Bleu Coffee, a Jersey City-born specialty coffee shop and retailer, is launching its third location.

Scheduled to open Nov. 3 at 8 Erie St. in Montclair, the store makes its locally roasted coffee using beans sourced from small farms and co-ops in some of the most remote regions of the world.

Along with a curated selection of coffee from the likes of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Jamaica, Bleu Coffee’s menu also includes tea, freshly baked French pastries, juices, smoothies, salads and sandwiches. Additionally, the shop has freshly roasted retail bags of coffee beans for customers to brew at home.

Bleu Coffee will begin serving customers at 8 a.m. on grand opening day. After that, it will operate Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Souvenirs turned business venture

Founded in 2016, the shop was inspired by Kevin O’Gilvie’s annual trips to his parents’ native country of Jamaica, which, he says, is home to some of the best coffee in the world.

Before returning home, O’Gilvie would pack his luggage full of goodies for friends and family back in the U.S. — with the most sought-after gift being Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.

As he grew older and continued traveling back and forth from Jamaica, the requests continued to grow to the point where he needed to pack multiple suitcases full of the coffee, several times a year, to meet the needs of his loved ones.

However, since the coffee was packaged in shiny gold foil bags, he found that it was never roasted to order and there was never a roast date on the packaging. That’s why he decided to partner with farms and local roasters to import Jamaica Blue Mountain green beans to the United States and roast them locally, to ensure the freshness of the beans.

Thinking small

In addition to running two cafes in Jersey City (56 Beacon Way and 175 Second St.), Bleu Coffee allows customers to order freshly roasted coffee directly from its website.

Ahead of his launch in Montclair, O’Gilvie told NJBIZ, “We are expanding our business to capitalize on the growing demand for our freshly roasted, organic single origin coffee. We have seen an increase in customers seeking out specialty coffee shops over big chains for the health benefits, responsible sourcing, and local roasting to maximize freshness and maximize taste.”

“The Montclair market allows us to increase our market reach and tap into consumers that would not usually make it to our Jersey City locations as frequently,” he said. “We are looking forward to the Montclair market and continuing to grow our brand.”