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Greetings...
Our tiny 650 sq. ft. shop in the busy Rockridge District, at the border of Oakland and Berkeley, welcomes 800 people a day. It is the showcase for the coffees we roast and teas we blend at our 5500 sq. ft. plant 4 miles away in Emeryville.
We are a local, artisanal, owner-operated company of 20 started by Lynn Mallard in January, 1989.
Our commitment is to “old world” methods of operation. Small batches, custom blended from only the highest quality coffees and teas available in the world are our hallmark. Roasted coffee inventory is rotated every 72 hours. Internet coffee orders are roasted and shipped the same day.
Your feedback is pivotal to our continued success.
Thank you,
Lynn M. Mallard (shown at right with the original Peaberry's mascot, Rocky)
A Brief History
Peaberry's Coffee & Tea Co. started with a dream.
In January of 1989, Emeryville, CA was the center of the specialty coffee world. Competition was fierce and roasters were popping up every few months throughout the Bay area. To be a café owner had cachet.
That month, in a small Emeryville warehouse positioned between railroad tracks and a steel rebar plant, Peaberry's was born.
Lynn Mallard, owner and founder, started the company with limited capital, lots of energy and seven years hard earned experience in the trade. Over six months, Lynn set up her plant and delivered to wholesale accounts while searching for the perfect retail location. June of the same year Peaberry's opened its Rockridge store, which was wildly successful within weeks. Today, this shop is among the country's top 5% (dollars per square foot) specialty coffee & tea retailers.
Exquisite coffees and teas along with expertly prepared beverages were offered in a European market hall setting unparalled in the greater Bay Area.
Today, the coffee is still small batch roasted without automation or preprogrammed computer controls. The selection favors custom blends available nowhere else and small estate grown arabicas crafted to savor.
Peaberry's selection of fresh, full leaf estate teas as well its proprietary blends are well known nationwide.
Today, after 17 years and over 4.5 million customers served, Peaberry's continues to represent the finest coffee and tea company that is dedicated to its artisanal craft using old world principals of pride in commerce.
Lynn Mallard, President & Founder
Lynn was born and raised in Needham, Massachusetts in the western outskirts of Boston -- the youngest of four siblings. Of Irish and English descent, the household was more accustomed to tea drinking (with milk) than drinking coffee. And so it begins...
Years later, armed with a degree in Chemistry, Lynn left New England and spent several years living in various cities across the States working for two large corporations (Tenneco and Pfizer). This experience enabled her years later to completely grasp the chemical changes in the roasting process as well as decaffeination.
In 1981 she moved to Berkeley, CA and began her long epic career in coffee and tea starting in the very store and trained by the very man who started the Specialty Coffee Industry, Alfred Peet, at the Vine Street shop in N. Berkeley. Over a period of seven years, she learned about nearly every aspect of the coffee and tea business and discovered she not only possessed a great affinity for it but she also had an exquisite pallet and even better nose .
So, in winter of 1989, Lynn set out on her own to start an artisanal coffee roasting company in a small warehouse in Emeryville, CA in the midst of some of the country's largest specialty coffee roasters. After six months creating blends, roasting, wholesaling coffee and teas to area businesses and restaurants, Lynn opened her enormously successful retail shop in the Rockridge Market Hall now among the country's busiest coffee and tea shops in dollars per square foot.
As a guest lecturer at the Commonwealth Club, Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), St. Mary's College Business Law, Lynn inspired other men and women to become risk-takers in life and push their limits. She also dispelled the notion that one cannot excel in both coffee and tea, a long held theory among the two trades.
Today, on her 25th anniversary in the business, Lynn continues to hold the same solid principles of commerce: excellence in all things without compromise and great consideration for those people who participate in your world.
Our Crew
Brandy Linstrum, Vice President, has been with Peaberry's Coffee & Tea for over a decade. She began her tenure here as a barista in the summer of 1995, serving up superb coffee drinks to the local characters. A lifelong coffee lover, Brandy's interest was peaked by Lynn's artisanal approach to coffee roasting. As her knowledge of coffee grew, she was taken on as apprentice roaster in the fall of 1997. Nearly ten years later Brandy has grown with the company to the position of Vice President. Though her duties now include sourcing the finest coffees and teas from the world over, supervising wholesale operations, and running Peaberry's sister company, Blue Willow Tea, she still finds time for her first love -- coffee roasting. Now with an apprentice of her own, Brandy's passion for great coffee is passed on to your cup. Stop by our neighborhood store sometime, and if you're lucky you just might find her still tending bar for the locals!
Deborah Lohrke, the primary buyer of confections and accessories for Peaberry’s, holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography from Mills College (Oakland, California). Most of the photography on this web site is Deborah’s work. During her tenure at Peaberry’s she has also produced graphics, signage and display materials.
Morgan Wilson graduated in 2005 from California College of the Arts (formerly California College of Arts and Crafts) with a fine arts degree in illustration. In 2006 she created a series of unique paintings for our coffee labels (on the coffee pages, click on thumbnails to enlarge). Morgan pulls inspiration for her artwork from friends and family. Bold color and expressive line work are featured throughout her work, and she enjoys putting a realistic, yet imaginative touch on the subject matter. She lives in Oakland with her two kitties, Owen and Tilden. www.morgan-wilson.com
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