The Story
Sey Coffee was founded by Lance Schnorenberg and Tobin Polk, two friends who shared a passion for Nordic-style light roast coffee . The duo, armed with a decade of experience in the coffee industry as baristas and managers, are self-taught roasters who got their start with a Probat roaster in a fourth-floor Bushwick loft in 2013 . They initially operated under the name Lofted Coffee, selling beans to friends and shops throughout New York .
After running Lofted from their apartment for several years, they searched for a dedicated space that met their specific requirements: a single-story location with skylights or a glass roll-up garage door . They rebranded as Sey (yes, backwards from “yes”) and opened their Grattan Street flagship in Bushwick during summer 2017 . In the decade since starting their business, they’ve built a dedicated customer base and earned significant recognition, including being named Best Coffee Shop in America by Food & Wine in 2019 .
The minimalist approach extends to their brand name and café design—everything is designed to minimize their impact on the raw product, as the founders believe the magic is already there in the coffee beans . From their name to their café design to their coffee philosophy, their simple, stripped-back, minimalist approach has given them a unique brand personality without taking anything away from the coffee .
Sourcing & Relationships
Sey operates in pursuit of delivering a selection of the finest, most dynamic, and complex coffees by developing, supporting, and progressing relationships throughout the supply chain, understanding they are only as good as the raw coffees they work with . They work directly with farmers and cooperatives in coffee-growing regions like Ethiopia, Colombia, and Honduras, ensuring each batch is ethically grown, harvested, and processed, with beans selected based on flavor profile, sustainability, and quality handling .
They source primarily from Latin America and Africa, with Colombian coffees typically in stock year-round due to dual harvest cycles, while working with regions including Ethiopia, specifically Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, and Mexico . Lance, who serves as coffee buyer and quality partner, travels to origin regularly, examining tickets for Colombia and Brazil while visiting Africa to cup coffees, work with importers and exporters, and investigate new relationships . They work closely with partners to reinvest and improve upon work at origin, committed to complete transparency in their practices to ensure accountability in conducting business honestly .
Every coffee they release is transparently traded, often resulting from direct relationships with growers who share Sey’s commitment to quality and sustainability, seeking out the rarest, most expressive coffees and treating them with respect every step of the way . They work with inspiring coffees regardless of cost or lot size, maintaining dedication to quality and sustainability while understanding their success depends on raw coffees and producers they partner with, working closely to reinvest in origin improvements .
Roasting Philosophy
Sey tends to shy away from coffees heavily influenced by fermentation flavor characteristics, staying in a cleaner, more transparent profile to experience the coffee itself, with their ultra-light roasting approach designed to unlock flavor rather than alter the profile through roasting . They see roasting as a way to enhance natural flavors without getting in the way, never roasting very dark where roast becomes the first prominent flavor, but rather to naturally bring up sweetness, expressiveness, and acidity of coffees .
Building upon the dedicated work of their producing partners, they consider roasting a delicate procedure where their approach to roast development ensures the end product is nothing more or less than perfectly developed, aiming to deliver a crystal-clear expression of the inherent characteristics of each coffee at maximum potential . Lance and head roaster Liam Berg work closely together to review roasting profiles weekly, cupping the previous week’s roasts and sample roasts to accentuate the characteristics of the coffees .
At Sey, roasting is an act of restraint, with their ultra-light profiles designed to preserve green coffee integrity and showcase terroir with stunning clarity—you won’t find dark, smoky notes, only bright, complex, and layered flavors that tell a story from farm to cup . Known for their light-roast philosophy, which emphasizes preserving natural flavors of coffee beans, unlike traditional dark roasts which can mask the beans’ inherent characteristics, light roasts allow unique flavors of each origin to shine through .
What to Try
Sey presents their coffee offerings in three distinct categories: Sweet & Simple, Round & Loud, and Intricate & Animate, using these categories to give customers continuity between their quickly changing selection of beans . Every two to three weeks they sell out of one coffee and replace it with another, buying and roasting according to seasonal changes to follow the freshness of fruit as it ripens around the world . The three categories also signify challenge levels: Sweet & Simple coffees are approachable, clean and clear tasting, while Round & Loud coffees have more acidity and complex flavors .
Current offerings might include exceptional farms like Genezard, with its beautiful location alongside a nature reserve in the San Fernando Valley, producing cups with florals, prickly pear, and lychee notes . Their menu operates as a rotating gallery of rare microlots and meticulously sourced single origins, with standouts including floral Ethiopian lots, Panama Gesha, and unique offerings like their Ecuadorian lots with dark berry and hibiscus notes . Their light roasts are so delicate that you’ll taste florals you didn’t know existed in coffee, with current offerings featuring beans from regions like Burundi, Colombia, and Peru .
Sey offers a subscription service providing a unique selection of seasonal coffees—including subscriber-only exclusives and pre-releases—accompanied by detailed raw product information and brew guidelines . Each subscription shipment is unique, ensuring subscribers never receive the same coffee twice , making it an ideal way to explore their ever-changing seasonal selections and discover the full spectrum of flavors their meticulous sourcing and roasting approach can deliver.