Port Richmond coffee company switches gears amid pandemic to offer café experience at home

PORT RICHMOND (WPVI) -- Coffee is often the drink that brings people together to socialize, but with the pandemic and colder months ahead, one local business owner decided to switch gears on his wholesale business to offer the café experience at home.

Obel Hernandez Senior founded Bean2Bean Coffee Company in 2013. His business, based out of the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, fulfilled a passion that started after he took a job roasting coffee samples in 1985 with Maxwell House. Now, Bean2Bean deals in just specialty coffee.

"I had the opportunity to visit a whole lot of different places in the coffee world," says Hernandez Sr. Those places included Brazil, Guatemala and Vietnam.

His two sons, Obel Jr. and Gabriel, joined the business a few years later and now he's sharing his knowledge with them.

"We get all our coffee green, the raw," explains Hernandez Sr. He's sampled many varieties. One on the table now is a Tanzanian.

Bean2Bean started as a wholesale company.

"We roast our coffee and then we package it," says Hernandez Sr.

Many businesses across Philadelphia sell their coffee.

"We offer 10 different roasts. Those are between single origins, espressos, decafs and our in-house blends," says Obel Hernandez Jr.

They also offer cold brew.

"We steep course ground coffee with our 76 Espresso," explains Hernandez Jr.

"We use coffees from all over the world," says Hernandez Sr., who is responsible for quality control at Bean2Bean.

"I get different samples from different importers," says Hernandez Sr. "I'm the creator of our blends."

And for good reason. Hernandez Senior is licensed to grade coffee for the New York Board of Trades.

"There's 20 of us in the world," says Hernandez Sr. "We examine it for color, odor and ultimately for flavor."

Hernandez Sr. further explains that when it comes to coffee, "It's all about the palate."

All the product names are Philly centric - such as Franklin Reserve, Old City Decaf and the fan favorite, Schuylkill Select.

"It's the crowd pleaser," says Gabriel Hernandez. "It's kind of right in the middle of dark and light roast."

Since the pandemic, Bean2Bean has pivoted from mostly wholesale to online sales. They are now offering a next day delivery option for Philly residents and Hernandez Sr. says the community has shown its support.

"We're able to sustain ourselves as a family because of Bean2Bean," says Hernandez Sr. "That's very satisfying."

To order Bean2Bean Coffee Company online, visit: https://www.bean2bean.com/