PENSTOCK COFFEE ROASTERS

Penstock is a gateway for stories—where ideas and experiences are freely exchanged and where building community truly connects us. We strive to know the people who grow and process our coffee, and we want you to know them too. You are both equal parts of a story that started with a desire to make a better cup of coffee. It begins with supporting and serving the coffee-producing community more than fairly, and continues by bringing people together.

Quality, craft, and transparency are important. Where your coffee comes from and who you share it with—are everything.

FROM OQ COFFEE TO PENSTOCK COFFEE ROASTERS

For those who knew us as OQ Coffee Co., we appreciate your dedication over the past 7+ years. And we want you to know that we haven’t gone anywhere.

WE STILL BELIEVE IN STARTING A CONVERSATION.
WE JUST WANT TO INCLUDE MORE PEOPLE.

We're a community with roots in so many places that we felt that our name should reflect not only our New Brunswick/Highland Park community, but also our relationships around the world. We've always believed in connecting our local community to our global community—our neighbors to the coffee farmers — and we still do.

PS — Thank you for joining us on this journey. We couldn't do it without you.

To learn more about the backstory of OQ, check out this short video from our friend at Headlamp Productions for a glimpse of how we started!

“JUST BECAUSE A ROAD IS WINDING, DOESN’T MEAN IT’S NOT THE BEST WAY
TO GET FROM HERE TO THERE.”

— Penstock

OUR COFFEE

We source as much of our coffee as direct as possible. Currently, farm direct coffee accounts for all our Central and most of our South American coffees or about 85% of the coffee we roast. Direct for us means we select the lot and we determine the price, quantity, and quality of the lot directly with the farm or mill owner. For the other 15%, we rely on certified coffee (Organic, Fair Trade, Bird Friendly, Rainforest Alliance, etc.) which guarantees a minimum wage and minimum sustainability, or we purchase stellar cupping lots, i.e., game changing coffee in terms of taste, from mills who are innovative in processing, or from growers whom we intend or hope to purchase directly.

Since there is no certifying agent for “directly sourced” coffee (and we are OK with that), we communicate this by using our own mark. Anytime you see this on a coffee, you can be sure that both quality and economic/social and/or environmental factors are well above considered if not the focus:

Our roasting philosophy follows our sourcing methodology: to highlight origin. We purchase high quality coffee and roast it just dark enough to accentuate it’s best characteristics. We want each coffee to taste like it’s place, that is, its terroir. Our certified coffees tend to be blended lots of many farms and are often of lesser quality. For these, we roast a little darker and meticulously blend to achieve a palatable if not outright delicious coffee.

awards & Involvement

In addition to receiving local and regional accolades, Penstock Coffee (acting as OQ Coffee) is a two-time, award-winning roaster, achieving Finalist distinction in the category of Coffee from the Good Food Awards (2017 and 2018). The GFA recognizes and celebrates food that is exceptionally delicious which also supports sustainability and social good.

We are humbled and so proud of our team to receive our first recognition as Penstock Coffee: Food & Wine’s Best Coffee in Every State, 2019
To be selected for this recognition, back to back, for not only the inaugural year but also the second, encourages us to continue pushing forward with our focused mission of bettering the coffee experience, economy, and communities through quality, craft and transparency in a way we hope to see become prevalent.

Amidst the pandemic, although delayed, we pursued and achieved ORGANIC CERTIFICATION for the Coffee Roastery. Head over to the blog to read more about this!