Counter Culture Coffee
Boutique roaster with twelve training centers nationwide.
Counter Culture Coffee is a Durham, North Carolina–based coffee roasting company founded in 1995. It operates regional training centers in twelve U.S. cities, including Asheville, Atlanta, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Dallas, Durham, Emeryville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Washington, D.C. These centers provide education on coffee preparation and serve as classrooms and event spaces, open to anyone interested in coffee production. The company is regarded as a boutique roaster, buying primarily from small producers at prices between $1.30 and $25 a pound.
Quick Facts
- Founded
- 1995
- Headquarters
- Durham, North Carolina
- Industry
- Retail coffee
- Key people
- Fred Houk (Founder)
- Brett Smith (Founder and President)
- Joseph Prewett (CEO)
- Products
- Coffee beans
- Coffee drinks
- Educational programs
Facts from the source article.
Company history
Counter Culture Coffee started roasting coffee in Durham in 1995, founded by Brett Smith and Fred Houk. Their focus was creating custom coffee blends for some of Durham and Chapel Hill's southern restaurants. They sold their first coffee to Pop's Restaurant in Durham in 1995. The company expanded its operations to areas along the East Coast and diversified its line of products and services, offering seasonal coffee selections and educational programs that focus on sustainability and the coffee brewing process.
Sustainability
Counter Culture Coffee directly collaborates with artisans who grow the coffee, and their partnership with farmers is a basis for their sustainable coffee model, which involves working with progressive and environmentally sensitive farms. In 2008, they launched a third-party Counter Culture Direct Trade Certification, establishing direct trade standards for sustainability, quality, and fairness in the coffee chain. Additional initiatives include their Sustaining Educational and Environmental Development at a Source (SEEDS) program and the company's Sustainability Scorecard. The SEEDS initiative aims to support sustainability and education on the origins of the products, while the Sustainability Scorecard measures the impact of the company's efforts toward building a more sustainable supply chain.
More in Coffeehouses and Cafés in the United States
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced