Counter Culture Coffee

Counter Culture Coffee is a Durham, North Carolina based coffee roasting company founded in 1995. It has regional training locations in Asheville, NC; Atlanta; Boston; Charleston, SC; Chicago; Durham, NC; Emeryville, CA; New York City; Philadelphia; and Washington D.C. Counter Culture training centers provide education in the fundamentals of preparing and serving coffee and serve as classrooms and event spaces. Training centers are not only for vendors of Counter Culture Coffee, but are also available to anyone that is interested in the production of coffee. Training centers also host competition training, food events with guest chefs, and professional workshops. Counter Culture Coffee buys primarily from small coffee producers at a wide range of prices between $1.30 and $25 a pound. As such, they are regarded as a "boutique" coffee roaster, a company which sources from multiple small estates and cooperatives rather than a single large grower. Company history: Counter Culture Coffee first started roasting coffee in Durham in 1995. Founded by Brett Smith and Fred Houk, their main focus was creating custom coffee blends for some of Durham and Chapel Hill's southern restaurants. Houk had been working in the local North Carolina coffee industry for a few years when he met recent business graduate, Smith, who was looking for a new venture. With the boom of Starbucks the two saw opportunity to make their own mark on the coffee industry. They sold their first coffee to Pop's Restaurant in Durham in 1995. The company has grown to expanding its business operations to areas along the East Coast of the United States. Coffee beans are now imported from more regions including Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. In addition to a geographical expansion, Counter Culture Coffee has diversified their line of products and services. The company offers 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 the coffee trade. In 2008, they launched their third-party Counter Culture Direct Trade Certification, which established direct trade standards for sustainability, quality, and fairness in the coffee chain. Additional sustainability 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 for the origins of the products while the Sustainability Scorecard is used to measure the impact the company's efforts toward building a more sustainable supply chain. Education: In addition to coffee, Counter Culture Coffee provides consumers with a variety of educational programs that focus on coffee brewing, origin, and history. The program started in 2000 when the company focused resources to educate baristas so that every cup of Counter Culture Coffee was brewed for optimal taste. Starting with Friday morning coffee cuppings and expanding to classes. There is a fee for labs, but many events are free and open to the public. Known as "Counter Intelligence," the curriculum is offered in the form of courses, workshops, seminars, and labs. Courses offered include topics such as milk chemistry, different levels of brewing science, and espresso labs. Milk chemistry allows students to learn the proper ways to steam milk for desired textures, other courses, like Origins Lab. offer a lecture on where coffee comes from and how it goes from seed to cup. The espresso classes and Brew Science courses explore the variables of brewing coffee. Locations: Counter Culture Coffee has regional training centers all along the east coast. They are designed to facilitate professional development and education. It is a center for employees, instructors, and other coffee enthusiasts. In these training centers there are courses in coffee education. Training centers are located in Asheville, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Durham, NC, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Counter Culture Coffee's flagship training center is located in downtown Manhattan and is another prime example of the company's recent development.