By Ma'Rya McCloud
2025 has been a year of firsts, new collaborations and celebrating 14 years of Java Love! Before we take on 2026, grab your favorite mug and pur your favorite Java brew as we look back at the past year.
January
We started the year off with a high note being awarded the bronze medal for Best of Essex 2024 before going on to host our very first game night in partnership with Just Kidding Toy store to gather the local community and take a break from tech.
February
February is the shortest month of the year, but we managed to pack in quite a few collabs.
Our first of the month being, Java X Studio Nectar’s valentines day gift launch pairing coffee and flowers for the special someone in our customers lives. The lovefest continued with our Talea X Phoenicia Diner Collab – when they used our columbian beans to brew Talea’s Rise and Shine Coffee Kolsch (a caffeinated beer if you can believe it). And what better way is there to end the month than with a giveaway? We teamed up with Hollywould Studios to offer a beautiful series of posters for anyone to win.
March
Throughout March we celebrated women and the long history of triumph that’s gotten many women where they are today. March 8th was International Women’s Day, and we decided to honor Erna Knutsen, “The Godmother of Specialty Coffee” as well as celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility highlighting notable women such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera for their activism and advocacy for gay and trans rights.
April
For April we figured we’d turn it up as cold temperatures begin to break by hosting our first DJ Dance Party at our Church Street location. Not only did we welcome the community to join us for a dance but we also hosted a vintage pop up sale. If you know us, you know we advocate for sustainability and in the spirit of appreciating our planet we reminded our community that we partner with Java's Compost to give our grounds a second life. Consider giving your waste another purpose by checking out their page for info on how to contribute.
May
This May marked 14 years of Java Love. 14 years of brewing your favs and serving it to you hot- or iced. Our anniversary wasn't the only thing to celebrate though being that May is Small Business Month. With so much to celebrate we decided to host our second dance party, and another vintage pop up sale- but all this was just a warm up as we jumped into June.
June
June is Pride Month and what a beautiful Pride Month it was. We launched our Pride hotlist menu and were overjoyed to be visited by Mikie Sherrill and her team ahead of the primary elections. However, there was no bigger honor than when our founders were recognized by the Essex County Commissioner Office as one of the many LGTBQ+ leaders in the county. It’s not lost on us how far the community has come along in the fight to assert that love is love, Period. So as we like to do, we celebrated with a party- a Pride Prom party.
July
July is the hottest month of summer, so to quench all of our thirst we launched the summer hot list and it was a HUGE hit! The menu featured different fun fruity drinks to cool down and stay energized, featuring drinks like cherry vanilla soda, pistachio cold brew and mango matcha– to name a few.
August & September
New month, new roast. Our DR Ramirez Estate roast dropped- introducing notes of strawberry, cherry and sweet cream providing a smooth fruity medium roast to enjoy. As proud as we are of our strong roasts, we couldn’t do it without ambitious women and on the 26th we observed National Women’s Equality Day just before the first day of college kicked off at Montclair State University. We’re proud to serve Java’s wonderful roasts to MSU’s hardworking students and our hardworking barista’s were acknowledged too when we were voted Best Coffee Shop for the 2025 Morris & Essex Readers’ Choice Awards in September.
October
Boo! October is known for being the month of the spooky season, but it was also one of our busiest months this year. Our founders joined other small business owners in Upper Montclair for the Biz Bestie Walk to connect with other women embarking on their journey of entrepreneurship. This month also marked our 11th year being the official coffee of the Montclair Film Festival and then we got into the spooky spirit by partnering with NJ Queer & Trans Makers Market to host a magic market featuring queer owned businesses. And of course we had to give you all a treat with a new cookie baked by Toni's Kitchen, yum.
November
The beginning of November was tense. There were two significant elections taking place, one of which being the gubernatorial election for New Jersey governor on the 4th. It was only natural that Mikie Sherrill stopped by again for good luck and not to give ourselves too much credit, but it seemed like it worked. To get into the spirit of the leaves changing we created a fall drinks menu at MSU and kicked off the Cookie Project with Toni's Kitchen to garner support for food accessibility.
December
Last, but certainly not least, December. Nothing goes better with freezing winds and holiday stress than the perfect holiday drink, and so we launched the holiday hotlist menu to provide a wide range of options to get you in festive spirit. At Java we also wanted to continue to support our local community by partnering with Montclair Solidarity for a winter clothing drive to provide for those who can’t for themselves. Finally, we were beyond proud to be a sponsor of two pop up events for the launch of The Coffee Table Art Book, which featured a wide range of international artists and photographers– some even being from New Jersey.
What a year it’s been. We’ve accomplished so much and we absolutely couldn’t have done it without you. Java Love thrives on community and our collective shared love for a nice brew. We can’t wait to keep serving you deliciously sustainable coffee next year, but for now, have a happy new year!
