The story of New England Coffee begins in the Old World, with a family living in Greece. From there, Menelaos Kaloyanides, with his brother George Kaloyanides, came to the United States in 1910. By 1916, Menelaos was running a successful restaurant in Boston, but he wanted to start his own business. So he, along with his brother George and his cousin Megaklis Papadopoulos, founded the New England Tea & Coffee Company. Located at Milk and Broad Streets in Boston, they delivered coffee to restaurants all over the city.
Slowly but surely, the company gained a reputation for consistently good coffee and coffee beans. As its reputation grew, so grew the reach of the company’s deliveries and the size of its accounts. While many things have changed over the decades, the commitment to quality has never wavered.
In 1916, while Pancho Villa was leading a raid against Columbus, New Mexico; while the Saturday Evening Post was publishing Norman Rockwell’s first cover painting; while Babe Ruth, pitching for the Boston Red Sox, was going 23–12 with a 1.75 ERA and nine shutouts, plus a 14-inning complete-game victory in game 2 of the World Series; and while future actor Gregory Peck was being born in La Jolla, California, the New England Tea & Coffee Company was born in Boston.
In 1918, the company purchased its first delivery truck. The move signaled the end of the horse-drawn wagon - and the beginning of a rolling fleet that, by the 1930s, delivered coffee across New England.
Owner/officers Steven Dostou, Stephen Kaloyanides, and Basil Kaloyanides ran New England Coffee from the late 1940s into the 1990s. Steven ran finance. Basil ran sales, office administration, computers, and oversaw the company’s move to Malden, Massachusetts, in the 1960s. Stephen oversaw operations, coffee purchasing and quality control. Today, Stephen—also known as Steve, Sr.— still goes to work every day to check green bean inventory and to test quality.
By the early 1960s, with a healthy roster of commercial customers both large and small, New England Coffee set its sights on new markets. One major milestone: producing and packaging private-label coffees, a practice that continues to this day.
In 1966, after outgrowing several homes, the company moved north to 100 Charles Street in Malden, Massachusetts, a facility now totaling nearly an acre of office, production, and warehouse space.
New England Coffee’s flagship retail store opened, serving factory fresh coffee drinks to the local community.
The third generation of the Kaloyanides family began running the business.
The company successfully introduced packaged New England Coffee Beans for supermarket sales.
New England Coffee entered the world of internet retail by launching “The Coffee Shop” online store.
The brand continued to grow with its entry into the innovative, fast-growing single serve coffee segment.
New England Coffee is acquired by the Reily Foods Company, joining its portfolio of high-quality consumer food products.
New England Coffee celebrates 100 years of serving great coffee to extraordinary people.
Meet the people behind the scenes at New England Coffee and hear the story of how a family and its team have been working together since 1916 to roast, deliver and serve great coffee.
We travel to Central America, South America, Eastern Africa, and the East Indies to find the finest 100% Arabica coffee beans.
Arabica beans represent 75% of the world’s coffee production but only about 10% of them have the balanced aroma and a sweet, acidic taste that make them suitable for New England Coffee products.
New England Coffee’s roasters have developed and refined their roasting process to guarantee premium coffee beans with distinct smoothness and characteristic taste. Each variety of coffee bean requires a different roast time and our experienced roasters use both smell and sight to determine when the desired roast has been achieved. The roasting process is a tradition that New England Coffee roasters have used since 1916.
LEARN MORECoffee cupping is the process used to assess and evaluate the quality of coffee beans. New England Coffee’s cuppers analyze all of the basic coffee characteristics including aroma, body, and flavor to ensure that all coffee products are of the very highest quality. For 100 years, this cupping method has not changed and it continues to maintain the great taste and consistency of New England Coffee.
LEARN MOREBuying the right coffee beans is just the first step to a great cup of coffee. To ensure that you’ll always enjoy a delicious cup of coffee, we recommend the following tips.
LEARN MOREFind out how you could join our family with a new career at New England Coffee.
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