Last year my friend Jeff wanted some prints of Austin pictures that I had taken. He offered to pay for the prints. No way, friends don’t pay for prints. Instead, I asked Jeff to give me a pound of his favorite coffee–Jeff is a coffee aficionado. Jeff gave us a pound of Ethiopian Yergacheffe coffee, and a pound of Kenyan Masai coffee and a very generous gift certificate to Anderson coffee.
Andersons coffee is a bean roaster, founded in 1972, whose shop is located in Jefferson Square in central Austin (not far from Seton). Jamie Anderson learned the basics of roasting coffee from Alfred Peet of Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Berkeley California. In fact, Andersons Coffee started out by reselling Peet’s coffee until the volume became too high and it became a bother for Peet’s coffee. Alfred Peet generously helped Jamie find a roaster so that he could roast coffee locally. Coffee is roasted fresh at Andersons’ in small quantities, corresponding to daily demand.
The cool thing is that quality doesn’t cost more. The beans are fresher than Starbuck’s, but they are also cheaper. Go by the store, buy a cup of coffee–they usually have two to three blends brewed. Browse the different coffee, teas, sweets (I’m addicted to Strawberry Licorice), jams, jellies, tea pots, and coffee makers.
Oh one of the nice things about Andersons Coffee is that they honored that gift certificate even after it had expired–don’t you just love locally owned stores.
Andersons COffee, www.andersonscoffee.com, 1601 West 38th Street #2, Jefferson Square, Austin, TX 78731 (512) 453-1333