John and Luigi Di Ruocco at Facebook. Courtesy photo.
Long-running Bay Area specialty coffee roasting and equipment company Mr. Espresso has announced an exclusive supplier partnership with Facebook at the corporate giant’s sprawling Menlo Park campus.
Beginning in Jan. 2020, Mr. Espresso coffee will be available at the campuses’ many “micro-kitchens,” which exist independent of the other eateries and coffee cafes, including the Saint Frank outpost and the recently opened Coffeebar.
According to Mr. Espresso, which has not announced the financial terms of the deal, there will be 12 different coffees available at the private micro-kitchens, including six classified as Fair Trade and Organic certified, for espresso, drip and decaf.
The company said it plans to donate an additional 25 cents per pound of coffee sold to a “coffee origin-based research and development initiative,” that has yet to be determined, according to a public announcement this week.
“We are excited to embark on this new journey exposing us to a larger tech industry audience and are glad that Mr. Espresso’s unique story has resonated with those at Facebook,” Mr. Espresso Vice President Luigi Di Ruocco said.
Surviving 41 years as a family roasting and wholesale supply business in the coffee-competitive Bay Area market, Oakland-based Mr. Espresso is also unique in that it lays claim to being the first roaster in the United States to roast commercial coffee exclusively using oak wood fire as the heat source.
The company, which remains family owned, dates all the way back to the late 1970s when Carlo di Ruocco began servicing and selling imported espresso machines.
Nick Brown
Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
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