Industry Coffee Website bluebottlecoffee.com Founded 2002 Type of business Private | Products Coffee Founder James Freeman CEO James Freeman (2010–) | |
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Headquarters Oakland, California, United States Profiles | ||
Season 2 episode 4 james freeman founder of blue bottle coffee company
Blue Bottle Coffee Company is a coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in Oakland, California, United States. It is considered a major player in third wave coffee. The company focuses on single-origin beans. They are notable for their dedication to coffee preparation, as expressed in their extensive brewing guides. The CEO & founder of the company is James Freeman.
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Locations
The company while based in Oakland, California soon expanded to other areas around the country. Blue Bottle first expanded to several cafés in locations around San Francisco, including the Ferry Building and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's rooftop garden.
Blue Bottle Coffee Company continued to grow and is now located in 7 different cities around the world. Those cities are Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, New York City, and Tokyo.
History
W. James Freeman founded Blue Bottle Coffee in the early 2000s in Oakland, CA, borrowing the name from one of Europe's first cafes, The Blue Bottle Coffee House. His intention was to roast coffee in small batches (6 lb.s per roast) to sell within 24 hours of roasting, initially as a home-delivery service. Blue Bottle soon ceased deliveries, and opened as a traditional cafe.
Blue Bottle opened additional locations in San Francisco and elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, and then opened its first New York location in 2010. The company-owned stores carry off-menu items such as the "Gibraltar", a form of cortado. San Francisco-based contemporaries include Four Barrel Coffee and Ritual Coffee Roasters, among others. In 2012, Blue Bottle followed in the footsteps of previously independent roasters like Stumptown Coffee by taking $20 million in venture capital investment.
In 2015, Blue Bottle completed a venture capital round in which it raised $70 million+ from investors led by Fidelity.
Blue Bottle will begin offering pre-ground beans for sale in 2016.
Blue Bottle locations have no wifi and no power outlets to encourage guests to talk to each other.