SAN FRANCISCO—According to legend, we owe many delicious things to the Battle of Vienna, such as the creation of the croissant, the bagel, and the spreading of coffee. Franz George Kolshitsky, as it goes, brought bags of coffee that the Viennese troops obtained from the Turks back to Vienna, opened the first coffee house in Central Europe, and may have invented the cappuccino.
Whether that holds any truth or not, the popularization of the drink is a feat that James Freeman admires. Freeman, founder of the dual-coast roastery Blue Bottle Coffee, is also the man behind the $20,000 cup of coffee.
Blue Bottle, named after Kolshitsky’s café, started as a coffee cart in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco when then-musician Freeman decided to hang up his clarinet and pursue another craft instead. Blue Bottle’s mission is to sell coffee no older than 48 hours out of the roaster, at its peak flavor.
“You come into Blue Bottle and there’s no straws for your latte, no whipped cream, no vanilla flavors, all these flavors—there’s nothing but a fantastic drink, whether it’s plain espresso, or a drip cup of coffee, whatever it is,” said coffee enthusiast Pamela Snyder.
It’s a well-known success story among those who drink coffee, as it seems that everyone who has will tell you that Blue Bottle pulls “the best espresso you’ve ever tasted” and everyone who hasn’t hears the same.
The company, founded in 2002, is recently under new ownership with a $20 million investment, but Freeman still remains very much involved in running Blue Bottle.
Blue Bottle Coffee continues to expand, with an opening at New York’s Rockefeller Plaza; the launch of a cold-brew bottled coffee line; and “The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee,” penned by Freeman, his wife and Miette patisserie co-founder Caitlin Freeman, and friend and food writer Tara Duggan this past fall.
The book, a comprehensive and amusing introduction to coffee, aims to be “a nice, accessible thing that people who like good food, who appreciate good food, would like about coffee,” Freeman said.
“Things excite me, I love certain things, and I want to bring them to people,” Freeman said of his coffee philosophy. “It’s not about being right; it’s about being good.”
