffee that a good butcher applies to meat or a good baker applies to bread. You start with the best raw material. You process it with care. And you let the quality speak.
The Origin Story
La Colombe was founded in Philadelphia in 1994 by Todd Carmichael and JP Iberti. The name means "the dove" in French -- a reference to the peace that a good cup of coffee can bring to a morning. What set them apart from the beginning was their sourcing: they traveled to coffee-growing regions personally, building direct relationships with farmers instead of buying through commodity brokers.
Today, La Colombe sources from more than thirty countries. Their buying team visits farms in Colombia, Ethiopia, Brazil, Guatemala, Kenya, and beyond. They pay above-market prices for beans that meet their quality standards, which means the farmers who grow their coffee can invest in better practices and better lives.
Good coffee starts at the farm, not the roaster. La Colombe understood this thirty years ago, before most Americans knew what specialty coffee was.
How They Roast
La Colombe roasts in small batches at their facilities in Philadelphia. Their roasting philosophy emphasizes sweetness and body -- pulling the natural sugars out of the bean through careful heat management, rather than roasting dark enough to mask the bean's character.
This matters. A dark-roasted commodity coffee tastes like roast -- the charred, smoky, bitter flavor that comes from high heat applied for too long. A properly roasted specialty coffee tastes like the bean itself -- its origin, its variety, the soil it grew in, the altitude of the farm.
What You Taste at Pier 69 Market
At Pier 69 Market, the La Colombe beans are pulled as espresso, brewed as drip, and steeped as cold brew. In every format, you can taste the difference.
The espresso is clean and sweet. The drip coffee has body without heaviness. The cold brew is smooth and naturally low in acidity. None of these require sugar to be enjoyable, which is the ultimate test of good coffee: does it taste good on its own?
Is It Worth the Premium?
Specialty coffee costs more than commodity coffee. A bag of La Colombe beans costs more than a bag from the supermarket shelf. But the gap is smaller than most people think -- often a dollar or two per cup, which is less than the markup on a sandwich topping or a side of fries.
What you get for that premium is a drink that is genuinely better. Not better in the way that a luxury handbag is "better" than a regular one -- not a status marker. Better in the way that a fresh tomato is better than a canned one. The quality is real, it is tasteable, and it makes the experience of drinking coffee more pleasant.
That is why Pier 69 Market chose La Colombe. And that is why their regulars keep coming back. The coffee is real. You can taste the difference. And once you do, it is hard to go back.
Ready for a Real Bay Ridge Coffee?
La Colombe espresso, Rishi tea, and the Pier 69 Burger. All at 10 Bay Ridge Ave, Brooklyn.
