Is it IV-“drip” coffee?
Popular New York City coffee chain, 787 Coffee, has stirred customer debates after swapping cups for viral plastic pouches that are being compared to juice pouches or medical bags.
“It feels kind of nostalgic…like a Capri Sun,” Dustin, 33, a defense contractor who works in New York, told the Post.
The bean bags first went viral on TikTok, amassing hundreds of thousands of views across multiple videos, and the social media boost has unsurprisingly caused pouch sales to percolate.
“It went viral viral,” Simon Gondola, 32, the manager of the West 46th Street outpost, told The Post. “TikTok is where everything is seen by the public. We’re like the only coffee that comes in bags.”
Every beverage save for two — the cappuccino and the flat white — can be bagged at 787, where coffee ranges in price from $6 to $12.
And the container isn’t some online gimmick, according to co-founder Brandon Peña, who explained that the malleable plastic containers, which pinch-hit for the traditional plastic to-go cups, align with 787’s mission to “do what’s right for our community and planet.”
While a sustainable single-use plastic bag might seem like a paradox, these sacks of joe “dissolve faster than hard plastic, reducing their environmental impact,” Peña told Gothamist. “They are reusable, which allows customers to repurpose in creative ways.”
A growing number of restaurants have swapped classic plastic to-go cups and plastic straws for more eco-friendly options. Starbucks notably ditched plastic straws for lids with a sipping hole in 2020 while many other eateries have also made the sustainable switch — although 787 plastic pouches do come with plastic straws.
Dustin, who bought a rum-infused cold brew, told The Post that he definitely could foresee using it instead of the traditional container though it reminded him of “bag milk in elementary school.”
As for the taste, he described it as “really good” with “a thick and bold flavor.”
Meanwhile, Tennessee tourists Jordan, 34, and Holly, 33, who had this veritable caffeine IV at several locations around town, said the contents are so “tasty” that the packaging didn’t matter.
“People love it,” 787 barista Deishaliz Parrilla, 23, Told the Post. “You get 16 ounces of coffee.”
Others have been more “bittersweet” about getting java in the sack, which has been compared to a “colostomy bag” by Gothamist.
On Friday, The Post witnessed one lady accidentally grip the bag too hard and cause the contents to squirt all over, prompting her to request they transfer her cold brew to two different cups.
For this reason, Parilla cautions customers to refrain from “grabbing” the container from the bottom.
Despite their unwieldy nature, bagged beverages are ubiquitous in other countries; hops hawkers in Qing Dao, China famously serve Tsing Tao beer in plastic pouches.
The Puerto Rican bean depot has 27 outlets spread across Texas, Puerto Rico — where it sources in beans — and NYC, where it first opened in 2019. Since then, 787 — named after the island nation’s area code — has been attracting customers with its unique “farm to cup” experience, commitment to sustainability and Caribbean-inflected flavors, including dulce de leche and a cold brew concocted from rum-infused beans like an imbibeable drunken confection.
The coffee chain was named one of America’s fastest-growing private companies in 2021 and the top growth accelerator of 2024 by the US Chamber of Commerce.
