Peet's Coffee & Tea

Tales of a Travelling Peetnik: Our year of Africa

- By Shirin Moayyad, Coffee Buyer

Why call it Peet’s Year of Africa?

Try looking at this decision through a coffee buyer’s eyes and you’ll see it’s a no-brainer. Should I source the best coffee in the world and use that purchasing power to help ease African farmers’ poverty? Let me think about that for all of a nano-second.

 

East Africa is the genetic home of coffee and though the tree has flourished beautifully in many other parts of the world, the continent’s soils are optimal for bringing out big rounded cups of dark berry topped with decorative floral flavours. We like to deep roast our coffee here at Peet’s, so that explosive acidity (which is how one refers to berry notes in prosaic cuppers’ terms) lends itself particularly well to our style: it means we can really push the coffee to develop flavour, accentuate its body, then balance both with a sparkling acidity (as opposed to a tartness so shrieking it strips the enamel off your teeth).

Not all our African findings have such high acidity; some are more subtle or distinguished instead by their jasmine and lemon notes. Still, all Africans we buy share this point in common: they have a fine quality and elegance in the cup that surpasses most other origins and an ability to sustain that finesse right through to when the cup is cold – something a lesser quality can never achieve. I’m one of those coffee drinkers who’ll leave my cup on the desk, come back to it 2 hours later and pick it up to drink again. So I know all about quality holding till it’s cold – or not.

That’s the cup angle.

Now, what good does the cup achieve for its producer?

The idea, in a nutshell, is this. If farmers have the potential to produce top grades of coffee (and we already know that East Africa’s terroir means they do), than improved milling and processing will express that quality. That is to say, will let it shine. Effective market linkages will realise the expression of quality by making these gourmet coffees available to consumers – market access. And, finally, efficient and transparent management will ensure the farmer gets paid a higher price than he would have before this project – not only because good coffee gets a higher price, but because better management means less money is lost. But it all depends on, and begins with, high quality coffee.

The most effective implementation of this “quality pays” concept we’ve seen is in the work of the NGO TechnoServe, the non-profit we most admire. Predicated on the idea that giving a hand up rather than a hand out creates self-sufficiency, TechnoServe teaches small-scale coffee farmers the business skills needed to add value and achieve better quality. They then link farmers directly to their potential market: i.e., a company like Peet’s, willing to pay high prices for deserving quality. There are many intermediate steps, such as helping farmers access commercial bank credit for the first time and designing the simple yet effective coffee washing stations that transform their quality to specialty grade. Yet the idea is basic: connect small farmers with their potential market and thereby afford them a decent livelihood.

 

With no promise that we will purchase any outturns, our commitment is to assist by advising what coffees could be called specialty or gourmet grade, what is acceptable but insufficient for Peet’s, what is commercial quality and what is outright defective. Specialty grade coffees provide the price premium that can help lift farmers out of poverty, thus enabling this quality step to meet both our goals and the farmers’ wishes.

Notwithstanding our wish to help farmers, we take the hard line on quality throughout our cuppings. 

In April 2008, our mentor, Roastmaster Reynolds, spent two weeks visiting Rwandan cooperatives and working with farmers to help them understand our devotion to quality, the need for them to be meticulous and attentive in order to win price premiums. For farmers who formerly fed their coffees into anonymous supply chains, the concept that their own work and care can change their lives is transformative and empowering. In late 2008, Doug and I visited some of the Tanzanian farmers who sell us their project coffees and in early 2009 I travelled first to Rwanda and then to Kenya to continue the work.

We were only able to export a small amount of Rwandan top quality in the first year, but were gratified to learn from TechnoServe that the price we paid made an appreciable difference in the lives of these farmers. Rwanda offers an exemplary illustration of how keeping the quality bar high directly yields higher prices. See some of our individual farmer stories and let them tell you in their own words how this principle proves to be true.

To read more on our work with TechnoServe, see The Tanzania Initiative and The Rwanda initiative.

Vine Street Grand Re-Opening

- By Erica Hess, Peet's employee since 1996

After a few months of restoration, the doors of our Vine Street store opened this morning at 6 a.m.!

The store was filled with wonderful energy and excitement as our customers were greeted to special treats, welcoming smiles and a one-day only special offering of Top Blend® a much beloved blend. 

The true pièce de résistance however, is the Alfred Peet Room -- a room that was developed to honor our founder Mr. Peet and his contributions to specialty coffee.  As an employee and someone who was acquainted with him, I felt a great sense of pride that so much thought and detail went into this very special project.   The room evokes a feeling of warmth, invitation and community, showcasing some of Mr. Peet’s personal effects, tools of the coffee & tea trade and special photos, articles and messages amassed throughout our 43-year history.

As I stood quietly in the room, I couldn’t help but observe customers taking in every detail.  Nostalgia filled the air.  Memories old and new shared.  Longtime friends and generations of families gathered.  I thought to myself, “This is our Peet’s family.”

Customers were delighted and proud of their Peet’s but even more proud of the room that pays tribute to a man so many of them came to know and admire.  “It is only fitting,” many shared.

Reflecting on the morning, I truly appreciated hearing many stories shared by customers about the moment they each came upon Mr. Peet’s store and roastery on the corner of Vine and Walnut.  I was reminded of one the last conversations I had with Mr. Peet before he passed away.  I asked him about Vine Street and the day he opened the doors.  “I remember it as if it were yesterday,” he told me.  “I had a simple idea and wanted to open a shop in a community where there was curiosity of mind and an appreciation for something distinctive.  I didn’t realize though how fast it would take off!”   I chuckle at the thought of his comments because this “simple idea” basically revolutionized how we all think about and experience coffee.

I would like to extend a personal invitation to you to visit our Vine Street store and hope that you will have a similar experience.  Perhaps you will meet fellow Peetniks, learn a bit more about Mr. Peet’s contributions to specialty coffee, and have a new appreciation for the deep connection we share together through a cup of Peet’s – a connection that began in a store and coffee roastery at the corner of Vine and Walnut, in 1966.

Tales of a Travelling Peetnik: Africa in autumn

- By Shirin Moayyad, Coffee Buyer

Remember that 1960’s movie, It’s Tuesday, this Must be Belgium? The story of a tour group that “does” Europe, visiting 7 countries in 18 days? Sometimes that’s what it feels like to be a coffee buyer.

Last month in Africa, Doug and I visited 26 individual farms, cooperatives, mills, grower groups, exporters’ offices and research stations in 10 days, with only a half day’s downtime in between to catch up on jet lag and “bond” with one of our exporters at a game park in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

We started in Nairobi visiting the renowned Nyeri coffee region, drove Southeast through to Tanzania to see the farms by the Ngorongoro Crater, crossed the Great Rift Valley East to see the band of growers, both small and large, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and ended by flying back to Kenya for two final days of visits there.

No doubt I sound glib rattling off the above itinerary, but one is conscious of the immense responsibility of representing a company and gathering information – wishing to do so thoroughly, without wasting anyone’s time, in an efficient manner. So you push yourself to absorb and record and research to the point where your eyelids are drooping with exhaustion and it’s all you can do to stay awake. You take so many photographs that if you don’t download them immediately upon returning, you forget all the places you’ve been, and rely heavily on your notes to remember the itinerary.

There are highlights and lowlights. The night we spent at a game park before crossing into Tanzania, I had a bat in my room. On the mosquito net, actually, scampering above my head in bed. Our host, Dirk, kindly obliged by playing The Great White Hunter and removing it gently from my room, wrapped in a bath towel. I’m not fond of creepy crawlies.

The next night, on a farm in Oldeani, I was nearly chomped by safari ants trying to get into the house at the witching hour of midnight. I was awoken by the farm owner out on a rampage, spraying all around and outside the house, particularly my bedroom window which the ants were trying breach.

Apparently some years back a tourist couple left their infant in the car whilst they went to admire a lookout. When they came back, all that remained of their baby was a skeleton, as a trail of safari ants had marched through the vehicle. They’re awful, frightening things that eat anything, even damaging our hosts’ metal toaster in an earlier attack. They presage the rains, the farmer told us, and which he felt were only a few more days off.

We hit a lighter note stopping to picnic in the shade of a baobab tree, crossing the Great Rift Valley en route to Kilimanjaro, where our favourite Tanzanian coffees grow. Shade is hard to find in the valley. It’s a great expanse of over-grazed, badly managed savannah with nothing but scrub and dust for miles around (“mmba”, the local acronym for miles & miles of bloody Africa ). With only days to go before the first rains, the dust filmed over everything in an insidious layer that penetrated the sealed car doors, the air intake vent, our suitcases, my computer carrying case, not to mention my allergic nose.

It seemed inconceivable that there should have been anyone around, but no sooner had we parked and pulled our packed lunch out, did three young Masai women come tearing through the bush at us, giggling, shoving each other, and primping all at once. They were dressed boldly in coloured wrap robes, their necks adorned with multiple ropes of beads, their ears weighted with extravagantly long and shimmering earrings and big beaded bracelets on their arms As they tumbled headlong towards us, I moaned inwardly thinking they’d come to ask something of us, money, pens or worse, my Obama button. Instead, they bolted straight to the car’s side mirrors and proceeded to preen and admire themselves. Like teenage girls the world over, Doug commented and I thought to myself how true.

They were priceless, these girls. I cannot imagine what hidden village they came from as our perch allowed us to see far and away across the plain, and there appeared to be nothing there. We gave them a large bottle of drinking water and asked if I might photograph them – it seemed a fair barter.

One look at themselves in the viewer of the digital camera, however, and they couldn’t get enough of being photographed. They wanted to try the camera themselves (result below), they snatched my sunglasses off me and tried them on (effect below), they fingered my watch and my necklace and generally displayed a self-confidence and attitude that I found hugely endearing. In short, they were characters, and even without a common language, the strength of their personae came through loud and clear.

 

There are these moments that put a touch of hilarity into what can be such exhausting days. We were lucky to be travelling for many of them with a Kenyan-born agronomist, Bill,  who knows anything worth knowing about coffee and who puts all the information one gathers into focus, making meaningful the blur of knowledge and factoids.

Why is Kenyan coffee so superior, we asked Bill? There are too many reasons to list, starting with the superior varieties used in Kenya, the superior soil quality resulting from the slow upwelling of magma; the gentle yet high altitude slopes coffee is planted on; the extreme care given to processing, grading and sorting coffee, the auction system designed to identify the very best….

Perhaps Bill’s most interesting theorem was that of the need to stress coffee growing on the equator, as it does in Kenya. Within five to eight degrees of the equator, trees are too happy, he said. They grow at an even rate and feel no need to flower or propagate themselves. Native to the highlands of Ethiopia and its 3 or 4 annual droughts, coffee was “hard-wired”, so to speak, for stress. Life in Kenya’s lush equatorial garden is altogether too easy and trees don’t feel the threat of extinction and, hence, the need to flower. Without the flowering, there is no fruit, so the trick to farming coffee here is stressing the trees through systematic pruning.

It’s a fascinating concept and makes perfect sense if you think of the trees as if they’re over-indulged people on a tropical holiday, lying by the beach, with no need to stay trim, taut and fit….

Two days before the election, we returned to the US. I could have bartered the Obama button pinned to my jacket a dozen times over for Masai beads or other trinkets. Every reference to the US election brought broad, optimistic grins to people’s faces, vigorous, pumping handshakes, overt delight and a wish to engage us in conversation. Will America elect a Luo before Kenya they wondered. (Mr. Obama’s ancestral tribe is in the minority). And the day after the historic event, back in California and again raked with jet lag, we marveled at the coffees, the people, the beauty of this country that had declared a public holiday to applaud our election.

Peet's Alameda Roasting Facility Gets LEED® Gold!

July 30, 2008 - Pat O'Dea, Peet's Coffee & Tea President & CEO

Today we gathered to celebrate the LEED® Gold Certification of our artisan roasting facility.  On hand were David Gottfried, founder and first president of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Mayor and other officials from the City of Alameda, and our partners who worked with us to bring our building to life. Together, we recognized this great accomplishment and unveiled our LEED Gold plaque which is now on permanent display at the main entrance.

This achievement encapsulates a three-year journey that started with our decision to build a new roasting facility from the ground up.  Our vision is to be the gold standard specialty coffee and tea brand available to world.  And one of our most important values is to positively contribute to the communities and environment where we operate locally and globally. This led us to take a LEED-certified approach to the design and construction of our roasting facility.  As a result, the roasting facility is truly a physical manifestation of our vision and our values.

The U.S. Green Building Council recognized our effort to live our values in the building of the facility by awarding us the Gold Level LEED Certification., This makes our roasting plant the first LEED Gold certified commercial building in the city of Alameda and the very first LEED certified coffee roasting facility in the United States.

What is LEED?
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ is a feature-oriented rating system that awards buildings points for satisfying specified green building criteria.  The six major environmental categories of review include:  Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design.  Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of LEED green building certification are awarded based on the total number of points earned within each LEED category.  LEED can be applied to all building types including new construction, commercial interiors, core & shell developments, existing buildings, homes, neighborhood developments, schools and retail facilities.

Why is this important?
Buildings in the U.S. use 40% of U.S. energy which means 10% of global energy.  There is a huge opportunity to curb the path of environmental degradation significantly by changing the way we build and operate buildings. In addition, it is simply "smart" design that saves money, energy, water, waste and makes for a nice work environment. 

Since many people, including builders and architects, have a limited understanding of what sustainable design and construction means, the LEED system provides a common platform for everyone. Having well known, respected companies like Peet’s involved with LEED is paramount to showing the public that green can be accomplished economically – even in a roasting facility!

Below are just some of the areas where points were achieved resulting in our Gold Certification:

• Dedicated parking for low emissions vehicles and car pools
• Located close to mass transit – Ferry, Bart, AC Transit bus shuttle bus
• Bike racks, showers and locker rooms for Peetniks
• 100% storm water runoff thru bio-swales and not directly into storm sewers or the bay
• Water efficient landscaping using 87% less water than base case
• Used recycled materials in landscape including mulch, cocoa husks, coffee chaff and bark
• 40% less water use in plant using low flow shower and faucet heads, dual flush toilets and waterless urinals
• Over 20% of materials used in construction from local and regional sources
• Diverted over 75% of construction waste from landfill; Most of the form lumber was reused from previous jobs or reused on subsequent jobs
• Energy efficient lighting and controls saving 40% energy vs. traditional lighting
• Total energy savings beat California Title 24 by 32%
• Use of sky lights and side lighting for natural light
• Utilized heat exchanger technology to recover and reuse heat generated in roasting process resulting in 40% less natural gas used. We are the only roasting plant in North America with this technology
• Carpet, paint, office furniture used in office areas were low/no emitting VOC LEED approved materials
• High efficiency HVAC systems and latest refrigerant technology for energy efficiency and to minimize environmental impact

Our roasting facility is an expression of our vision, mission and values. It has been designed to produce the highest quality coffee and teas in the world, and do so in away that positively contributes to the local community. We are honored to receive this extraordinary recognition from the U.S. Green Building Council, and to be the only LEED certified Gold roasting facility in the U.S. This is something our entire Peet’s family of employees and customers can take great pride in.

Last but not least, this project would not have been possible without the dedication and tireless leadership of Jim Grimes, our vice president operations and his team, including Bob Pires, and Raymond Sohnlein. We are also eternally grateful to all of the people and organizations that came together with us in a team effort to make this possible:

• SRM Associates
• FME Architecture & Design
• JM O'Neill Construction
• April Phillips Design Works
• SEI Structural Engineers
• Kier & Wright
• Ibsen/Sentry Architecture & Design
• KEMA Green
• City and County of Alameda
• PG&E

Pat O’Dea    

To learn more about LEED, visit www.usgbc.org/LEED
Take our artisan roastery tour.  Visit http://tour.peets.com

Tales of a Travelling Peetnik - the "Sisters" in Nicaragua

- By Shirin Moayyad, Coffee Buyer

It was only in Houston airport that I realised our importer of Las Hermanas coffee had missed his connecting flight from Mexico. And that I would be traveling to Nicaragua that night with no interpreter, and a sum total of 10 Spanish lessons behind me. I didn’t even know how I was going to get to the hotel, so scant is my knowledge of the language.

I might have known, however, that the warmth of the Las Hermanas cooperative members is such that any communication gap can be bridged. Strength of character, integrity, hard work and true grit transcend their linguistic barrier. No one at Soppexca - the 650 member strong cooperative to which Las Hermanas belongs - speaks English. Everyone I met managed to communicate at least a part of their stories to me (see below).

That was in February 2006.

Peets first tasted this coffee in 2001 and was surprised by its fine quality – this isn’t necessarily a region known for exceptional coffee. The leader of the cooperative, a woman, had identified the clarity of the cup, and attributed it to the innate nurturing qualities of women: they take better care of their land and progeny alike because they are, by nature, caregivers. The co-op had organised the women and assisted them in gaining legal title to their own land for the very first time.

A simple scenario unfolded: as a result of the premium priced contracts with Peet’s, Las Hermanas was able to obtain low-interest, pre-harvest finance at the start of each growing season and secure loans against these purchases. They enabled women to develop rigorous quality control and training programmes, producing top cupping coffee and investing back into their community and future. Knowing it takes quality to be recognised on an international scale, the women have implemented unprecedented quality control measures including their own cupping lab – the only one of its kind in the area.

This February, I returned to Nicaragua (with not much more Spanish) .

If this news sounds a bit “preachy”, and not the exotic travelogue you expect from a coffee buyer, it is because the message I walked away with from Nicaragua this time is HOPE. Dare I say the audacity of it?

My sense is that there have been profound changes in the co-op since I visited two years ago. They have moved beyond subsistence and into self-sustenance: sustainability. The women are being empowered and given confidence and belief in themselves, knowing they have the ability to better their lives.

The co-op has prioritised women and the need for women to move ahead. They have codified this need in a Gender Policy which states that cooperative members strive to establish equality among members, men and women. In particular, this policy is designed to promote justice, respect, equality, solidarity, integration and participation to improve the lives of all members and their families. Domestic violence results in mandatory explusion and no one who practices discrimination is allowed to join. Cooperative members are exhorted to act as examples in their communities, maintaining good relations with their families and neighbours with special emphasis on honesty, responsibility and decency in their everyday lives.

A set of practical guiding measures level the playing field for women and allow them equal access to coffee funding (both credit to buy more land and pre-finance for coffee cultivation); agronomy extension services, training, legal land title, voting rights within the cooperative and many other unprecedented measures. What is good for the women, they say, will be good for their families and, hence, their communities.

The producers of Las Hermanas are actually part of a larger cooperative of coffee growers (SOPPEXCCA) that includes both women and men. Here is a quote from their Gender Policy:

“For every woman who is tired of acting weak even though she is strong,
There is a man who is tired of acting strong when he feels vulnerable.
For every woman who is tired of acting as though she were stupid,
There is a man who is tired of being expected to know everything.
For every woman who is tired of being thought of as an emotional female,
There is a man who is denied the right to cry and be delicate.
For every woman who has not had access to a satisfactory job a decent salary,
There is a man who is exhausted from bearing all the financial responsibility for his family.
For every woman who takes one step towards her own liberation,
There is a man who discovers that his own path to freedom has become a little bit easier.”

On my 2006 visit I first met Flora de Montenegro, one of the star producers of Las Hermanas quality coffee. At that time, she had built a new house for her family on the strength of her earnings as three-time winner of the Cup of Excellence competition for Nicaragua’s best coffees.

This February, in response to my question of how her co-op had voted to spend their Social Premium - paid to the women together with a quality premium above our contracted coffee price – she held up her 10 month-old baby girl and said: “Here’s my social premium!”

   

This woman understands the gifts in life. The co-op lent her money to buy more farmland, thus providing an economy of scale whereby she can earn more than just enough food to carry her through tomorrow. Instead, she now has sufficient means to stop worrying about today and look forward to what next week or year can bring for her children. Each child now has two school uniforms and a pair of shoes. For each she wishes a better education than she had, yet the intent to return to the 10-acre farm she has built up for them.

Across from the farm lies an 87-acre nature reserve that she, her father and siblings have set aside for future generations. They allow no hunting, logging or commercial planting here. Native plant diversification is promoted and they believe – from droppings – that jaguars have found refuge, as have mountain lions, native Quetzal birds and many other indigenous fauna.

We took two hours away from coffee to hike to the top of this mountain where each could, in their way, reflect on the progressive improvements coffee has brought to this community.

The next day, one of the Hermanas farmers, María Elia Castillo, told us this story of hope and inspiration.

She and her husband were landless labourers before the government reforms of the early 1990’s. During this period, the government gave her husband over 12 acres, but the family had neither the money nor access to credit needed to work the land. Maria Elia had difficulty providing a dignified life for her family. She and her husband continued to work as labourers on other coffee farms in order to provide for the family, though even with this work, they struggled to send their children to school. They were very poor.

With care, the couple eventually saved sufficient money to plant 500 coffee trees on the husband’s land. Wishing to invest further, they secured a $2,000 loan from the Coffee Bank. Through a series of bank sell-outs and insolvencies, the original loan became $ 4600 which the beleaguered family only managed to repay with difficulty in 2007.

In 2002, María Elia still did not own any land of her own but the following year her husband gave her legal title to 3.5 acres of his. Through the parent cooperative of Las Hermanas, which she had now joined, she obtained lower interest credit to invest in the land and increase productivity. Her coffee sales allowed her to help repay the family’s final debt.

In 2007, María Elia invested $600 to buy 2,000 new coffee plants. To diversify her income and improve the diet of the family, María Elia also invested in several non-coffee projects. She bought 10 sheep; her flock has now grown to 37. She bought 7 chickens; her flock has now grown to 25. She earns extra disposable income both through the sale of sheep and eggs. To improve coffee shade, she planted 150 banana trees, 20 other fruit trees, and 50 timber trees.

Her two youngest children, Flor de María and John Everth, are members of the cooperative’s youth group which educates the community on environmental issues. They are also members of the children’s band and have participated in painting classes offered by the cooperative. Flor de María, a high school junior, received a cooperative scholarship for her education and works part time as a barista at the cooperative café, Jinotega’s only European-style coffee outlet.

With her increased and diversified income, María Elia has improved the living conditions of her family. She bought a table and enough chairs that now her family can sit down and eat meals together at one table. For the first time, she was able to buy beds and mattresses for each of her children. Small measures to you and I perhaps; vast improvements to her life.

María Elia says that over the course of her life, she has gone from being a landless peasant to being someone who owns her own land and has control over her productive and financial resources.

She takes pride in being part of Las Hermanas, which she considers a trustworthy organization. She believes her children are learning to play a leadership role in the community through their schooling and participation in cooperative youth activities. She feels like a productive and valued member of her family and her community, thanks in large part to the support she has received through her membership in the cooperative and her role as a producer of Las Hermanas quality coffee.

Visit peets.com to learn more about the Las Hermanas Initative or to buy Las Hermanas Coffee.

The Public has Spoken and Spoken and Spoken and…

- Brian Platter, Peet’s home delivery general manager

The “Why I love Peet’s” content ran from March 10, 2008 through April 20, 2008. Coffee lovers were invited to share their passion for Peet’s with their friends. Peet’s received thousands of entries and announced 10 winners each week for the duration of the contest. The winners AND their friends won free coffee beans (or tea) for a year — A Comparative tasting tour (2 pounds a month for 12 months). Winning stories were selected based on originality, creativity and persuasiveness.

For six weeks Peet’s lovers from around the country poured their heart and souls into these stories.  The depth, humor, poignancy, creativity and passion were astounding.  When all was said and done, 3,345 fantastic entries were submitted and sent to 12,255 friends.  Two hundred entries mentioned 90 (more than half) of our stores -- and many staff employees by name -- when describing what makes their Peet's experience unique.

We loved reading each and every story. It was truly difficult to choose winners as so many inspired us with their originality and creativity: from heartfelt stories, to poems and song lyrics. Some even expressed themselves in haiku or nursery rhymes!  I’m sure the over twelve thousand folks that received stories from their friends were amazed by the excellence of the entries.

For those that entered, I know it was hard work and I’m confident that your friends deeply enjoyed your stories.  Thank you so much for participating in the contest.  Be sure to visit our website to read the amazing winning stories.  While you’re there, you can continue to share your story with your friends.

Here are a few excerpts from some winning stories:

My love—my passion—for Peet's Coffee rose like a Phoenix from the ashes in the devastation after Hurricane Katrina. We were on generator power and had intermittent internet and phone service. Supplies, if available, were short and working hours were incredibly long, hot and difficult. We quickly learned in those first days and weeks to appreciate simple things like a roof over our heads, a place to rest, water to shower with, the beauty of the stars above a dark town, basic kindness, and of course… a really good cup of coffee. -
- Katherine K. Baker

Once upon a morning dreary, I stepped from Muni, tired and bleary
Bleary-eyed and stumbling toward the curb
And on the curb I started up, thinking of a steaming cup
A steaming cup of coffee and muffin herbed
"Where is my Peet's? " I muttered, "for I need caffeine--only Peet's and nothing more.
- excerpt from poem "Peet's Evermore" by Kristen Imler

Whenever she travels, Peet's coffee is with her. If possible, she will choose a hotel based on whether or not they serve Peet's coffee. She has Peet's coffee shipped to expatriates in other countries. When she visits friends' homes as an overnight guest, she brings Peet's coffee under the guise of a gift, so that she can have it when she wakes up in the morning. Once when they had a power failure in their neighborhood, she drove to another part of town with her grinder and coffee pot, sat on the curb and used an outlet on the outside of a strip mall to make Peet's coffee.
- Allyse L. Hall explaining how much her friend loves Peet's

We invite you to read the full stories at peets.com

Founders Day March 8th 2008 - Alameda Roastery Tour

- By Erica, Peet's employee since 1996

It could not have been a more perfect day to host our Peet’s community at our new Artisan Roastery in Alameda, Calif.  Beautiful sunshine and breezy weather. 

The event?  Our very first Founder’s Day Public Roastery Tour to celebrate 42 years of “Roast to Order” Excellence at Peet’s, and to also celebrate the birthday of Mr. Peet, our founder and grandfather of the specialty coffee movement in the U.S.

I arrived early (about 7:15am to be exact) to put the finishing touches on the event and was greeted by a few early birds who wanted to be the first in line.  As the morning progressed, a crowd started to gather. By 10am, when we officially opened to the public, there was an incredible line forming around our 138,000 square foot building!   

Our guests were treated to Peet’s History best illustrated by a wonderful video we created about the legacy of Mr. Peet and five large museum size panels that told our unique story over the span of four decades.  Then it was time for a self-guided tour to see first hand Peet’s artisan roasting in action! 

Our team of roasters were available to answer our guests’ questions and as Paul Gallegos, one of our senior roasters, used his senses of sight, smell and sound to roast and coax the flavors out of the green beans, our guests carefully observed the different stages of a Peet’s roast: the first pop….then the second pop….full city…and then finally…the moment we never get tired of seeing, the release of a perfect batch of Peet’s Deep-Roasted® coffee spilling out into the cooling fan!  Cameras shuttered, flashes flickered….The beans were “roast ready” for their closeup!

Following roasting, the tour then led to the cupping room area where guests learned more about our feedback loop and how our team of roasters and coffee buyers evaluate each day’s roasts for quality assurance, flavor and taste.  This is part of Mr. Peet’s legacy to us.  Part philosopher, part artist, he shared that, “It is only by hand-roasting the beans, coupled with continuous tasting and evaluation that you can truly know what you have created.” 

Coffee & tea tastings were next on the tour, led by our team of trainers who guided our guests in comparative tastings of both coffee and tea.

The grand finale:   A fresh cup of coffee, a chance to win a Peet’s gift basket of goodies, and the opportunity for our guests to tell their personal Peet’s story on video.  As our guests departed, we sent them on their way with a pound of fresh roasted coffee they watched being roasted that morning.   
 
Reflecting on the day, it was fun-filled and full of energy with many of our guests commenting on their renewed appreciation for just how much detail and discipline goes into their cup of Peet’s coffee.  Another takeaway that stood out for many employees working on this day was the revelation by our guests as to the exact moment or year that they drank their first cup of Peet’s….a powerful testament to the coffee and tea we’ve taken such great pride in offering our customers for 42 years. 

That nearly 2,000 of our loyal customers joined us to celebrate the life and legacy of Mr. Peet is especially humbling and clearly indicative of the deep connection we share together in one of life’s greatest pleasures:  a cup of Peet’s.

[editor's note, enjoy some links we've found about this event]

• InsideBayArea (Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times and San Jose Mercury News)
• Commercial Property News
• Clickin' Cool Pics Everyday
• SF-Lunch
• Chimes of Chaos
• YouTube - ositomoose
• YouTube - akionline
• flickr - Adventures in Voltzland
• flickr - janniec

FOR THE LOVE OF PEET’S

Peet’s Coffee & Tea Gives Away 20 Million Coffee Beans in 30 Days
“Why I Love Peet’s” Contest to Award Year’s Supply of Coffee To Up To 240 Passionate Winners

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – March 10, 2008 – Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc., (NASDAQ: PEET), the premier specialty coffee and tea company in the U.S.,  today announced the launch of the “Why I Love Peet’s” contest that will give a voice to Peet’s loyal customers, and share as many as 20 million of its hand-roasted coffee beans with contest winners.   

The “Why I Love Peet’s” contest is part of the company’s Founder’s Day activities honoring Alfred Peet, known as the grandfather of specialty coffee, who started Peet’s Coffee & Tea in 1966 with his distinctive style of hand crafted, deep roasted coffee. Forty-two years later, Mr. Peet’s roasting style and uncompromising commitment to freshness remain the hallmarks of the Peet’s brand. 

“Every day, we receive letters from our customers around the world expressing their deep connection to Peet’s and their great pride in sharing their love of Peet’s with others,” said Chris Lansing, Chief Marketing Officer, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc. “It is through this sharing of Peet’s that we have also been fortunate to introduce new customers to our distinctive coffees and teas and is the foundation by which we have built our very loyal customer following for the last 42 years.   This contest is a fun way to celebrate with our customers and enable them to share their personal Peet’s stories with the greater Peet’s community.”

To enter, customers should visit Peet’s website at www.peets.com/contest between March 10 and April 6 to share their stories about why they love Peet’s with up to five friends or family members.  Each week during the contest, 10 winners will be selected based on the originality, creativity and persuasiveness of their stories.  The winners and up to five friends will win free coffee beans for a year: a comparative tasting of Peet’s coffee bean selections with two pounds of beans delivered to each winner and up to five friends each month for 12 months.

Peet’s routinely receives stories from its loyal and passionate customers about their love for Peet’s and their desire to share Peet’s coffee with others, including the following examples:

• “I will always have your coffee in my home and it will always be my number one choice to drink and to share with others.” From a customer who has been enjoying the same aroma, taste and feeling of Peet’s for more than 20 years, from California to Okinawa to Dubai.

• “From the moment I walked in to Peet’s, I knew that this was the coffee shop for me – caring, wonderful service and the best coffee I ever sipped. . . I live [on the East Coast] now and my coffee shipment keeps me connected with my Peet’s family. I turn others onto it all the time.”  A customer describes his discovery of Peet’s quality and his journey to Peetnik status.

• “A WHOLE SHELF FILLED WITH PEET’S…I thought, this can’t be real…Well, once again my life has been made whole all because of the coffee gods at Peet’s.  Thanks Peet’s, you perfect coffee roasting people you.”  Feedback from a trucker who used to have to buy his Peet’s 10 bags at a time on his California stops and can now buy it at his grocery store in Columbus, OH.

Specific rules and guidelines for the “Why I Love Peet’s” contest are available in detail on the Peet’s website.

Web Exclusive Rare Tea - Gyokuro Asahi

Special shade-grown tea from Japan. Rich and savory with deep vegetal notes.

Japan is synonymous with sculpted gardens, fine pottery, and green tea. The rolling tea fields appear as manicured hedgerows throughout the central island of Honshu, where growing tea is often a family tradition dating back centuries.

Eliot Jordan, Peet's Tea Buyer, visited the tea-producing regions of Kyoto and Shizuoka for the very first time last year. Japan has the most modernized techniques in the tea industry, and every aspect is controlled down to the finest degree (with the obvious exception of the weather). It's always a challenge to get the best teas, as the domestic market in Japan has such strong demand. Peet's long-term relationships with suppliers allows us to source teas such as Gyokuro Asahi, a superb example of Japan's special shade-grown teas.

Long time Peet's fans will remember Gyokuro Asahi from the last offering over 10 years ago. Gyokuro Asahi is grown under very special conditions. Just as the first flush of the year is starting to emerge, slotted tarps are erected over the tea bushes to minimize sunlight. This artificial shade results in slowed growth and a changing chemical composition of the new leaf as it struggles for photosynthesis. After roughly 40 days, the tarps are removed and the deep green leaf is harvested, steamed, rolled and fired. Gyokuro teas are known to improve with age, so the producer has stored the tea in special wooden crates at low temperature for several months before release.

Gyokuro Asahi brews a bright liquor with full body for a green tea. It has a fresh-cut grass aroma, and a rich, savory taste with deep vegetal notes. It is available for a limited time while supplies last.

Brewing: Gyokuro should be brewed at a lower temperature than other green teas. Heat the water to about 140°-150°F, pour in one cup for each teaspoonful of tea leaves, and steep for two minutes. To get the most out of your tea, brew a second infusion of the same leaves using slightly hotter water.

Tales of a Traveling Peetnik: 2 weeks in Yemen

- By Shirin Moayyad, Coffee Buyer

My first and last thoughts upon entering and leaving Yemen were: Why did the makers of “Lord of the Rings” go to New Zealand to film when they could have had a ready made set in Yemen, complete with stone castles on precipitous mountaintops, medieval farmhouses and mysteriously veiled women of hauntingly beautiful eyes? It was all there for them!

As a coffee buyer, why was I so fascinated by Yemen? A society that veils its women and lives in stone fortresses perched impossibly atop mountains gives the appearance of inhospitality and yet….hospitality is the cornerstone of all Middle Eastern cultures. Yemen is no exception. Whilst under your roof a guest is protected, sheltered and cared for, any infraction of this custom spells a dishonourable host. And so we were met with phenomenal warmth, genuine friendliness, huge enthusiasm for the simple reason that we showed an interest in their coffee and culture…

This all seemed familiar to me. Being of middle-eastern heritage myself and a member of a large extended family, I had strong memories of a Persian New Year spent amongst the desert herders of Iran’s southern Khuzestan Province…the tribal women collecting water from the river in giant pots they carried on their heads, the children herding the sheep, the mud-walled huts and thatched roofs of the village we stayed in….and again, the immense hospitality.
 
The Yemeni people themselves, men and women, are extremely handsome and of course the veil is as alluring as it is meant to be protective. How can one but wonder what lies behind it? And where the eyes were exposed, we saw astonishing shades of green, hazel, brown, set against even, tanned skin. The age at which girl children are veiled seemed to vary and I could find no rhyme or reason to the fact. I was enchanted by the sense of self-possession the little girls displayed though, knowing full well that they were not meant to be photographed and yet warning me off with such good-natured naughtiness in their laughter.

Outside the medieval capital city, Sana’a, with its stone towers and stained glass fan windows, the Yemenis are armed not only with their daggers, but also with automatic weaponry. They present an imposing picture and yet there is no hostility in the stance, it simply represents the modern adaptation of tribal garb and does not detract from the warmth and humour of the people. A man would no sooner go out unarmed than go on the street naked. Witness the scenic lookout over a mountain village we stopped to photograph one afternoon, that in turn led us to a wedding where celebratory rounds of Kalashnikov fire were being loosed into the air. Which jubilant sound effects I captured in a sound bite on my camera. No malice or mayhem there, the people were just dancing!

Yemen is not far from Jetsons-like Dubai, yet immeasurably distant for its adherence to tradition: men still wear their tribal identifiers in the form of the large jambiya dagger belted around their waists over the dishdash (long white robe). A Western-style sports coat tops this and their heads are covered with a sun-protective head scarf called a keffiyeh.

Unlike Dubai, however, this is a culture whose buildings have stood unchanged yet inhabited for hundreds of years, a land where a facsimile of Manhattan’s high-rise skyline mushrooms unheralded out of the desert sands, where the capital city has been continuously inhabited for over 2500 years! Something about this culture has lasted and yet kept itself hidden from the Western world.

Geography: through the eyes of a coffee buyer, Yemen presents a landscape so barren it is inconceivable coffee could grow, let alone fruit. It is like driving into the Grand Canyon, and there in the midst lies an oasis, an irrigated grove of coffee trees living off goodness knows what moisture. Used to seeing coffee grow in lush tropical places, Yemen’s arid mountain moonscapes seem an anomaly in the trade.

Never before have I seen rocks hewn from mountainsides and patterned beneath trees to serve as a form of mulch to prevent the evaporation and loss of whatever scant rainfall or irrigation there is. Here coffee hangs on by a bare thread, fighting for its fragile life and yet giving of itself in huge measure in the profound dried fruit and wine notes that characterise Arabian coffee.

Yemen guarded this treasure possessively: as the first country to trade coffee to the rest of the world legend has it that they boiled beans before exporting to prevent their germination elsewhere. Yemen also contests Ethiopia’s claim as the origin of the plant and in fact is documented to have cultivated it as early as the 6th century and to have popularised its consumption in the Middle East. Certainly it was the mystics of Yemen’s Islam that first used coffee in one form or another to revive themselves in their midnight devotions. The wine of the Islamic world, coffee from the very first was an almost sacred libation in Yemeni legend – and how reverent and beautiful of a concept is that to a coffee buyer?!

The irony of this is that Yemeni’s commonly drink a beverage called Qishr, made of the roasted, ground, boiled, spiced and heavily sweetened husk of the coffee bean, not of the bean itself. Drinking qishr tastes like stewed green hay with several kilos of sugar added. Yemen is the only place I’ve ever been where the tea (equally sweetened) is darker than the coffee. Qishr – to me anyway – was a dissatisfying beverage. I was hankering for a good cup of Peets every day and was grateful to myself for having thought to bring a press pot and our own coffee.

Processing: I never imagined to see coffee hulled anywhere in the world on a hand turned stone mill. And not only did I see it, I filmed it! In my wildest dreams, I could only imagine this to be a demonstration in a high school social studies class and yet here it was, a viable, extant processing method! The height of the rotating stone plate that sits atop a fixed anchor is adjusted by banging a rock into its wooden support – bit difficult to describe, easier to look at the video. And this isn’t a museum exhibit? Why no, people still process their coffee in this manner! Unreal. View Video

Of course it has to be sorted and picked over many times before export, but Yemeni’s all seem to rely on sight to evaluate coffee and not a one we met sample roasts before exporting. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…

Coffee is dried in its whole cherry form atop household roofs and variously stored – they say anywhere from 1 to 10 years as it is a bankable cash crop for farmers who have on average 7 children and scant other source of cash income. When farmers need cash, they sell the dried cherry to collectors who mill and forward it to exporters.

Every bend in the road we rounded yielded a new view of breathtaking drama, a new mountaintop crowned with yet another medieval stone village, another scene for Lord of the Rings. Steep vast mountains topped by stone villages where giant rock building blocks are stacked neatly atop one another, holding together houses without any mortar or modern device. Harsh and frighteningly remote vales broken by the visual regularity of terrace farming…terraces being the most effective means of retaining the water run-off . Visually, if not in many other ways, Yemen is a tremendous treat.

The roads are the roughest I have seen anywhere in the world and having lived in New Guinea for 11 years, I believe I have experienced the roughest there are. At points it seemed safer just to get out of the car and walk - in fact one road’s end was heralded by the sounds of dynamite explosions as it was still being built. When we had a flat tyre in the middle of the “Grand Canyon” en route to a coffee village and AAA was nowhere in cell phone range, I did wonder how the day would end. Though I knew we could count on some tribesmen coming out of the horizon and inviting us to dinner in their village.

I knew that Yemen would resonate with me immediately, that its countryside would seem more familiar to me than alien, and that its coffee would represent the very core of this civilised drinking tradition. And so it did. Hundreds upon hundreds of years before the 20-ounce latte was being sold in paper cups or Americans were even living upon these shores, the Yemeni’s already had “Ghahveh Khaneh” or coffee houses where citizens mused on the issues of the day whilst sipping on coffee, Qahwah, Kaffa, Café.

View more photos of Shirin's trip.

Note: For 2 weeks in January, peets.com will feature 3 Yemeni Village MicroLots.

Back in Stores for 2008 - Ethiopian Super Natural

Ethiopian Super Natural was introduced in 2006 as a Peet's Special Offering and quickly became a beloved customer favorite. We are excited to announce its first return to our retail stores.  This rare wonder will be available for a limited time in all of our stores starting Saturday, January 12, 2008. 

When this coffee first arrived in our Tasting Room, our Roastmaster Emeritus, Jim Reynolds, called it one of the most remarkable coffees he had ever tasted. Hailing from Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, from the renowned Yirgacheffe region, it's a throwback to a bygone era.

A longtime supplier of Peet's remembered an intensely flavorful coffee from his grandfather's day: Ethiopian Super Natural is the re-creation of that memorable coffee. Grown organically, handpicked at the height of ripeness, it is meticulously processed by the 'natural' method, where the pulpy fruit of the coffee cherry is dried on the bean, then hulled off. This prolonged contact between bean and cherry imparts the incredible wild and fruity flavor that is so distinctive.

The natural processing and quality of this cup is apparent as you sniff the heady aroma of wild, sweet blueberries. Take a sip, and note the complexity, the rich mocca overtones. Truly a remarkable cup: a Super Natural worth savoring.

The History
A long time supplier of Peet’s set out to create the coffee of his grandfather’s day. “The coffee with the kick, the fruitiness,” he said. Doug Welsh, our coffee buyer, visited the supplier in Ethiopia, and tasted this incredible coffee: the result of a three year quest to produce a natural, or dry-process coffee. For its flavor—out of this world—and the superb care that went into producing it, we called this coffee Ethiopian Super Natural.

The Process
The natural process is the age-old method of drying coffee cherries whole, then grinding or milling them to yield the beans. Our supplier accomplishes this on raised mesh tables, rather than on mats on the ground, allowing for the full circulation of air and reducing the opportunity for contamination. The cherries are covered daily, when the sun is excessively hot, and when the rains come in the afternoon. Throughout the weeks of drying, workers comb the tables, removing imperfections. The essence of the natural method is that the fruit, as it dries, imparts its concentrating flavors to the beans, which translates in the cup to a heavily textured mouth feel and enhanced body.

The Place
Yirgacheffe has become renowned for its superb washed coffees, like our Ethiopian Fancy. Starting with the same select fruit from the best zone in the best region of the birthplace of Arabica, one of our best suppliers has created a coffee that harkens to the great Ethiopias of the past, a natural process coffee produced organically with exceptional care, a Super Natural. Ethiopian Super Natural has the inherently floral qualities of Yirgacheffe, but it’s the “kick, the fruitiness” you notice first. The aroma is heady, reminiscent of wild sweet blueberries. Take a sip and note the complexity, the rich mocca overtones. Enjoy it while it lasts, this September and October.

Please share your thoughts about this coffee!

Jamaica Blue Mountain is Back! (for now...)

Jamaica Blue Mountain is perhaps the most well-known origin in the coffee world. But significant hurricane damage to growing areas has kept world supplies scarce. Produced by one of the oldest estates in the Blue Mountain region, Jamaica Blue Mountain is subtly complex with a smooth texture, generous aroma, nuanced flavors, and perfectly balanced body and acidity.

Last year we sold out of this rare wonder in just 2 days. Jamaica Blue Mountain will ship only on Wednesdays starting November 7 while supplies last.

We buy from just one estate in the Jamaica Blue Mountain region - the only one that we believe produces coffee of the beguiling quality that first established the reputation of this region. Our Jamaica Blue Mountain is subtly complex, sweet, smooth and perfectly balanced - worthy of the renowned origin.

There are stringent regulations around what coffee can be called "Jamaica Blue Mountain". It must be grown only in a particular region of the Blue Mountains, at a certain altitude, and must be certified by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica. It's a very small region, and there are just a few Estates now producing the old-style quality and mild, aromatic flavor which made this origin so famous. Our pick is worthy of the name - 100% pure, grown on Estates dating from the 1800's, and processed by hand in a plant from the same era. It's the combination of the unique regional conditions - rich soil, lofty altitude and cool mists - along with meticulous quality control in processing that makes this such a prized coffee. The Estate we buy from is unusual in that it not only grows the coffee, but controls the whole process, with incredibly careful milling, drying and hand sorting under stringent quality controlled conditions. This coffee is treated as special from the moment it is picked to the moment it's carefully packed in wooden barrels and air-shipped to us here in California. 

Available once again this year in extremely limited quantities. Jamaica Blue Mountain will ship only on Wednesdays starting November 7 while supplies last.

Holiday Blend Coffee 2007

Richly aromatic, with spiced chocolate notes and a hint of berry sweetness.

Holiday Blend 2007 is destined to be a memorable vintage, crafted of the finest crops of the year, each exquisite enough to be prized alone. 2007's blend has been over a year in the making, and is a rich reminder of our philosophy that no coffee is too fine or too rare to blend. The result is aromatic and full-bodied, infused with floral, malty and chocolaty notes. 

Back in November 2006, we visited the lofty reaches of Guatemala Antigua specially to secure a coffee from the highest farm on the Acatenango volcano: a fine, bittersweet chocolate wonder. It is an estate coffee, grown and milled by a family producer in its fourth generation. The family calls this particular farm "The Clouds", as it reaches up to the very limits of coffee production, with only verdant forest and the still-sputtering cone of the volcano above it.

From the balmy tropical earth of Sumatra we sought a rare triple-picked grade of the famed Lintong region. The care with which the coffee is processed is extraordinary—and unusual for this most rustic of origins. This "super grade" of Sumatra is so perfectly, so painstakingly produced that it is one of the best coffees we've tasted this season. The beans are uniformly golden brown and add depth and an almost caramelly sweetness.

For a little added zing, we rounded out the blend with a top East African coffee redolent of berries and citrus. Sprinkled with an extra dose of Holiday cheer, it's a quintessential blend for the holidays, richly aromatic with spiced chocolate notes and a hint of berry sweetness. A joy to produce—we hope you'll find it a joy to drink.

Order online today or call us at 800.999.2132

Holiday Breakfast Blend Tea 2007

There are only four countries containing a total of about 10 regions that regularly produce top class black teas.  Sometimes the key to creating a great blend is keeping an open mind and taking advantage of the best quality wherever it may come from.  Weather and sometimes market forces play a big role in what kind of quality is available from each region each year.  This is why our annual celebratory blend of black teas is never the same twice.

Darjeeling is generally a big component of Holiday Breakfast Blend, and this year is no exception.  Darjeeling had a very good Second Flush (the early summer harvest prior to the arrival of monsoon rains) and we acquired quite a number of flavorful lots with successful bids at the weekly Calcutta auctions.  Produced in small lots of just two or three hundred pounds, each estate can exhibit one or more pronounced elements of the complex Darjeeling character, known for notes of wine, flowers, nuts, briskness and a sweet finish.  Holiday Breakfast Blend this year is built with multiple single estate, new crop lots for a unique and vibrant flavor that provides the anchor to the blend.

In keeping with previous years the blend contains China teas that serve to counterbalance the Darjeeling brightness with body, sweetness and aromatic interest.  Keemun is evident in the blend, in particular a lot that we’ve reserved since its arrival in late 2006.  Keemuns last very well over time, even developing a smooth creaminess not present in the new crop, and the rich roundness and toasty aroma of this tea are perfect for a fall and winter tea.  The second China ingredient is in smaller proportions but significant in that it is from a new region for us; it’s a long-leaf, golden-tipped high mountain tea from Hunan province in the southern interior of the country.  Hunan is a large producer, and this is the first lot that really stood out as a bright-tasting cup that could add an interesting element when blended with two of the world’s famous black teas.

At the end of the day the point is to have a rich, aromatic, and slightly sweet cup with layers of complexity; big enough to take milk and sugar, refined enough to enjoy unadorned.  It’s a blend that reflects the best lots of the year in a cup, crafted for enjoyment during the cold season.  I hope you enjoy it.

Eliot Jordan, Tea Buyer

One Day Preview Roast of Ethiopian Super Natural

Ethiopian Super Natural was introduced as a Peet's Special Offering last year and quickly became a beloved customer favorite. We are excited to announce a special one day preview roast of this rare wonder before it is available in stores next January. Order by Wednesday, Oct. 10.

When this coffee first arrived in our Tasting Room, our Roastmaster Emeritus, Jim Reynolds, called it one of the most remarkable coffees he had ever tasted. Hailing from Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, from the renowned Yirgacheffe region, it's a throwback to a bygone era.

A longtime supplier of Peet's remembered an intensely flavorful coffee from his grandfather's day: Ethiopian Super Natural is the re-creation of that memorable coffee. Grown organically, handpicked at the height of ripeness, it is meticulously processed by the 'natural' method, where the pulpy fruit of the coffee cherry is dried on the bean, then hulled off. This prolonged contact between bean and cherry imparts the incredible wild and fruity flavor that is so distinctive.

The natural processing and quality of this cup is apparent as you sniff the heady aroma of wild, sweet blueberries. Take a sip, and note the complexity, the rich mocca overtones. Truly a remarkable cup: a Super Natural worth savoring.

Discover this rare wonder today. Order online or call 800.999.2132. Place your order by Wednesday October 10th.

The History
A long time supplier of Peet’s set out to create the coffee of his grandfather’s day. “The coffee with the kick, the fruitiness,” he said. Doug Welsh, our coffee buyer, visited the supplier in Ethiopia, and tasted this incredible coffee: the result of a three year quest to produce a natural, or dry-process coffee. For its flavor—out of this world—and the superb care that went into producing it, we called this coffee Ethiopian Super Natural.

The Process
The natural process is the age-old method of drying coffee cherries whole, then grinding or milling them to yield the beans. Our supplier accomplishes this on raised mesh tables, rather than on mats on the ground, allowing for the full circulation of air and reducing the opportunity for contamination. The cherries are covered daily, when the sun is excessively hot, and when the rains come in the afternoon. Throughout the weeks of drying, workers comb the tables, removing imperfections. The essence of the natural method is that the fruit, as it dries, imparts its concentrating flavors to the beans, which translates in the cup to a heavily textured mouth feel and enhanced body.

The Place
Yirgacheffe has become renowned for its superb washed coffees, like our Ethiopian Fancy. Starting with the same select fruit from the best zone in the best region of the birthplace of Arabica, one of our best suppliers has created a coffee that harkens to the great Ethiopias of the past, a natural process coffee produced organically with exceptional care, a Super Natural. Ethiopian Super Natural has the inherently floral qualities of Yirgacheffe, but it’s the “kick, the fruitiness” you notice first. The aroma is heady, reminiscent of wild sweet blueberries. Take a sip and note the complexity, the rich mocca overtones. Enjoy it while it lasts, this September and October.

Please share your thoughts about this coffee!

Alfred H. Peet, 1920-2007

When Alfred Peet opened his shop in Berkeley in April, 1966 he started a coffee revolution. Nobody had ever seen top-quality coffee like this roasted in this unique style in America. The corner of Walnut and Vine quickly became a gathering place for UC Berkeley grads, undergrads, and faculty as well as local intellectuals, radicals, writers, musicians, artisans and any number of the colorful people who still make up Berkeley today.

Mr. Peet was born in Alkmaar, Holland on March 10, 1920 and died in Ashland, Oregon on August 29, 2007.  His father had a small coffee roastery in Alkmaar prior to World War II, and Alfred helped his father by cleaning machinery and doing other odd jobs as a boy.  When Germany invaded the Netherlands he was pressed into working for the Third Reich in Frankfurt and witnessed first hand the intensive Allied bombings there in early 1944.  When the war ended, Alfred joined Lipton’s Tea in London as an apprentice and afterwards went out to the still-Dutch colony of Indonesia to work in the tea business there.  He immigrated to San Francisco in 1955 and eventually found a job in the coffee importing business of E. A. Johnson & Co.  But all the coffee coming into San Francisco was relatively low quality Brazils and “Central Standard” Salvadors for the large local roasting companies Folgers, MJB, and Hills Brothers.  This was frustrating to Mr. Peet because he remembered the great high altitude coffees from Costa Rica, Guatemala, and East Africa that his father used to buy.  But there were no customers for them here, so he decided to do something about it.

He scoured the West Coast from Vancouver to Palo Alto looking for a suitable location for a high-quality coffee roastery before a friend told him that she knew the right place for him, right across the Bay in Berkeley.  He installed a small roaster in the shop’s back room, and the revolution began.

As Peet’s in Berkeley flourished, Mr. Peet opened additional stores in Menlo Park (1971), on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland (1978), and another in Berkeley across from the Claremont Hotel (1980).  By the time he retired in 1983, Peet’s had a cult following from coast to coast, and many of his devoted fans continue to insist on Peet’s.

In his own words, when asked to recount his life’s story, Alfred Peet responded simply, “The coffee tells my story.”

Feel free to share any comments you have below.