In the 1990s, Starbucks became a place that offered a "third place," with Frappuccinos and cappuccinos taking center stage, and espresso and blended coffees becoming ingredients on the menu rather than the main focus.
At the same time, specialty coffee culture, a reaction against commodity coffee, was beginning to spread in the United States. A genre known as the "third wave" was born, offering carefully crafted specialty coffee in a format similar to the coffee bars that Starbucks' Howard Schultz was initially inspired by in Italy.
One such example is Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon.
Stumptown Coffee Roasters is a Portland-based specialty coffee company known as a pioneer of the U.S. “third wave” coffee movement, especially for direct trade sourcing and early cold brew innovation.
Stumptown Coffee Roasters is a coffee roaster and café chain founded in Portland, Oregon, and headquartered there.
It focuses on specialty coffee, selling beans, cold brew products, and drinks through its own cafes, wholesale, and grocery channels.
The first Stumptown café opened in 1999, founded by Duane Sorenson, and it soon expanded with additional cafes and a roastery in Portland.
Sorenson became known for visiting farms himself and paying very high prices for quality beans, sometimes several times the fair trade price, positioning Stumptown as an early third wave leader.
In 2011 Sorenson sold the company to an investment group, and in 2015 Stumptown was acquired by Peet’s Coffee, which is owned by JAB Holding Company, with Stumptown continuing to operate its own brand.
Stumptown helped popularize “direct trade,” building long-term relationships with growers and emphasizing transparency in price and quality rather than relying only on certifications.
The roastery aims for a developed but not overly dark style, trying to hit a sweet spot where rich body coexists with the beans’ natural fruit and floral characteristics.
Its approach and quality focus led to recognition such as Roast Magazine’s “Roaster of the Year” award in 2006.
One of its best-known blends is Hair Bender, a complex espresso blend using coffees from Latin America, East Africa, and Indonesia, often made up of five to eight components to balance sweetness, clarity, and complexity.
Stumptown was an early innovator in ready-to-drink cold brew, including nitro cold brew in cans, and started selling coffee premixed with milk in grocery stores from 2014.
The brand’s cold brew line (bottles, cans, and cartons) became a major part of its national recognition beyond the café footprint.
Before the pandemic, Stumptown operated a small network of around a dozen cafés in the U.S., with several in Portland and others in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and New Orleans.
Current official listings show multiple shops in Portland plus locations in other major cities, while the bulk of its business also runs through wholesale and grocery distribution.
Stumptown opened its first international café in Kyoto inside the Ace Hotel Kyoto. It offers espresso-based drinks, brewed coffee, pastries, and retail beans — bringing authentic Stumptown flavor and culture to Japan.
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