While waiting for my food at a local bakery today I picked up a bag of Peet's Major Dickason Blend. The description on the bag of a "bold, full-bodied, complex, rich and smooth" coffee, though admittedly ambiguous, did sound enticing. In fact, it sounded like it had the makings of a romance novel hunk. My interest aroused, I proceeded to turn the bag over in pursuit of more information on this seductively inviting coffee.


What I saw there amazed me.


Brazenly exhibited for the whole world to see were the four most astonishing words these eyes have ever seen on a bag of coffee: "Fresh for 90 days"


Incredible. It seems that Peet's has not only discovered how to create a time warp, but they've also devised a method to put one in each bag of their culminatively fresh coffee. This is quite possible the biggest break-though in coffee technology since the invention of the espresso machine.


So, even if the lusty description didn't turn you on, you simply must buy a bag of Peet's coffee just to experience the utter anomaly that is contained in each bag.

I bet it's not Peet's fault per se, but the minimum shelf life their wholesale buyers were willing to accept. For example, Peter Giuliano at Counter Culture told me about working with the local Whole Foods buyer and their requirement that products have a shelf life of 90 days. After lots of negotiating, Whole Foods' buyer reluctantly agreed to 60 days.

Moral of the story? As long as shoppers are willing to buy [what we consider] past prime coffee, there will be a retailer willing to sell it to them.

I'll take 60 day old Counter Culture coffee over day old Maxwell House any day.

I'll 2nd that.

I love it . Makes my friends admire my fresh homeroasts so much more. They tell me they have tried many of the best Roasters at places like whole foods and how much nicer my coffee is. They wonder how I do it ?

Well, you could start putting 90-day stickers on the bags of coffee that you give to them .

-s.

romanleal wrote:So, even if the lusty description didn't turn you on, you simply must buy a bag of Peet's coffee just to experience the utter anomaly that is contained in each bag.

What Dan Kehn said.

If you want fresh Peet's, order direct from the Internet like a true Peetnik, not from a supermarket or bakery. Peet's has an excellent freshness policy for direct delivery to consumers.

For a little history, Major Dickason is Peet's signature blend, going back to Alfred Peet's original shop in Berkeley in the late 60's. "The Major" was one of his regular customers. Considering everything that sprang out of that shop, it would be fair to say the Major Dickason Blend was one of the landmarks in the "2nd wave" artisan coffee revival.

Just to echo what Marshall said above, Peet's Coffee & Tea all but launched the small specialty coffee roaster that we know today. Alfred Peet (see this for more information) started his roasting business in 1966 and built up a strong loyal following in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not least was Judge Lance Ito, who became "hooked" on Peet's while a student at UC Berkeley, and had the beans shipped to him in LA. When he presided over the O.J. Simpson trial, he was often seen on camera with a Peet's logo mug in his hand . . .

For whatever it's worth:

Wikipedia wrote:Peet's was the original inspiration for now-rival Starbucks. The three founders of Starbucks knew Alfred Peet personally, founded Starbucks in Seattle, Washington, as kindred spirits, and bought the coffee beans for Starbucks directly from Peet's during their first year of business in 1971. Peet sold his business in 1979 but stayed on as a coffee buyer until 1983. In 1984 Jerry Baldwin, one of the original founders of Starbucks and Alfred Peet's former partner, and co-owner Jim Reynolds, the roastmaster, with a group of investors bought Peet's' four Bay Area locations. In 1987, Baldwin and Peet's owners sold the Starbucks chain to focus on Peet's, and Baldwin and Howard Schultz, Starbucks' new owner, entered into a no-compete agreement in the Bay Area.

(Clearly that didn't last long.)

Peet's does ship the day after roast. That's the way to go . . .

Cheers,
Jason

Follow on topic split to Anyone here drink Peet's Espresso Forte?