President/CEO: Alisa Bowens-Mercado
Location: Hamden
Length of time in business:Since September 2021
Diverse supplier designation: Minority- and woman-owned
Product or service provided: Coffee supplier
Number of employees: 3
Within a year of launching her coffee supply company, Alisa Bowens-Mercado attended Hartford HealthCare’s first Supplier Diversity Summit and made the connections necessary to become the systems official coffee company.
In break rooms and cafeterias across the system, Rhythm Roasting’s logo is visible on light, medium and dark roast, caffeinated and decaf, bulk bags, k cups and frac packs.
Rhythm Roasting is a support organization that helps connect coffee drinkers with growers all over the world seeking to expand their global reach,
“We identified the opportunity for minority suppliers to provide coffee products to business clients, and pooled our resources and experiences as entrepreneurs. The partnership allows us to maximize the opportunity to deliver reliable, quality coffee products in a timely manner,” explains Delvin Stern, co-founder and chief operating officer of the company.
Their mission, he continues, is to “carefully and ethically source the most extraordinary coffee from various captivating origins, and share these roasted coffee beans with ethical coffee buyers across the U.S.” These international producers often lack the funding and technology needed to sell their coffee at fair prices.
In addition to supplying companies like HHC, Rhythm Roasting can often be found at various community events, offering those quality cups of Joe.
“We are constantly developing long-term, sustainable relationships with partners throughout the coffee supply chain to provide high-quality products at fair pricing,” Stern says. “Hartford HealthCare’s support is not only of a local supplier but also support of the global communities from which the coffee originates.”