Seattle's Best Coffee facts for kids
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| Subsidiary | |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Products | Coffee |
| Owners | |
| Parent | Nestlé |
Seattle's Best Coffee is a company that sells coffee. It is part of a bigger company called Nestlé. You can find their coffee as ground coffee or in small pods called K-cups for coffee machines. This brand used to have coffee shops in the United States. Now, they mostly sell their coffee in stores. Some of their old coffee shops even became Starbucks stores!
Seattle's Best Coffee is usually a bit cheaper than Starbucks. It is often seen as a coffee for everyday people. Starbucks, on the other hand, is known as a more fancy brand.
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How Seattle's Best Coffee Started
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Seattle's Best Coffee began in 1969. It started as a small shop called the Wet Whisker. This shop sold both ice cream and coffee. It was located in Coupeville, on Whidbey Island. This island is northwest of Seattle.
The founder, Jim Stewart, bought raw coffee beans. He would then roast them himself. These fresh beans were sold at the Wet Whisker shop. By the end of the second summer, they had roasted and sold almost 500 pounds of coffee!
A year later, Jim and his brother Dave opened a new shop. It was also an ice cream and coffee store. This new shop was on Pier 70 in Seattle. They called it Stewart Brothers Wet Whisker. In 1982, they started serving espresso drinks too.
Changing Names and Growing
In 1983, the company changed its name again. It became Stewart Brothers Coffee. Soon after, the business started to grow. New coffee shops opened in Bellevue, Washington. A year later, another shop opened at Seattle's famous Pike Place Market. In 1991, the company changed its name one last time. It became "Seattle's Best Coffee." This new name came after they won a local coffee competition.
Around 1995, a group of investors bought the company. They also owned another coffee company called Torrefazione Italia. They combined the two companies. The new company was named Seattle Coffee Holdings. In 1997, Seattle Coffee Holdings changed its name to Seattle Coffee Company.
In 1998, a company called AFC Enterprises bought Seattle Coffee Company. They started letting other businesses open Seattle's Best Coffee shops. This is called franchising. During this time, the coffee roasting factory on Vashon Island was improved. The company also started selling organic coffee.
New Owners for Seattle's Best
In July 2003, AFC Enterprises sold Seattle's Best Coffee to Starbucks. However, AFC Enterprises kept the right to open Seattle's Best shops in some countries, Hawaii, and U.S. military bases.
After Starbucks bought the company, they closed the Vashon Island factory. This happened on October 23, 2003. Coffee production moved to Starbucks' own factory in Kent, Washington. The old Vashon Island factory building was later bought by someone else. It reopened as "The Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie." It still uses Jim Stewart's original coffee roaster from 1952.
On October 18, 2022, Starbucks sold Seattle's Best Coffee to Nestlé.
Where You Can Find Seattle's Best Coffee
Seattle's Best Coffee has partnered with many different businesses. This helps them sell their coffee in more places.
The Borders bookstore chain started selling Seattle's Best Coffee in their cafes in 2004. Most Borders stores had changed to Seattle's Best cafes by 2006. (Borders bookstores later closed down.)
You can also find Seattle's Best Coffee cafes in larger JCPenney department stores. This partnership started in the late 1990s.
On cruise ships, Seattle's Best Coffee is very popular. All 21 ships in the Royal Caribbean International fleet have "Latte-Tudes" or "Cafe Promenade" shops. These shops serve Seattle's Best Coffee. Many free coffee items on the ships are also from Seattle's Best. Some bigger Royal Caribbean ships also have Starbucks, but Seattle's Best is usually included in the cruise price.
In 2010, Burger King announced they would add Seattle's Best Coffee to their menu. You could find it in over 7,000 Burger King restaurants.
Also in 2010, Starbucks changed the look of Seattle's Best Coffee. They gave it a new logo. They planned to sell Seattle's Best Coffee in 30,000 locations. This was a big jump from 3,000 locations. The new logo was very simple. Some people thought it looked like a label for eye-drops or a gas station sign.
In 2011, Delta Air Lines started serving Seattle's Best Coffee on all their flights. This included flights within the U.S. and international flights. However, by 2015, Delta switched to serving Starbucks coffee instead.
The Swedish fast food chain Max Hamburgers stopped selling Seattle's Best Coffee in November 2019.
See also
- List of coffeehouse chains
