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Starbucks Wins Luxist Awards Readers' Choice Award for Best Coffeehouse

Filed under: Dining

Starbucks wins readers' choice award for best coffee house

Starbucks is the winner of the Luxist Awards Readers' Choice Awards for Best Coffeehouse.

Unless you've been living under a pile of Sumatra beans for the past few decades, you've probably visited one of Starbucks' 16,000-plus locations. If so, you're one of the millions of customers who pass through the company's doors every day.

It's taken Starbucks nearly half a century to achieve its current success. The company's origins date back to 1971, when its first store was established in Seattle's Pike Place Market to sell fresh-roasted whole bean coffees from around the world. Named after Captain Ahab's first mate in Melville's Moby Dick, the Starbucks moniker was dreamed up to conjure images of the first seafaring coffee traders.

In 1981, current chairman Howard Schultz tasted his first cup of Starbucks coffee and was hooked. He joined the company a year later, and soon he was traveling the world researching coffee. He grew so fascinated with Italy's coffee houses that he left Starbucks to start a chain called Il Giornale; in 1987, he returned to purchase Starbucks for $3.8 million. As CEO, Schultz guided the company to its peak before leaving in 2000, only to return to his position in 2008 amid concerns of over expansion.

Starbucks is perhaps best known for steering America's tastes beyond a simple cup of Joe. With offerings including espresso, cappuccino, latte, and a variety of specialty items including the trademarked Frappuccino, the company's lingo has worked its way into the American vernacular. Beverage sizes (tall, vente and grande, instead of small, medium and large) have given Starbucks aficionados a language of their own.

In an effort to broaden its scope, the company now offers a variety of products, including sandwiches, bottled water and even CDs, in addition to coffee and breakfast. As Starbucks enters its fifth decade, the company's growth prospects are cloudy – hundreds of under-performing stores around the world have been shuttered – but there's little doubt millions fans will keep streaming through Starbucks to satisfy their caffeine cravings.

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Peet's Coffee: Focused on Making the Best Coffee

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Peet's Coffee is nominated for a Luxist Award for Best Coffee House

Starbucks may be America's best-known purveyor of coffee, but Peet's Coffee & Tea has been around even longer. Though it has grown considerably in its day, Peet's remains focused on its craft through 188 retail outlets in six states and distribution to grocery stores, restaurants, homes and offices around the country. No surprise, then, that Peet's is a nominee for a Luxist award in the best coffee house category.

Peet's was founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet, a Dutch immigrant outraged by America's coffee-drinking habits upon arriving in San Francisco. He opened his first shop in Berkeley, focusing on making smaller batches, using better beans, and roasting darker coffee than those to which his Californian compatriots were accustomed. Peet's gained a loyal following of "Peetniks," including the founders of Starbucks, who turned to Peet's as a supplier in their early years.

As the millennium turned and Peet's continued to grow, the company went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in order to help finance further expansion. Wall Street drank it up – shares of Peet's have risen nearly 200% since the initial public offering nearly ten years ago, bolstered by the company's expanded retail locations and robust online presence.

Meanwhile, Peet's continues to follow a philosophy aimed at ensuring it will never lose its old world charm: all beans are never more than a few days old; coffee is brewed fresh every 30 minutes; milk is never re-steamed. Some things do stick around – the original Peet's location still sits on Vine Street in Berkeley.

Vote for the coffee house that you believe is the best of breed. The voting period runs through April 30 and winners will be announced on May 1.

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