cgod, any thoughts on this? Coffee seems to be going through a similar path of beer. Get big enough to get bought out by a multi-national player, or be a micro roaster/cafe that has no plans to expand at as fast a rate as the Blue Bottles and Intelligentsia's of the world. I'm surprised that JAB didn't buy, it looks like Nestle is trying to compete with JAB in the US market.
ooh. there goes blue bottle. FWIW, I never really was a fan of their single origins. Always roasted a touch too light in my opinion. Blends were better; Three Africas is my favorite of theirs. Gonna continue to support relatively local roasters like Verve, which has never let me down. Actually, now that I think about it, Peet's coffee itself got better after buying Intelligentsia and Stumptown...
It's possible except everything goes into blends. We get some really nice coffee that would be passable as a third wave shop (even through the roast profile) but then it goes into a blend with other coffees. It's a bummer. Have you noticed any changes with Stumptown since Peets bought them?
I noticed a change in Stumptown about ten years ago, when they started selling as much coffee as people would order. For a long time they limited the number accounts they would have to keep quality up but then they decided to make some money. I can't say I've drank much Stumptown since the Peets sale but their coffee has been pretty unexciting for years. The one great cafe I knew that still carried them dropped them after a decade. Blends mostly suck.