The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
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| The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | In 1963 in Brentwood, California |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
| Key people | Sunny Sassoon, CEO Melvin Elias, COO |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Products | Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Ice Blended |
| Revenue | ▲$130.1 million USD (2007) |
| Employees | 4,400 (2007) |
| Website | coffeebean.com |
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is a Los Angeles, California-based coffee chain, owned and operated by International Coffee & Tea, LLC. The company was founded by Mona and Herbert Hyman. It is one of the oldest and largest privately held chain of specialty coffee and tea stores. The first store opened in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood in 1963. It now has stores all around the Southwest United States and expanding to Hawaii. A franchise purchase by the Singaporean entrepreneur Victor Sassoon in 1996 opened "Coffee Beans" throughout Southeast Asia. It now has more than 400 locations in 14 countries worldwide.
Coffee Bean stores differ from other coffee chains such as Starbucks with their broad selection of tea drinks. It also popularized The Original Ice Blended drinks and Chai Lattes.
Operated by International Coffee & Tea LLC, the company had sales revenue of $120 million in 2003. It offers wi-fi access at 144 of its locations. Franchises exist mainly overseas with domestic locations largely company-owned. Countries where franchises are offered are currently: Singapore, Israel, Korea, United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Kuwait, Egypt and Sri Lanka.[1]
Several Southern California Ralphs supermarkets feature full-service Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf kiosks in their stores.
[edit] Trivia
- Most, if not all, of the products at "Coffee Bean" are certified as kosher. At least one Coffee Bean store even goes to the extent of meeting the higher standard of cholov yisroel in their dairy products.
- Unlike Starbucks, Coffee Bean has fared fairly well in its entry into the Israeli coffee chain market. This may be attributed to its kosher food selection, though the main reasoning is said to be that Coffee Bean allowed smoking.
- A rumor had spread that their products are non-halal and therefore inconsumable to Muslims. This is mainly due to that Halal and Kosher are not interchangeable. A letter from the Regional Franchise and Product Development Manager of Asia Pacific and research made regarding it however proved that their products are in fact halal.[2]
- The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was featured in the HBO show Entourage as the regular meeting place for Vincent Chase and his associates.
- The Coffee Bean was repeatedly featured on Jamie Kennedy´s MTV show Blowin' Up as his favorite hangout place.
- The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was featured in the 2005 film version of the TV show Bewitched.
- In two of Ashley Tisdale's Youtube videos, she mentions The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. One video, she is seen drinking it. In a video of her on tour, she is going to Starbucks and says that she is "cheating on The Coffee Bean".
- The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was featured in the film The Holiday, where the drink held by Jack Black is the famous "Ice Blended", recognizable for the purple straw and the logo on the cup.
- Some promotional pictures of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were taken for the fifth season of The Simple Life within The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
