Caffè Vita Coffee Roasting Company, commonly known as Caffè Vita, is a coffee roasting company in Seattle, Washington. Part of the third wave of coffee movement, Caffè Vita has been named one of the top ten places "to get the bestcoffee in America." Caffè Vita was founded in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood in 1995 by Mike McConnell. McConnell was an early proponent for developing direct relationships with coffee farmers, and bypassing the fair trade of coffee, pioneering the Farm Direct movement.
Locations
Caffè Vita now operates 13 cafes throughout Seattle, Portland, New York, and Los Angeles. Caffe Vita coffee is always fresh, imported directly from the farm, and roasted on-site in Seattle, Brooklyn, and Portland. Caffè Vita's location at 1005 East Pike Street, Seattle, houses their flagship cafe, their roasteria, and company offices. The company operates eight other cafes around Seattle, and a roasteria in Portland. In March 2012 they opened a cafe in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the Spring of 2013 Caffè Vita opened a location on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. In 2015, Caffè Vita expanded its New York presence with the opening of a roasteria and cafe in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Caffè Vita also supplies coffee to cafes, restaurants, and hotels who value farm direct, organic, specialty coffee.
Community service
In 2009, Caffè Vita partnered with Portland's p:ear, a homeless youth mentoring program, to create the p:ear Barista School. Caffè Vita provides equipment, coffee beans, milk, and training that allow the school to take homeless youth through an 8-week program that give them the necessary skills and experience to get a job as a barista. Also in 2009, Caffè Vita underwrote and organized "GIVE Seattle": a 36-track compilation record, featuring artists such as Ben Gibbard and Fleet Foxes to benefit four local food banks and Arts Corps. Caffè Vita currently supports FareStart's youth barista training program, which trains homeless youth and provides barista jobs at their coffee stands in T-Mobile Field. They also sponsor FareStart's annual Guest Chef Night and Volunteer Server Night, which annually bring together Seattle chefs and winemakers to raise money for FareStart. Every year, Caffè Vita hosts a holiday fundraising drive for in all Caffe Vita cafes, with donations matched dollar for dollar.
Sustainability
Caffe Vita owner Mike McConnell is a pioneer Farm Direct movement, meticulously sourcing the best coffee available while developing long-term, mutually fruitful relationships with coffee growers in more than 11 countries. Caffè Vita serves many Organic, Farm Direct, and Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees. In 2009, Caffè Vita starting working with Woodland Park Zoo's Tree Kangaroo Project to develop the first-ever coffee from the YUS region made commercially available in the U.S. purchased directly from the growers at a fair price. Papua New Guinea Yopno Uruwa Som coffee, which protects the endangered Tree Kangaroo, is sold at all Seattle Caffe Vita locations and at Woodland Park Zoo ZooStores. In addition to coffee from PNG, Caffè Vita also sells their Zoo Special Reserve, in which every bag of this coffee purchased online or in our cafes, a dollar is donated to the Woodland Park Zoo.
Partnerships
Caffè Vita partners with Easy Street Records on their Easy Street Indo 30 coffee blend. Matt Vaughan was Caffè Vita's first wholesale customer in 1995. Throughout the next 20 years they set a model for local and independent businesses, with support from each other and the community, allowing them to tantalize the ears and tongues of many with the best in music and coffee. In 2017, all Washington State Ferries began serving Caffè Vita coffee. In 2019, Caffe Vita began barrel-aging their coffee in partnership with . To date, they've released 3 coffees barrel aged with Bourbon, Rum, and Gin. Caffe Vita sponsors many local events, including , and by , on Orcas Island, , and Capitol Hill Block Party.
