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, he decided to roast his own coffee and sell it in his store, using money he had inherited when his father died.
In 1966 he invested in a roaster and decided to open his own shop selling coffee beans and loose tea at 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.
When he opened the door to his new shop, in Berkeley, he letting the rich scent of roasting coffee beans waft out to the sidewalk.
Some couldn’t resist. They came in to taste a cup of whatever was being offered.
His shop became a gathering place for coffee connoisseurs’, his business was frequented by University of California-Berkeley, faculty, students, intellectuals and writers.
Throughout his history, Peet’s stores have been the hub of the business. This is where most people discover Peet’s unique coffee and tea products for the first time.
Because Peet sold his coffee with passionate authority, he female customers began to take it home and bring their husbands back the next weekend.
Peet’s retail stores serve a great cup of coffee, but the company mission to roast and sell ‘the best coffee beans on the planet’. As with the more solid food of California Cuisine, freshness is paramount. Peet’s orders beans for roasting up to five times a week, and coffee not sold within two weeks is donated to local charities.
Peet retired in 1983.
Peet’s also sells coffee and tea through hand delivery which over time has become a significant part of its business.
In 2001, Peet’s became a public company trading in the NASDAQ.
Peet's Coffee & Tea