Offshore Coffee Co., a New Jersey-based coffee roaster, wholesaler, and cafe chain, is still unsure whether or not to expect future tariff-related refunds from importers, according to Ross MacKay, co-owner. Since tariffs were imposed on coffee producing countries (like the previous US 50% duty on Brazil, for example) the NJ business absorbed higher green coffee costs. MacKay and company did not raise prices as to protect wholesale relationships and to maintain quality across the three cafe locations at the Jersey shore.
“We deal with multiple importers,” explained MacKay about his limited experience in the tariff refund process. “So, it comes down to each importer… But it looks like we may not be getting the refund because it depends on how they invoiced us… If they didn’t put the tariff price as a line item, they have no traceability on it. So, it was a price built into the coffee cost, versus a traceable amount.”
While MacKay isn’t counting on a tariff refund, the numbers are hard to keep out of mind during an era of record-high coffee prices.
“I mean it could be significant amount, the refund… We might buy 100 bags of one crop,” he said. “In the summer, we might spend $20,000 a week on raw coffee. So, the refund would be such a gift after not raising prices as much as we should have.”
In the greater foodservice industry, price increases have run the gambit: Food distributors change their prices daily, MacKay noted.
“We didn’t do that at the roastery,” said MacKay. “We tried to work through it to keep the customer happy in hopes that the market would come down.”
That’s not to say the business owners at Offshore didn’t try to get creative: Importers pointed them to Mexican coffees, a US import that would be protected from tariffs under the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA).
Tariff refund system open
As of April 20, the tariff refund system opened for market participants looking to get money back after paying “reciprocal” IEEPA-based tariffs. Importers and their brokers submit claims through the online portal. However, questions remain regarding refunds for downstream players in the supply chain, reported Expana.
It seems like there’s a lot of gray area for downstream market players like the management at Offshore Coffee Co., along with many other small-to-mid-size market participants.
“It’s very hard to determine which coffee [the tariffs] applies to,” said MacKay. And it “depends on how the extra charge can be traced.”
Offshore Coffee’s team uses higher-end coffees for cafe programs and retail locations. Also, the business leaders buy more practical, value-driven options for some wholesale customers—depending on customer preferences. So, when necessary, the NJ roastery and cafe chain of three locations paid up to preserve cup profile and customer expectations.
“We didn’t change prices, and we bit the bullet in hopes that the market would come down,” he said about a decision meant to preserve customers and to stay ahead of competitors. “And the market’s come down significantly. When I first started [the business], the market was around ~$1.15/Lb.”
Coffee price volatility constant
On May 8, 2026, coffee futures on NY ICE were valued at ~$2.90/Lb, cited Expana’s platform which shows the value has gone down over ~27% in the last year, and up over ~96% in the last five years—with lots of volatility along the way.
Since opening the first retail location during the COVID-era, Offshore’s team has sourced to meet the needs of wholesale clients as well as for retail customers searching for quality options.
“We bought a lot from Honduras—it was the base of our espresso at one point. But not recently, that was a couple years ago,” said MacKay who also noted that he’d never bought Vietnamese coffee—despite being asked about the surge in US imports of Vietnamese beans in March 2026.
“For our cafe coffees, we want to keep profiles as close as possible, and pay whatever price to keep that in mind,” explained MacKay. “On the wholesale side, a banquet hall that needs decent cup, we’re more looking into other regions to source coffee. It doesn’t make sense to pay more there, and plus the customer didn’t want that… So, we are picking everyday coffees too. Wholesale customers might be a 55-year-old restaurant owner that doesn’t want to be using expensive coffee. So, it’s about knowing the customer, and that’s where it’s great to come into our shop to try coffees.”
For Offshore’s business model, roasting remains at the core: About 8,000 pounds per week are processed through a semi-automated roaster that Ross MacKay and team purchased last year. Further upgrades in packaging and fulfillment supports both retail growth (they sell 12-ounce bags of specialty coffee at the cafes) and a wholesale model (five-pound bags for business clients) that extends beyond coffee supply to training, equipment setup, and machine servicing.
Having said that, the cafe locations serve hip high school and college students and businesspeople, as much as they do local surfers, gym rats, remote workers, and many others in between.
“The trends we see now were not around when we started,” said MacKay looking back on opening the first retail shop. “It’s never anything we would have predicted. [Current trends are] not for true coffee people: [Like] specialty lattes infused with syrups, fruit, cold foam… It’s not meant for the coffee purist… When we first started this, our intention was more to bring in specialty coffees.”
Even as social media-driven flavored drinks pull in non-purist consumers, MacKay and his team are still staying true to specialty coffee fundamentals around careful sourcing, roast evaluation, and offering higher-quality cups. The team will wait to hear more from importers about the traceability of tariff payments, and the possibility of refunds while staying true to their customer-centric business plan and quality coffee commitment at the retail and wholesale levels.
Written by Ryan Gallagher
