when a Parisian
New York City baristas and coffee
enthusiasts now have their
own community center in
Queens.
Coffee Project NY, “a passion
project of coffee, milk
and heart,” has set up camp
in Long Island City, becoming the
first and only Specialty Coffee Association
(SCA) premier training campus
in New York. The SCA is a nonprofit,
membership-based organization that
represents thousands of coffee professionals
from all over the world.
The new training spot, with its spacious
and sleek, yet inviting design, is located
in The Blanchard Building (21-10 51st
Ave.). Owners Chi Sum Ngai and Kaleena
Teoh invite the community to learn
more about the “complex form of art,” as
Sum puts it, by taking classes that highlight
coffee in all its forms.
Coffee Camp
“We’re trying to create a community
hub for people who are interested in
either learning about coffee … or have
our professional friends come and dial
their coffee,” Teoh said. “It's a nice little
platform for people to just come, discuss
and learn about coffee, and for us
to share what we know about coffee.
It's really fun.”
Partners Sum and Teoh were both
born and raised in Malaysia and met
while in college in Minnesota. Although
they obtained degrees in psychology
and IT, they decided to leave
that behind and embark on their own
“coffee dreams.”
“We always wanted to do something
together,” Sum said. “We chose coffee
because we really liked the culture and
the people. So having a coffee shop
and meeting other people who come
and drink coffee every day, it’s a lot
more relaxing than working at a desk.”
Sum comes from a family of coffee
workers, which made her a coffee
lover from a young age. She was first
a homebrewer, but after attending coffee
expos, she realized that she could
pursue her passion for coffee professionally
— so she enrolled in barista
school in Portland, Oregon. Sum is
also an SCA instructor and Q Grader,
meaning she’s trained in the rigorous
practice of scoring and identifying individual
coffees.
Teoh, who lived in Queens for almost
nine years before moving to Brooklyn
with Sum, was also always a coffee
drinker, but got trained on the job and
is a certified SCA instructor. She recently
discovered her own passion in
coffee: roasting.
“It's so data-driven in that every
single thing that you do is affecting
the nature of the beans itself, and it
gives me a lot of story from the supply
chain,” Teoh said.
They began Coffee Project NY in
2015, when they opened their first
location in the East Village, where
they gained recognition for their
unique variations of deconstructed
32 MARCH 2 0 2 0
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
@ANGACEVEDO15
FOOD + DRINK
Photos by Angélica AcevedoNY