Industry Coffee Products Coffee Headquarters Philadelphia Founded 1994 | Key people Hamdi Ulukaya Website www.lacolombe.com Founder Todd Carmichael Type of business Private | |
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La Colombe Coffee Roasters (originally La Colombe Torrefaction) is a US coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in Philadelphia. The company currently has cafés in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Boston, and Chicago. La Colombe is representative of roasters that originated in the third wave of coffee, and was one of the early pioneers of direct trade coffee sourcing.
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History
La Colombe was founded by Todd Carmichael and JP Iberti in 1994, with its first location near Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. In 2015, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya purchased a share of the company. Ulukaya bought out private equity firm Goode Partners to gain his stake, and helped the company raise $28.5 million to help fund plans for expansion.
La Colombe was one of several other small-scale coffee roasters that either received large investments or were acquired outright in 2015. In 2017, the company plans to continue its expansion and open new cafes in cities with existing locations, such as Washington, D.C., as well as in new cities, including Boston, Miami Beach, and Los Angeles, with the goal of approximately one hundred locations nationwide within the next three to four years.
Products
In 2016, the company began offering a canned version of the Draft Latte, a cold-pressed espresso and frothed milk latte first offered on tap in their cafes. The beverages are available for purchase at select retailers throughout the United States, as well as at all La Colombe cafes. The cans for the latte were designed by La Colombe CEO Todd Carmichael, and produced by Philadelphia-based Crown Holdings.
Other products include Different Drum, a coffee-infused rum, produced on a micro-distillery located in its Fishtown, Philadelphia cafe, and a line of La Colombe single origin and blended roasted coffees, which are available for purchase in retail stores or via the company's web site.
Haiti Coffee Academy
In 2013, La Colombe worked with the Clinton Foundation to found The Haiti Coffee Academy. The organization aims to improve coffee growers’ livelihoods in Haiti through training programs for smallholder farmers, a demonstration farm and nursery, and efforts to strengthen the supply chain for both local and export markets.
Other Collborations
La Colombe collaborated with Yards Brewing Company, another Philadelphia-area company, in 2016 to produce a coffee stout to be served in local Shake Shack branches.
The company collaborated in 2016 with the Icelandic brewer Einstök and again with Yards on Snorri's Awakening, a coffee pale ale.