Stumptown Coffee Roasters

Stumptown Coffee Roasters was born in Portland in 1999. Whether Founder Duane Sorenson was merely seeking to simply produce a quality cup ‘o joe for the neighboring community or attempting to revolutionize the biz is the great unknown. What is known is that Sorenson and Stumptown have completed the latter. There is such a thing as the “Third Wave” in the coffee movement, and Stumptown shares top billing on that film’s marquee.

The culture at Stumptown is considerably different than perhaps any other coffee purveyor. Sorenson is famous for forming lasting relationships with bean farmers, visiting the farms in person and unafraid to pay high prices for that perfect dose of worthy coffee. And perks for employees are hardly the norm. In an era where a growing list of companies are pulling the plug on once-standard benefits such as 401k and health insurance, Stumptown has offered such quirky and unique perks as an on-staff massage therapist and a compilation album for the company’s barista/rock stars.

Keeping up with its trendsetting ways, Stumptown in recent months unleashed Cold Brew Stubbies. With the iced coffee genre on an upswing, the Stumptown version, encased in the retro-cool brown glass bottles, is exactly what longtime cultists have come to expect: high end, crisp, and unrelentingly hip. Stumptown operates out of Portland, Seattle and NYC, with a wholesale unit that can stretch the world.

Our grandfathers bemoan that once they could buy a cup of java for a nickel. Nostalgia being rose-colored, these great men never sipped on a Stumptown Coffee Roasters cup. Score one for the Gen-Xer’s.