Bolla Market's Coffee Program Gets an Upgrade
NEW YORK -- Bolla Market, the high-end chain of New York City area convenience stores, is switching to offering only top-quality, artisanal, specialty coffee that is organic, Fair Trade, and certified bird-friendly by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.
To celebrate the switch, the c-store operator will host two events in Brooklyn and on Long Island on Dec. 11 and Dec. 18, respectively. Local leaders, the Fair Trade USA organization and Santa Claus will join Bolla Market CEO Harry Singh in announcing the company milestone.
"We are very proud to now offer delicious specialty coffee certified to strict organic, Fair Trade and Bird Friendly shade-grown standards and demonstrate that quality and convenience can go hand in hand at affordable prices at convenience stores," Singh said. "In our quest for ever improving the quality of the products we sell, it only made sense to provide such a coffee offering in the hot beverages sector, which is one our fastest-moving product sectors."
Santa Claus will be giving away free 12-ounce cups of the coffee at the Brooklyn and Garden City Bolla Market locations from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. the day of the events.
The celebrations will also mark the reopening of all 21 Bolla Market locations, ranging from Brooklyn to Riverhead on Long Island to Staten Island, following Superstorm Sandy and just in time for the heavy holiday travel season.
Bolla Market's new coffee will be served in all its stores and available for purchase in bag form to take home or to the office. The chain is known for bringing high-quality food and beverages to area consumers.
Bolla Gourmet Organic Coffee will be sold at all of the company’s locations. Along with daily choices of light and dark roasts, Bolla Market coffees will include quarterly limited-time offerings starting with a Pumpkin Spice holiday flavor, to be followed by single-origin coffees such as Guatemala Huehuetenango and Ethiopia Natural Sidamo. Two 12-ounce varieties of Bolla Gourmet Organic Coffee – Bolla Organic Dark and Classic NY Light Roast – are also available in take-home packages.
While all of the coffee is certified to organic and Fair Trade standards, approximately 50 percent is also certified to the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s Bird Friendly standard, considered by many to be the gold standard for shade-grown coffee. This figure will increase as more coffee certified to all three standards and meeting the "specialty" grade of coffee becomes available, according to Bolla Market.
"This major conversion to Fair Trade Certified coffee represents the industry’s increasing desire to consider both people and planet when it comes to supply chain sustainability," said Jennifer Gallegos, director of coffee at Fair Trade USA. "We applaud Bolla Market’s commitment to improving the lives of farming families around the world and providing North American consumers with coffee they can feel good about supporting."