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History of Coffee: Part V - Speciality Coffee
by: James Grierson With the large multi-national coffee companies focused purely on coffee as
a commodity rather then a drink to be savoured, it allowed a new sector to
emerge in the coffee industry: Speciality Coffee. Speciality coffee was nothing
new, rather the opposite; it stripped coffee making back down to the grass
roots: pure arabica beans, roasted long enough for the coffee to fully develop
all its characteristics and flavours. During the ‘Dark Age’ of coffee there was still excellent
coffee available, if you knew where to look for it. A number of small cafes and
shops continued to trade, sourcing and roasting high quality arabica beans.
These outlets were typically run and frequented by immigrants (usually Arabs,
Turks, Greeks and Italians), far from the mainstream. All this began to change in the 1960s, with the post World War II
‘Baby Boomers’ coming into adulthood. Many of this generation were
keen not to follow in their parents footsteps, preferring to act in a more
bohemian way. For them, these cafes and shops were an ideal place to meet, read
poetry, take drugs and experience alternative culture. One such coffee shop in Berkeley (California) is widely credited as being
the main inspiration on the emergence of the speciality coffee sector.
Peet’s Coffee & Tea store, opened in 1966 by Alfred Peet (dubbed the
‘grandfather of speciality coffee’), enthused a number of its
customers, who later became key players in the speciality sector. Peet, an
immigrant from Alkmaar (Holland), had developed a distinctive style of roasting
coffee from working in his family’s coffee and tea business. After
emigrating to California, aged thirty-five, he opened his shop employing his
artisan coffee roasting techniques to build a loyal customer base. Peet’s
coffee was so loved that he even had his own set of groupies: the
‘Peetniks’. Two of Peet’s most important customers (historically) were a couple
of Seattle coffee lovers named Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker. In 1971, after
tasting Peet’s fine brews, they were inspired to open their own coffee
shop back in Seattle called Starbucks. Starbucks opened as a bean-only-store,
steadily building a loyal customer base during the 70s and early 80s through its
fine arabicas and darker roasts. In 1984, the director of retail operations and marketing, Howard Schultz,
tried to persuade Baldwin and Bowker to open the first Starbucks coffeehouse.
Schultz had just returned from a trip to Milan, where he had noticed the
existence of coffeehouses on almost every block. These were not just places to
enjoy great espresso coffee, but also served as meeting places. Schultz was keen
to recreate this kind of coffeehouse in America, but Baldwin and Bowker rejected
Schultz’s plans as they were unwilling to get into the restaurant
business. Undeterred, Schultz left Starbucks in 1985 to open his own coffeehouse,
‘Il Giornale’. Still using Starbucks coffee beans to make espresso
drinks, Il Giornale proved extremely popular with the Seattle public. So popular
in fact() that, in 1987, Schultz was able to buy Starbucks from Bowker and
Schultz. Changing Il Giornale’s name to Starbucks, Schultz began to
rapidly expand, opening over 1,000 stores in a decade. The story of the first British speciality coffeehouse also involves Alfred
Peet. In 1995, Scott and Ally Svenson wanted to open a coffeehouse in Covent
Garden, London. Their background was in marketing and design and, even though
they were originally from Seattle, they did not know much about coffee. This is
why they approached Steven Macatonia and Jeremy Torz of Union Coffee Roasters.
Steven and Jeremy had fallen in love with coffee while working at Peet’s
in California. On their return home they decided to open their own roasting
outlet and were soon supplying places such as the River Café, the Caprice,
and the Ivy. The Covent Garden coffeehouse, named the Seattle Coffee Company, was
another big success and inevitably expansion soon followed. The rapid growth of
the company caused increasing demand on Union Coffee Roasters, so the two
companies decided to merge together. In 1998, after opening over 60 outlets
throughout the UK, Starbucks came knocking at their door. They saw the
acquisition of the Seattle Coffee Company as an ideal way to enter the UK
market. Soon the Seattle Coffee Company was no more, with all its stores
re-branded as Starbucks. The popularity of coffeehouses has been phenomenal. Almost every high
street in Britain has a least one coffeehouse now. Words such as espresso,
cappuccino and café latte are commonplace. In fact the price of a café
latte is now one of the products that the British government use to measure
inflation. Market analysers believe that the success of the coffeehouse is not
solely due to the coffee they serve, but the atmosphere in which it is served.
Coffeehouses in Britain in the 1990s were a break from convention. In the
consumerist landscape of the high-street, coffeehouses represented a place to
relax. Customers were encouraged to take their time over their coffee; sit on
big comfy sofas; offered the daily newspapers to read; allowed to idle the
afternoon away watching the world go by. In other words, coffeehouses had
returned to playing their original role in society, as they had done when they
first arrived in Britain back in 17th Century. The growth of these coffeehouses has helped to heighten the
public’s awareness of the speciality coffee sector. Increasingly,
individuals are looking to have a slice of the coffeehouse in their own home,
investing in espresso makers and other coffee accessories. Coffee is now widely
available from a multitude of origins, roasted to differing degrees and ground
to your requirement. In short, the ‘Dark Age’ of coffee is well and
truly over.
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doc thanks Jonathan Leger txt
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