Nobletree Opens Red Hook Tasting Room
Nobletree Coffee, A FAL Coffee Company, has been roasting in its Red Hook, Brooklyn facility since early 2016. The space is a total retrofit of a pier warehouse built in 1896 as the main point of entry for grain, including coffee, into the US. The historical location is now fully converted into Nobletree’s multi-faceted headquarters. One half of the facility is dedicated to production while the other half is designed for coffee education and café service open to the public.
In Brazil, Nobletree’s coffee production operations are vertically integrated from the farm through export. In New York, the newly completed space similarly integrates a range of coffee operations. Green storage, roasting, packing, and cold brew production are accessible via loading bay while the cupping area, training lab, and café tasting room are accessible by an entrance steps from the New York water taxi stop, inviting locals and visitors to experience coffee “from soil to sip,” as Nobletree describes its involvement in the full coffee supply chain.
The Red Hook tasting room is in the process of certifying as a Specialty Coffee Association educational campus to offer classes to coffee professionals.
Nobletree’s roasting and cold brew production facility is also SQF-certified (Safe Quality Food). Though it’s not common for roasters to undergo certification, Nobletree felt it was important to put a rigorous food safety system in place particularly in light of the Food Safety Modernization Act. “We are directly connected to the farms our product comes from,” says a spokesperson for Nobletree. We strive for full compliance to all customer, statutory, and regulatory requirements. We have designed, implemented and maintain an SQF Management System to effectively ensure food safety throughout the organisation. We are continually improving the SQF System and in doing so we involve our employees in all aspects of food safety management.”
The SQF certification comes from the Safe Quality Food Institute, which is the recognised source for global food safety and certification amongst retailers and foodservice providers. It’s the universal standard for food safety from ‘farm to fork’ for producers, manufacturers and distributors. “Since traceability and sustainability are so critical to Nobletree’s mission, it was important to the team to undergo certification,” says the spokesperson.