just received word from richard reynolds of the passing of alfred peet (peet's coffee founder).

article with photos here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/art...9/01/BUEIRTFAV.DTL

wikipedia entry here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Peet

memorial site (post or read comments)here:

http://peets.typepad.com/



ideor "who purchased his first specialty coffee at the flagship store in 1970"



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I met Peet a few times, back in the day. It was around the time he was setting up the factory near Jack London Square and I was associated with the Berkeley Food Conspiracy. Nice guy. Really nice.

Somehow he, managed to hit the Maillard reaction and/or Strecker degradation just right -- without burning the outside of the coffee or leaving the center of the bean raw. Imagine Starbucks' "signature" roast tasting good. What an artist. Imitators, even his students, never managed to get it quite right. Take Starbucks. Please.

Rich

boar_d_laze wrote:I met Peet a few times, back in the day. It was around the time he was setting up the factory near Jack London Square and I was associated with the Berkeley Food Conspiracy. Nice guy. Really nice.

My first wife and I were members. Continued in Ithaca after that.

My claim to infamy is that we lived on Euclid, a couple of blocks from the original Peet's for two years (1969-71) and never once went into Alfred's shop. We didn't have a grinder, and I was mostly drinking espresso in the many coffee houses around campus. But we were regulars at the Cheeseboard and Pig by the Tail charcuterie, where our foodie adventures began.