Alfred Peet had grown up working in his family’s coffee business in the Netherlands. Later he learned the tea trade in Indonesia. By the time he landed in California, he knew the best way to roast and brew both beverages.
After several years of living and working in the United States, in 1966 he invested in a roaster and decided to open his own shop selling coffee beans and loose tea t Walnut and Vine Streets in California.
Peet bought premium coffee beans and roasted them the same way they did in the old century, and this the gourmet coffee movement in the United States was quietly born.
The used of superior quality coffee beans and hand roasted them, gave the coffee its top quality flavor.
When customers came onto his Berkeley shop, Peet would offer them a fragrant cup of coffee while they waited for beans to be freshly roasted.
He chose Berkeley, where a collection of European-style shops and bistros serving fresh cheeses and breads, along with other gourmet delicacies, was beginning to gain popularity with consumers.
His shop became a gathering place for coffee connoisseurs’, his business was frequented by University of California-Berkeley, faculty, students, intellectuals and writers.
Peet retired in 1983.
By 2009, Peet’s operate 111 retail stores in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington.
In 2001, Peet’s became a public company trading in the NASDAQ.
The History of Peet's Coffee & Tea
