Four years after its founding, Lardera Coffee Roasters is growing worthy of the name with the installation of a 60kg IMF roaster and coffee silos with the capacity for 20 tons of beans. The lack of space that impeded these additions earlier has been alleviated with the company’s recent move to a new 80,000 square foot facility in East Rutherford, NJ.
Lardera is a new division of Adagio Teas, an online retailer of gourmet teas. It adheres to the parent company’s commitment to source all products directly from origin, and the transparency in showcasing its partners. Each coffee page features photos and profiles of its many farmers in Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, and Ethiopia.
Another vestige of its Adagio pedigree is Lardera’s penchant to offer samples of its coffees, both green and roasted. Customers are invited to try 2oz increments before committing to larger sizes. It also offers coffee-preparation products that are unique to the brand. These include the popular Performance coffee maker and Uniform grinder, along with paper filters that work as well as market leaders (and in the case of Chemex, even better) for a fraction of the price.
No longer constrained by space, Lardera is automating its packaging process with the addition of an Effytec horizontal form-and-fill machine to speed up and lower the cost of creating, filling, and sealing bags of coffee for both retail and wholesale customers. This automation joins Lardera’s existing Fuso equipment for the creation of steeped coffee bags and pour-over trays for enjoying coffee on the go.
“We’ve waited a really long time to legitimize the ‘roaster’ in our name, and have big plans to catch up on lost time,” says Michael Cramer, the company’s founder. “Adagio is well-established in the world of tea. We think Lardera could resonate in coffee with similar aplomb.”
