Anderson's Coffee Company

AN OLD-FASHIONED BEAN STOREIn 1972 Jamie and Linda Anderson opened the doors to Anderson's Coffee Company, an old-fashioned bean store tucked away on a narrow, quaint, side street in the middle of Austin. Thirty-one years later, discriminating Texans cannot imagine Austin without Anderson's coffee. An ad in the personals column of The Austin Chronicle sums up the affection locals feel for Anderson's: "Me, vivacious vixen, 31, beautiful blonde.... independent. Love Anderson's coffee, dining out, slumming in, rainy days."And it's not just a local love affair. Since word of mouth praise ( word of taste? ) is still the most potent form of advertising, today coffee drinkers all over the country order their beans from Anderson's: New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado, California, you name it ; out of town and out of state orders are taken every day at the store in Jefferson Square.Jamie Anderson learned the basics of roasting coffee from the venerable Alfred Peet of Peet's Coffee & Tea in Berkeley, California. "Peet was the father of good coffee in this country, " says Jamie. But learning the basics from Mr. Peet was just the beginning. "There's a lot of creativity in roasting and blending coffee. Nobody does it exactly the same." Anderson's does it right, people who love good coffee agree on that, but this company does not rest on its laurels. Fragrant new blends appear from time to time on the store's blackboard, and creative experimentation with roasting techniques never ceases. "Otherwise, " says Jamie, "it wouldn't be any fun."Likewise, Anderson personally attends to the process of buying quality beans. This is another part of the coffee business which is ongoing and where nothing can be taken for granted. It involves frequent coffee tastings, roasting samples of beans before buying in quantity, and finding the very best importers. "You'd be surprised, " says Jamie, "how limited the supply of really fine coffee is."This is important. Coffee is roasted fresh at Anderson's, and it is roasted in quantities which correspond to daily demands. More often than not it is Anderson himself who does the roasting, sans computers. It is simply not possible to purchase coffee from Anderson's which is anything other than fresh roasted. Period.