OUR STORY
THIS STORY STARTED LONG BEFORE EQ.COFFEE.
Before the bags. Before the website. Before more than a billion cups of coffee, there was a trip to South America and a handful of coffee farmers in Ecuador.
WHERE THE STORY STARTED
IT STARTED WITH A TRIP.
Our founders traveled to South America and met coffee farmers in Ecuador who were doing the difficult work behind every cup.
What began as a visit became a relationship, built around a simple idea: the people growing the coffee should have the opportunity to benefit more directly from the work they put into it.
Those relationships helped set something much bigger in motion.
THEN THE COFFEE FOUND NEW YORK.
In April 2001, our coffee started showing up on the streets of New York City through a handful of pushcart vendors.
A few carts became more carts.
Then delis. Restaurants. Coffee retailers. Offices.
The coffee kept moving.
FIVE MONTHS LATER, EVERYTHING CHANGED.
On September 11, 2001, our founders were already working on the streets of New York.
They saw the devastation firsthand. They also saw firefighters, police officers, volunteers and first responders pouring into the city to help.
They weren't a big company.
But they had coffee.
So that's what they gave.
A FEW CARTS BECAME A LOT OF CUPS.
MORE THAN
1,000,000,000
CUPS.
Over the years, the coffee moved beyond those first pushcarts. Mobile vendors. Delis. Restaurants. Coffee retailers. Offices. Behind every cup was the work required to keep it consistent: sourcing coffee, processing green beans, roasting, blending, packaging and getting it where it needed to go.
And people kept drinking it.
SHOP THE COFFEE →COFFEE CART CULTURE
For millions of New Yorkers, coffee isn't a destination.
It's part of the way the city moves.
The cart on the corner. The stop before work. The order somebody starts making because they already saw you coming.
For more than 25 years, our coffee has been part of that rhythm.
MEET COFFEE CART →THE COFFEE WENT OTHER PLACES, TOO.
What started during one of New York's hardest moments didn't stop there.
Over the years, coffee continued finding its way to shelters, schools, clubs and community organizations.
Sometimes the most useful thing you can give is simply what you have.
Today, we call that part of EQ: FOR GOOD.
SEE WHAT WE'RE DOING FOR GOOD →SO WHY EQ?
For most of the last 25 years, our coffee was better known by where people drank it than by the name on the bag.
The cart on the corner.
The deli downstairs.
The place that already knew the order.
After more than a billion cups, we thought it was probably time to introduce ourselves.
EQ brings that coffee home.
FIND YOUR FLAVOR →