Coffee Common

As part of the build-up to TED, we’ve asked that each of the participating roasters write a brief introduction for one of the others. This would typically be a tough exercise, but the mutual admiration shared by these companies is really amazing.

By Peter Giuliano, Counter Culture Coffee, Durham, NC

Some people are just madly in love with coffee.  When someone like that starts a coffee company, the result looks exactly like the UK’s Has Bean coffee.  Stephen Leighton, the irrepressible coffee visionary that fuels Has Bean, has a mad kind of passion for coffee that has become legendary in the coffee world.  Check out his blog, or better yet “In My Mug”, the weekly videocast where Stephen himself shares details about the spectacular coffees he sources.  Seeing someone who is so obviously enthusiastic about his product is thrilling, and is a rare thing in the sometimes dispassionate and even snobbish high-end food business. 

Make no mistake, however: Has Bean sells serious coffee- and their offering sheet includes some of the most respected and sought-after coffees in the world.   Has Bean is doing a great thing- they are making spectacular coffee accessible, and delivering world-class coffee and an incredible amount of information with a total absence of pretense.  And that’s about the highest calling of all.