Suppliers

I'm something of a coffee snob, but (and I understand this is very unusual within Starbucks) I'm not much of a company man; therefore, I'm quite open to trying other coffees that aren't Starbucks. This is probably a good thing; Starbucks has an excellent quality product, but not everyone likes that dark roast, and there are a few coffees we simply can't carry. To wit, a few of my favorite coffee suppliers (including the mothership)...

• Starbucks -- There is nobody bigger. This is both good and bad -- we get to be the Ben and Jerry's of the industry, providing a (very high) standard which everyone else should meet, but we can be rather pushy as well. Be that as it may, at any given time we offer about thirty different kinds of coffee, including varietal coffees from at least a dozen different countries and a number of our own blends. We're here. We're everywhere. Resistance is futile, etc... But I do like the product.
• Peet's Coffee and Tea -- From Berkeley, CA, and founded in the late 60s, Peet's, founded by Dutch immigrant Alfred Peet and currently run by Starbucks founder Jerry Baldwin (it's really messy -- don't ask) was the beginning of the American specialty coffee market. They roast the darkest of all the major roasters and are very popular by mail order; they've recently expanded to New England, and about five of their coffee shops dot the Greater Boston area.
• Green Mountain Coffee Roasters -- Once upon a time, George Howell founded the Coffee Connection, and it was good. But George got tired and sold out to Starbucks. The big problem with that was that CC was known for its lighter-roasted coffees; today, if the lighter East Coast roast is what you're looking for, Green Mountain out of Vermont still sells it. They've been out of the coffee shop business for a while, but their coffee is everywhere in ice cream shops, gas stations, and lunch counters around New England, and their coffee is easily acquired by mail order.
• illycaffe -- Italy's upscale espresso supplier, illy has precisely one coffee blend (available in regular and decaf) in three different forms (whole bean, ground, ESE pod).