Alfred Peet

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Alfred Peet

Born March 10, 1920(1920-03-10)
Flag of the Netherlands Alkmaar, Netherlands
Died August 29, 2007 (aged 87)
Ashland, Oregon, U.S.
Occupation Founder, Peet's Coffee & Tea

Alfred H. Peet (March 10, 1920 – August 29, 2007) was a Dutch-American entrepreneur and the founder of Peet's Coffee & Tea. He is most famous for introducing custom coffee roasting to the United States.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Peet was born in Alkmaar, Netherlands, where his father ran a small coffee roastery before World War II.[1] After the war, Peet left London, where he had apprenticed with a coffee and tea company, and worked as a tea taster in the Dutch East Indies and New Zealand before immigrating to San Francisco in 1955, where he worked in the coffee importing industry.[2][3]

[edit] Coffee roaster

After becoming dismayed at the poor quality of coffee in the United States, he opened his own coffee store in Berkeley, California, in 1966, and soon opened new stores in Oakland and Menlo Park.

Peet taught his style of roasting beans to Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker, who took the technique to Seattle and founded Starbucks in 1971. Peet is widely credited with starting the specialty coffee revolution in the US. Among coffee historians, Peet is labeled as "the Dutchman who taught America how to drink coffee."[4]

Peet sold the business in 1979, but remained a coffee buyer until 1983.[5]

[edit] Retirement

After retiring from the coffee business, Peet moved in 2001 to Ashland, Oregon, where he died in August of 2007.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Coffee pioneer Peet dies. Central Valley Business Times (31August 2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
  2. ^ Murphy, Pat. "The passing of Al Peet—the founder of Peet's Coffee", San Francisco Sentinel, August 31, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. 
  3. ^ Stiles, Greg. "Peet now calls Medford his home", Mail-Tribune, June 1 2003. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. 
  4. ^ "Nederlander leerde Amerika koffie drinken", Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, 4 Sept 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-04. 
  5. ^ George Raine. "Coffee pioneer Alfred Peet dies", San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-01. 
  6. ^ "Founder of Peet's Coffee dies at home in Ashland", The Oregonian, 31 August 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. 

[edit] External links

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