Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

is regarded as a world center for

coffee roasting Roasting coffee transforms the chemical and physical properties of green coffee beans into roasted coffee products. The roasting process is what produces the characteristic flavor of coffee by causing the green coffee beans to change in taste. ...

and coffee supply chain management. Related to this, many of the city's inhabitants are

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

enthusiasts; the city is known for its prominent

coffee culture Coffee culture is the set of traditions and social behaviors that surround the consumption of coffee, particularly as a social lubricant. The term also refers to the cultural diffusion and adoption of coffee as a widely consumed stimulant. In the ...

and numerous coffeehouses.

Coffee consumption and culture

People in Seattle consume more coffee than in any other American city; one study stated that there are 35 coffee shops per 100,000 residents and that Seattle people spend an average of $36 a month on coffee. It is nearly impossible to walk past a single block in a

commercial area Commercial areas in a city are areas, districts, or neighborhoods primarily composed of commercial buildings, such as a strip mall, office parks, downtown, central business district, financial district, " Main Street", or shopping centers. C ...

in Seattle without walking past at least one coffee shop. Coffee drinkers can get coffee at a local sidewalk stand, parking lot, tiny coffee houses, big coffee houses, drive-through, and even delivery. Several Seattle Ethiopian restaurants carry forward one or another degree of Ethiopian coffee tradition, which includes doing their own roasting. These include the Jebena Cafe in Pinehurst, Kaffa Coffee & Wine Bar in the Rainier Valley, and Adey Abeba in the Central District. In the early 2000s in Seattle a coffee concept called the

bikini barista A bikini barista is a woman who works as a barista, preparing and serving coffee beverages, while dressed in scanty attire such as a bikini, lingerie or a crop top combined with bikini bottoms or hotpants. In the United States, this marketing tec ...

began to be implemented by various marketers throughout the area. Coffee distribution in this business model utilizes baristas wearing little clothing to prepare and serve the coffee.

Roasters

Sign Seattle Coffee Works Pike Street Seattle Washington

Numerous coffee roasting companies are headquartered in Seattle, including: * Anchorhead Coffee * Conduit Coffee Roasters * Fonté Coffee Roasters * River Trail Roasters * Caffè Umbria *

Torrefazione Italia Torrefazione Italia is a high-end brand of Starbucks coffee beans sold in grocery stores. It started out as its own coffeehouse chain before being acquired by Starbucks in 2003. History The first Torrefazione Italia café opened in Seattle, Wa ...

* Fremont Coffee Company * Herkimer Coffee * Kuma Coffee * Caffe Appassionato * Caffe Ladro * Top Pot Coffee Roasters * Victrola Coffee Roasters * Lighthouse Roaster, * Zoka Coffee Roaster and Tea Company Storyville Coffee also operates within the Seattle metropolitan area.

Starbucks

Starbucks is Seattle's largest coffee retailer. It was founded in 1971 in

Pike Place Market Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Pug ...

as a roaster, but only later became an espresso bar. In 1984 ownership of the company changed and

Howard Schultz Howard D. Schultz (born July 19, 1953) is an American businessman and author who served as both chairman and CEO of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and as interim CEO since 2022. Schultz also owned the Seattle SuperSonics baske ...

led a massive international expansion of the company. In 2003, Starbucks acquired pioneering Seattle roaster Seattle's Best Coffee (SBC, originally Stewart Brothers' Coffee).

Tully's Coffee

Tully's Coffee Tully's Coffee is an American specialty coffee manufacturing brand owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, which acquired the Tully's brand and wholesale business in 2009. At the time of the Keurig wholesale acquisition, the "Tully's" name and retail-store r ...

was at one time Seattle's second-largest coffee retailer. As of March 2018 there no longer are any Tully’s retail locations in the United States. Tom Tully O'Keefe founded the chain in Kent, Washington in 1992 to rival the expansion of Starbucks with an alternative business model.

Caffé Vita Coffee Roasting Company

Caffé Vita Coffee Roasting Company Caffè Vita Coffee Roasting Company, commonly known as Caffè Vita, is an American coffee roasting company based in Seattle, Washington. Part of the third wave of coffee movement, it has been named one of 10 places offering "the best coffee in Ame ...

was founded in 1995 to produce excellent artisan coffee and to implement an ethical model for coffee production which bypassed the fair trade business model and sourced coffee beans directly from the farmers producing it.

Espresso Vivace

Espresso Vivace is a set of coffeehouses and a roaster. Founded in 1988Shannon Borg
Seattle Coffee Guide: Locally Roasted Beans
Seattle Magazine, October 2010. Accessed 2015-10-23. by a Boeing engineer, the coffee is produced to exacting specifications to match the owner's taste and the taste of patrons who prefer this different blend.

Stumptown

Portland-based

Stumptown Coffee Roasters Stumptown Coffee Roasters is a coffee roaster and retailer based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The chain's flagship café and roastery opened in 1999. Three other cafes, a roastery and a tasting annex have since opened in Portland, as well ...

opened a roasting facility in Seattle in 2010. On October 6, 2015, it was announced that San Francisco-based

Peet's Coffee Peet's Coffee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer owned by JAB Holding Company via JDE Peet's. Founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet in Berkeley, California, Peet's introduced the United States to its darker roasted ...

(a division of

JAB Holding Company JAB Holding Company ("JAB" or Joh. A. Benckiser) is a German conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of consumer goods, forestry, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast foo ...

of Germany, since 2012) would acquire Stumptown.

Coffeehouses

Seattle coffeehouse culture includes chains, such as Starbucks, Tully's Coffee and Seattle's Best Coffee, alongside many independently owned coffee shops. Independently owned coffee shops include: *

Boon Boona Coffee Boon Boona Coffee is a Black-owned coffee roaster and coffeehouse with two locations in the U.S. state of Washington. History The business was founded by owner Efrem Fesaha in 2012. According to ''Eater Seattle'', "As Fesaha developed the roas ...

* Café Allegro * Caffé D’arte * Caffè Umbria * Caffé Vita *

Cherry Street Coffee House Cherry Street Coffee House is a chain of Coffeehouse, coffeehouses in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. History The business was founded by co-owner Ali Ghambari. By April 2011, the business had five locations, and it had ...

* Drinkmore Cafe * Espresso Vivace * Ghost Alley Espresso * Hello Em * Kaladi Brothers Coffee * Monorail Espresso * Overcast Coffee Company *

Pegasus Coffee Company Pegasus Coffee Company (also known as Pegasus Coffee House) is a coffee company operating in Bainbridge Island and Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. The business has operated Pegasus Coffee Bar on 3rd Avenue, in the lobby of the Dexter Ho ...

Top Pot Doughnuts Top Pot Doughnuts is a chain of coffee and doughnut cafes started in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Top Pot began in February 2002 and was started by brothers Mark and Michael Klebeck. Locations , Top Pot has 18 cafe loca ...

* Elm Coffee Roasters * Slate Coffee * Victrola * Zeitgeist Coffee * Zoka Coffee

Café Allegro

Café Allegro is a coffeeshop in University District. Its founder worked with Starbucks roasters to develop the original Starbucks espresso roast, which is darker than most other roasts but still lighter than the darkest roast. That espresso roast remains the standard Starbucks espresso offering, but it was developed for Café Allegro.

Last Exit on Brooklyn

The Last Exit on Brooklyn was a coffee house which opened in 1967 and closed in 2000. It was a gathering place for high-level chess players and intellectuals, and the proprietor worked to "create a haven where students and the benign crazies" were welcome and where "everyone felt equal and there were no sacred cows".

Top Pot Doughnuts

was founded in 2002 on Capitol Hill as a pastry bakery which also roasts and sells coffee. It has since expanded to locations across the Puget Sound region and

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Bauhaus Coffee and Books

A precursor to Top Pot Doughnuts; Bauhaus Strong Coffee was founded on October 5, 1993, and is notable for an unusual coffeehouse space design, which the Top Pot Doughnuts co-founders later applied to its design. While the original location closed on October 5, 2013, a new Capitol Hill location later opened that year, following two new locations in Ballard and Green Lake. All three were closed abruptly on December 13, 2015. Owner Joel Radin filed bankruptcy in February 2017.

Coffee technology

In 2007 the

Coffee Equipment Company Coffee Equipment Company was a Seattle-based manufacturer of coffee equipment. The company focused on producing equipment that creates high-quality brewed coffee. It was purchased in 2008 by Starbucks. The company's first product was the Clover 1 ...

released a product called the Clover, which was a machine which brewed coffee one cup at a time. The company was acquired by Starbucks who now produces the Clover.

Coffee events

''Coffee: World in your Cup'' is the name of an exhibition and community series which premiered in Seattle through most of 2009 at the

Burke Museum The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (Burke Museum) is a natural history museum in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, it traces its origins to a high school naturalist club fo ...

. The exhibition includes displays of equipment at the museum and a lecture series with talks in various locations wherein experts talk about aspects of the coffee industry. The

World Barista Championship The World Barista Championship (WBC) is an annual barista competition operated by World Coffee Events for the title of World Barista Champion. The competition is composed of the winners of the national barista championships, which are operated by ...

was held in Seattle in April 2015. The competition, and its winner Sasa Sestic, were the subject of a documentary film ''The Coffee Man''.

Seattle coffee in popular culture

In the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

series ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...

'', the characters are often seen drinking coffee at the fictional Café Nervosa, which is said to have been inspired by the real-life Elliott Bay Café.

References

External links

* {{Coffee in Seattle

Culture of Seattle Tourist attractions in Seattle