We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brianna Alfonzo-Ferguson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brianna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of my company represents my home in New York City. I was born in Queens, NY and raised in Long Island. My family comes from Brooklyn and my father, now retired, served as an NYPD officer for 27 years. I mostly dedicated this name to him since every morning I hear him say “hey, is the Cawfee ready.” His accent is as new York as it gets. Along side him are 16 brothers who worked from NYPD to FDNY to City Sanitation to MTA and much more. This is where our slogan, New York’s finest (NYPD) brew made from the bravest (FDNY) beans. New York is apart of who I am and I want to share a piece of my city with every sip of Cawfee you take.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

At the age of 18 I joined the United States Air Force as a Client Systems technician. I served my contract of 4 years and extended 1 year when I decided to leave because the lifestyle became too hard on my body and mental health. I was deemed 100% disabled by the veterans affair and was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

Coffee came into my life as a way to relieve my anxiety. The roasting and brewing process for me is soothing. It provides relief to me. It is an art that anyone is able to do and does not put strain on my physical limitations. The creations you can make are endless. The different brewing ways makes every sip taste different.

My goal is to create batches of freshly roasted beans that make people want to come back and to share some laughs along the way with my New York themes and slang. I tend to focus on beans from countries people don’t usually see, such as Mexico, Dominican republic, Bali and Peru.

Cawfee offers a variety of different roast and beans, as well as loose leaf teas and hand crafted hot cocoa. New York is a Melting Pot of all different types of people and cultures and I want to provide a variety of different beans, flavors, and blends to mimic that.

I am really proud that we have only been opened for 9 months and have a steady clientele of customers and a community who loves coffee. I share brewing technique and recipes, as well as other products for people to use to enhance their coffee experience on our social medias and blog.

All of our coffee is hand roasted to order (which takes time but is worth it!) In small batches using glass barrel roasters. I like to make it known that our coffee is not meant to be used with pod coffee makers since our beans require time to steep.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I currently work as an IT Manager for a pharmaceutical company in Philadelphia. I use my main job to help fund my business. With a full time job, a business, and being a mom, I have little to no time for myself but I am sure it will be worth it.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

although I am mostly local to New Jersey and the military bases over here, I believe my reputation stands strong because I put a lot of focus on the quality of my product. To me it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get something right if the customer enjoys the end product. I have burnt many beans to get to my idea of the perfect light, medium, dark roast and because of this I think it is the reason I have returning customers and a loving surrounding community.

Contact Info:

• Website: Cawfeebeans.com
• Instagram: Cawfee.beans
• Facebook: Cawfee.beansco