Touchy Coffee is the coffee roasting sister of Superior Merchandise Company, a specialty coffee shop in Downtown Troy, NY. Since opening in 2015, SMCo. has had the privilege to serve some of the best coffees in the world, carefully grown and tended to by conscientious farmers and roasted to perfection by the people and companies we consider heroes. In 2018 our team began putting the experience we’ve been lucky enough to accumulate to good use and began the project known as Touchy Coffee, roasting coffee in small batches at a shared facility in Syracuse, NY. Now that we are at home in our own state-of-the-art roasting facility we are excited to take our coffee roasting endeavor to the next level.
About Superior Merchandise Company
Superior Merchandise Company is a specialty coffee and home goods shop located in downtown Troy, NY. Specialty coffee from the best roasters across the country and world are paired with a thoughtful menu of fresh, beautiful breakfast foods and complemented by a curated selection of well designed home goods from a variety of artists and makers. We strive to present our customers with a thoughtful selection of drinks, food and merchandise that will improve their quality of life, or at least make each day a little better. SMCo. also acts as a community gathering space, often hosting live music, creative workshops, and educational coffee classes.
The Touchy Coffee Team
Running things at Touchy Coffee is Felicity Jones, Mike Romig and Matthew Loiacono
Felicity’s combined palette + palate instincts bring a double dose of good taste to the table ;) She deftly manages the endless design and marketing demands of both SMCo. and Touchy Coffee while simultaneously directing the special beverage program for both. Felicity makes sure we always put our best foot forward and communicate thoroughly enough the specialness of our offerings to everyone listening. Her unique perspective on design, drinks and daily life makes an imprint on everything Touchy Coffee does.
Mike’s unshakable coffee-drinking habit and aptitude for the boring parts of running a small business have him vibrating behind a desk most of the time. Equal parts coach and cheerleader, he tries (mostly successfully) to keep everything running day-in and day-out in pursuit of our goals for Touchy Coffee and its role in the world, specifically in our small community of coffee drinkers, and as part of the coffee supply chain and its service to the people who compose it.
Matthew’s deep coffee-pro credentials and expert-level palate have for years been the magic behind SMCo.’s magnetic attraction of coffee fanatics. His skills are finally unbound at Touchy Coffee, not least of which is his skill at sourcing incredible green coffees. His keen “eye” for what makes a coffee truly special supplies us with a steady stream of offerings that have a great sensory profile and a compelling story to back it up. His refined instincts, deep knowledge and just all around coffee-talent make Touchy Coffee something more than the sum of its parts.
Our Vision
We believe strongly that coffee is one of our finest agricultural products and deserves to be treated as such, rather than as a simple commodity, quickly packaged and thoughtlessly consumed. We want to see it occupy a better space in our community, both in our coffee shops and our minds. Our commitment to transparent green coffee sourcing, the integrity of the supply chain and fairness at the farm level–and our best efforts to communicate these values to our incredible community of coffee drinkers–will hopefully contribute meaningfully to our industry, our farms and the conversations encircling them.
