I first shopped at Peet's in 1968. And shopped there weekly for years.
From NYT
Alfred H. Peet, 87, Dies; Leader of a Coffee Revolution
By CAROLYN MARSHALL
Alfred H. Peet, the son of a Dutch coffee merchant who pioneered a
revolution in roasting exotic dark beans that led to America’s love affair
with high-end coffee, died Wednesday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was
87.
The cause was cancer, several friends said. His death was announced Friday
by a representative of the company he founded, Peet’s Coffee and Tea Inc.
Mr. Peet, often called the “grandfather of specialty coffee,” started his
business in Berkeley, Calif., in 1966, with a single retail coffee bean
outlet that blossomed into a public company with 150 stores in 10 states.
He is credited with mentoring and inspiring a generation of coffee
entrepreneurs, including the founders of Starbucks.
“He was the guru of everyone in the gourmet coffee revolution,” said Corby
Kummer, author of “The Joy of Coffee” and a senior editor at The Atlantic
Monthly. “He was the big bang. It all started with him.”
The first Peet’s retail shop served as an anchor for a culinary corridor
that would later be called the Gourmet Ghetto, a quaint commercial area in
North Berkeley that gained fame with the opening of Chez Panisse, the
restaurant owned by the chef Alice Waters, and specialty food boutiques
like the Cheeseboard and Cocolat.
“Everybody was drinking coffee that came out of a can,” said Ms. Waters,
who credits Mr. Peet with introducing her to quality coffee. “But Alfred
was a purist rooted in the European tradition. He taught us a new way to
look at food, wine and coffee — paying attention to the preparation, the
ritual, and understanding how the beans and ingredients were grown.”
Mr. Peet was born in 1920 in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, where he learned
the coffee trade while cleaning machinery and running errands at his
father’s small coffee roastery. As a teenager, he moved to London and was
an apprentice at Lipton’s Tea. He later traveled to Indonesia and worked
as a tea taster, before immigrating to San Francisco in 1955.
“At the time, America had a reputation, internationally, as having coffee
that tasted like dishwater,” said Jim Reynolds, a buyer and roaster at
Peet’s since 1984 who holds the title roastmaster emeritus. “He was very
frustrated. He knew good-quality coffee existed, but no one in the states
was buying it. He looked at it as something of a crime.”
Friends and protégés described Mr. Peet as charming and witty, yet
demanding and at times, rigid. Many believe it was Mr. Peet’s encyclopedic
knowledge of coffees and teas that led to the company’s success.
“He developed an extremely fine palate, a vocabulary of taste, and he
could translate it and make it come alive,” said Jamie Anderson, founder
of Anderson’s Coffee Company in Austin, Tex., who was trained by Mr. Peet.
“His philosophy was, there should be the shortest distance possible
between the roaster and the customer.”
Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant, credited Mr. Peet with almost
single-handedly helping the American consumer appreciate the dark roast
blend.
“He got us to embrace deep, rich flavors,” Mr. Wolf said, “and so had a
huge influence on much of what we value in food and wine — yes, wine —
today.”
Starbucks owes much of its success to Mr. Peet, who trained its founders
and supplied its coffee when it first opened in 1971.
“He generously shared with us how to cup, to roast and to blend, and
instilled his uncompromising standards,” said Jerry Baldwin, a co-founder
of Starbucks. “I’ll always be in his debt.”
The original Peet’s, still thriving in Berkeley near the University of
California, was the first of four Bay Area retail shops. Despite his
influence on Starbucks, Mr. Peet choose to keep his company modest in
size, even after it went public in 2001.
Mr. Kummer, the “Joy of Coffee” author, said Mr. Peet would be remembered
for introducing Americans to high-quality dark roast coffee blends while
teaching them to appreciate varietals from every corner of the world.
“His influence cannot be underestimated,” Mr. Kummer said. “The way
Americans think about coffee and drink coffee are a direct result of his
teachings.”
Mr. Peet is survived by a sister, who lives in the Netherlands, and a
daughter and two grandchildren, who live in the Bay Area.
Kim Severson contributed reporting.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
