Amy Groome 
One of the best cups of coffee in Essex County comes from a truck. Each cup is crafted with attention and care, and handcrafted by roaster John “Cozz’ Cozzarelli. Voted as the Best Food Truck in Montclair for 2025 by The Montclair Girl, the public is fortunate to have COZZ Coffee stationed right here in Essex County. You can swing by the COZZ Coffee headquarters, located in a cheerful blue truck parked at 727 Joralemon Street in Belleville. Read on for more information on COZZ Coffee and what it brings to Essex County’s local coffee scene.
COZZ Coffee Trailer + Shop COZZ Coffee Online
At 727 Joralemon Street, close to the Nutley border, from Tuesday to Saturday, 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM, you’ll find John and the COZZ Coffee trailer. Hot or iced coffee, specialty drip coffee, espresso-based drinks such as Cappuccinos, Lattes, and Americanos are available to be purchased, plus COZZ’s newest nitro cold brew cans are ready to go. COZZ has light, medium, dark, decaf, and half-caff blends. Drink specials are based on seasonal flavors. John has dairy + non-dairy milk options and custom-flavored syrups. There is parking available on site for coffee visitors. Be sure to buy a bag of COZZ Coffee while visiting: each freshly roasted bag of COZZ Coffee has a unique story, including the region of the world where the coffee beans originated, flavor notes, and a display of original artwork created by John himself or his friends.
Essex County residents also benefit from shopping online for the many fresh bags of coffee varieties here. Currently, a weekly or monthly subscription can be set up online. Delivery is included. Also available to be purchased are the COZZ Coffee single-brew coffee pods and COZZ Coffee merchandise, such as artful coffee mugs and cool t-shirts.
Read More: Belleville to Open its First Food Truck Park in 2026
John “COZZ” Cozzarelli: A Quick Q+A with the Owner
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COZZ Coffee has a fun background story and owner. John, who also goes by Cozz, is always working hard, constantly innovating, and delivering an exceptional coffee customer experience. While John reaches his goals, he makes every effort to bring the human and community aspect to his business, where it is often lost in this modern world. It made perfect sense for John to base his coffee business in the local Nutley-Belleville area. He has a strong connection to his friends and family from the area.
John grew up in an Italian-American home in Nutley. He was raised by a family that was always cooking food and fermenting wine. Nowadays, John wears lots of hats. He lives in Bloomfield, and coffee isn’t John’s only craft. He’s a seasoned skateboarder and has inspiring talent in the arts, digital media, and music. John established a business that streamlines art, music, culture, skateboarding, and friendship through coffee; meanwhile, the community benefits greatly, a win-win situation.
MG: What inspired you to get into this business? What were your first experiences with it?
JC: “I’ve always wanted to create something that I could use as an umbrella to highlight the creative expression of both my friends and myself. Through years of working in coffee, I found it could be the thing to tie together my background in skateboarding, music, and art. When I first started working in coffee, I was at this cafe in Newark called Art Kitchen. That is where I fell in love with cafe culture, or really a hub to meet up, drink coffee, and explore creativity.”
MG: What’s something about you or your business that people might be surprised to learn about?
JC:“With the exception of additional support during busy events, the business is entirely run by myself. All of the roasting, packaging, delivering, and events are all done by me.”
MG: What do you cherish most about your Italian American heritage and family traditions?
JC: “The idea of just doing stuff for yourself. Watching my mom and her dad curing their own meats, my dad and his friends making their own wine, my great uncle making mozzarella, baking bread, and rolling out pasta. I think seeing that kind of stuff from an early age builds a certain curiosity in you, or rather a confidence to just try and figure stuff out.”
MG: What has been the highlight in your career/life so far?
JC: “Anytime I get to incorporate a music or skateboarding event directly with coffee is a highlight for me. The one that always comes to mind is the 1-year anniversary party, which is now 5 years ago (long before the trailer). I set up a little BBQ in the parking lot, had friends play music, and made a bunch of people coffee. Immediately after, we all went over to Tierney’s, and my band played there. It’s hard for me to highlight monetarily successful moments because it feels like those are the things that need to happen for a business, but whenever I’m able to get people together and spend the whole day working, that’s a success to me.”
MG: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start their own business?
JC: “In general, I think creation should be an impulse, whether it’s writing a song, making a painting, or starting a business. You have to chase that impulse because if the impulse isn’t there and you’re just phoning it in, it will burn out. Running a business is 100% what you put in, you will get out. There’s no understating how difficult it can be at times, but as long as you want to do it, it will continue to happen. Essentially, don’t start a business because you want to make a lot of money or because you don’t want to work for someone else. Start a business because you have to do things the way you want.”
MG: Who or what is your biggest source of inspiration?
JC: “The radio station WFMU is one of my biggest sources of inspiration. It’s an independent freeform radio station that is 100% volunteer-run. They put on exciting events for the community, release awesome merch, and play tons of great music. An example of something that is simultaneously breaking the rules while rewriting them.”
MG: What do you value most from your background in skateboarding?
JC: “There’s probably a lot of cliches to be said about how skateboarding teaches you to go for things or how not to be hesitant, but I think what I’m most thankful for is that skateboarding taught me how to be an observant consumer. From a young age, it made me hyper aware of advertising and the kind of marketing that piques my interest. In that context, it helped me break through the mold and really create my own voice as a business.”
COZZ Coffee offers professional coffee catering for all types of events. To complete the COZZ Coffee Catering form online, click here. COZZ Coffee also provides wholesale options, supplying businesses and office spaces, with more information here. To connect with COZZ Coffee and keep up with the business, follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
See More: Popular Morristown Pizza Spot, Coniglio’s, Expanding to the Jersey Shore
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