Native Coffee Roasters, a local independent roaster in Astoria

Image source: DNAinfo

DNAinfo wrote a piece on Native Coffee Roasters, run by Astorian Brian Donaldson. We first encountered his coffee beans at February’s Queens County Market, and bought a bag – from our standpoint, it’s pretty tasty coffee. Plus we really like the packaging, which is simple with a bold logo. Donaldson says the business started out first as a hobby… a delicious hobby, at that.

He drinks a lot of coffee and has tried coffee from endless numbers of roasters in order to figure out what he likes, and eventually decided to try roasting green coffee beans himself. He bought a roaster (machine), which lives in a warehouse on 49th Street and Northern Boulevard in Astoria. Fiddling around with roasting and finding beans he liked eventually led him to establishing Native Coffee Roasters. He calls it that because he is a native NYer (born in Brooklyn, raised in Staten Island, and currently lives in Queens).

Image source: DNAinfo

His current offerings include three single-origin roasts and one custom blend roast. He sells the beans in 12 oz bags for $14. You’ll likely see him at various markets throughout the borough, so keep an eye out. Working the local market scene is what he really wants to focus on.

Astoria has seen its share of cafes grow and expand, but coffee roasters are few and far between. Apart from Native Coffee Roasters, Demarco Coffee Roasters is located on Astoria Blvd and 14th Street, though they roast much larger batches than Donaldson does. So, perhaps consider Native Coffee Roasters as the only small batch coffee roaster in town! Perhaps we’ll even see his coffee in places like COFFEED one day.

Astoria Coffee Scene Perking Up with New Roaster [DNAinfo]