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So what on earth would inspire someone to go all in on a brand new coffee chain? Well, simply put, when Alfred Peet first came to America in , the coffee being served in most restaurants and cafes Peet grew up in the coffee trade and was used to European coffee culture, so when he first tasted the poor quality coffee in America, he was shocked. He was appalled that Americans would brag about drinking 10 cups of coffee in a day, because Peet knew that only watery, low-quality coffee could be consumed in such volumes.
WWII also saw the advent of the instant coffee industry, so people just weren't drinking coffee made from fresh beans anymore. Determined to change things, Peet started importing his own coffee beans and roasting them by hand the way he had learned in Jaca, Indonesia. His robust, dark-roasted beans were a lot different than the watery stuff being served in restaurants and cafes, and it was only a matter of time before his business took off.
In , when Alfred Peet opened the first Peet's Coffee , he only sold coffee beans. But his beans were dark roasted and tasted different than most of the coffee that was available on the market at the time.
Three friends — the future founders of Starbucks — took note. They decided to open their own coffee shop up in Seattle, but first they needed to learn the ins and outs of the business.
They worked for Peet over Christmas in , and Peet taught them all about coffee , including how to source and roast coffee beans. They became very close, not just as business associates but personally — it's said that Peet saw the three men, Zev Siegel, Gordon Bowker, and Jerry Baldwin, as his sons. When the first Starbucks opened in , Peet gave them full permission to copy the design of his store, according to the three men.
Starbucks also started off selling Peet's roasted beans , until they acquired their first roaster. Like Peet's when it first started out, the first Starbucks only sold freshly roasted coffee beans when it began, and didn't venture into the world of brewing coffee for sale until some years later. Also like Peet's, Starbucks' first foray into brewing coffee was setting up a coffee bar so that customers could sample the beans before taking them home, a concept that obviously proved successful.
Alfred Peet has been called the man who "started the craft coffee revolution," "the man who taught the world to drink coffee," and "the Dutchman who taught Americans how to drink coffee. Peet opened the first Peet's Coffee on April 1, , with a pound roaster, 10 pounds of Columbian coffee beans, and the money left to him by his father as his startup capital.
At first, not everyone loved his coffee — it was just so much stronger than what people were used to. Peet sold fresh roasted beans out of his store, but also had a coffee bar, where potential customers could taste his brews before deciding to buy a bag of beans. European customers were immediately smitten, and soon word spread. Peet trained his employees in how to "cup" coffee, which is similar to how experts evaluate wine — coffee is smelled, tasted, and judged based on a variety of factors.
Peet said that the coffee beans had a language, and he's credited with being the one who taught people how to listen to that language, ushering in a new era of American coffee , where every sip and sniff was something to take seriously. Unlike Peet's Coffee protege Starbucks, which has close to 14, stores in the United States alone , Peet's has kept things relatively small, with only around stores in the U.
But the number of stores isn't the only metric for company value, especially in this case. Peet's started out selling coffee beans, and these days their bags of roasted coffee beans are still sold in more than 14, grocery stores nationwide. This might be why, in , they were sold to German company Joh. Peet's retained its management team and employees after the sale. The conglomerate that bought the coffee company was at the time best known for owning beauty brands like Coty and luxury goods company Labelux, which might be why some people who thought initially that Starbucks would go after Peet's when it went public, were surprised by the sale.
They must have had coffee on their mind, however, because in JAB also bought Caribou Coffee , a chain of cafes that has nearly locations globally. The original Starbucks location is an international tourist destination to this day, with lines hundreds of feet long queuing up outside the shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market.
Some guests stand outside the store for hours waiting to order a drink. But real coffee fans would do better to venture south to Berkeley, California, where the original Peet's Coffee is still in operation today.
After all, the original Peet's is what inspired the original Starbucks to begin with, and it apparently has held on to the laid back, hippie vibe that made it so famous. While the original Starbucks is more of a busy tourist destination than a functional coffee shop, the original Peet's Coffee is considered to be a staple for coffee lovers in the neighborhood to this very day.
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