There are few cities as pop culturally significant as Seattle. Known as the birthplace of grunge music and good coffee, the Emerald City holds a special place in the hearts of many, whether they know it or not. In fact, Seattle is so utterly defined by its association with coffee that there’s even a Coffee Crawl tour folks can take.
Starting at Pike Place Market and meandering through downtown Seattle, the Coffee Crawl tour stops at six different coffee houses, allowing the participants to sample four sets of coffee and learn about the history of coffee in Seattle. Among the stops are Seattle’s Best Coffee, Seattle Coffee Works, Monorail Espresso, Dilettante Mocha Cafe, Trabant Coffee and Chai, and Zeitgeist Coffee. Nope, no Starbucks.
Coffee in the U.S., as a whole, goes back to the 1600s when it’s believed that John Smith brought it over. In 1867, caffeine buzzed Seattle when an African-American pioneer from Oregon set up shop with Monet’s Seattle Restaurant and Coffee Saloon.
Some 100 years later, in 1970, Seattle’s Best Coffee opened on Pier 70 with a used peanut roaster to roast the beans. Interestingly enough, Seattle’s Best was first an ice cream and coffee shop on Whidbey Island called Wet Whisker. After a few evolutions, the venture became Stewart Brothers Coffee (in 1983) and, eventually, Seattle’s Best Coffee (in 1991) after a victory in a local competition.
A year after Wet Whisker started roasting beans, Starbucks opened at Pike Place Market, about a block south of the “original” Starbucks location that is still in operation today. The founders were inspired by Alfred Peet who was roasting his own in Berkeley, providing high-quality, small-batch coffee beans and related equipment.
An entrepreneur by the name of Howard Schultz joined the Starbucks team in 1982, but failed to convince the owners that selling coffee drinks, in addition to the beans, was a good idea. He splintered off and formed Il Giornale, convinced there was a market for his products. A couple of years later, the Starbucks founders bought Peet’s and, subsequently, sold Starbucks to Schultz who tucked his Il Giornale brand under the Starbucks umbrella and hit the ground running.
The result, as everyone knows, is a Starbucks on every corner, or close to it. Since then, the company has gone international and gone public, both with astonishing success. In 2003, Starbucks even welcomed Seattle’s Best into its fold. Now, Peet’s is rumored to be in merger talks with the coffee behemoth.
For the 30 years before their joining, the two companies – along with other artisanal shops – built a coffee culture that, though anchored in Seattle, spread far and wide. Starbucks, in particular, has become so thoroughly iconic that it rivals massive brands such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, both of which have far longer histories and ties to the American psyche behind them.
So, while Seattle has much to crow about – from Amazon to Microsoft – the city will long be fondly remembered for giving us “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Venti Caramel Macchiatos.