VAIL MOUNTAIN COFFEE & TEA COMPANY CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF BREWING SUCCESS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chris Chantler
Tel. (970) 827-4008
Email: chris@vailcoffee.com
VAIL MOUNTAIN COFFEE & TEA COMPANY CELEBRATES
20 YEARS OF BREWING SUCCESS
August 11, 2010 – Vail, CO – Vail’s own Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company celebrates 20 years of industry-changing leadership in the coffee and tea business, brewing success in a resort market since 1989. “We are so proud of the company we started from scratch,” said founder and co-owner Chris Chantler. “We’ve worked really hard to build this successful business in the coffee and industry in a resort market. It’s really quite amazing.”
In 1989, Chantler and fellow founder and co-owner, Craig Arseneau, left behind successful careers in the hotel industry in Boston to open Vail’s first espresso bar, the Daily Grind, in 1989. The Grind quickly became an internationally renowned Vail institution located on the infamous Bridge Street. “We never thought The Grind would be a legendary place to hang out,” said Arseneau. “It started out as a coffee stop on the way up to the Vista Bahn and we added an eatery two years later. It later became Vail’s first wine bar after six years, and everyone who walked down Bridge Street came through there at one point or another.”
The company has since evolved into one of Colorado’s most successful and finest coffee roasters and tea companies. As the popularity for specialty coffee grew in the 1990s, many restaurant and hotels demanded the same quality coffee for their guests. Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company experienced double-digit growth for several years. The company sold the Daily Grind and changed its focus on wholesale coffee and tea distribution.
The growth in the specialty coffee industry brought competition creating several giant specialty coffee chains trying to gain market share at any cost. At the same time, consumer awareness of sustainable and ethical trade practice rose to an all time high. As a result, the company repositioned the brand to stand for something important and unique, with purpose and relevance – quality, freshness and sustainability.
So other than its amazing coffee and cool factor, what makes Vail Mountain Coffee and Tea Company different than other coffee roasters in Colorado? Well, thanks to the Rocky Mountains, it’s all about altitude. The company headquarters out of Minturn and is located at an altitude of approximately 8,000 feet. “The natural sugars found within the coffee bean caramelize at a lower temperature at this altitude during the roasting process,” said Arseneau. “This slow caramelization process creates a smooth and complex flavor, so the coffee has less acidity.”
In the last 5 years, the company has created direct trade purchasing programs on three continents, forming lasting relationships with farmers in Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Sumatra, Kenya, India, and Taiwan.
The latest achievement for Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company is its distribution of Vail Mountain Coffee in 180 new locations throughout Colorado, a result of its partnering with King Soopers, also known as Kroger (NYSE: KR). Kroger is one of the United States’ largest grocery retailers, having done $76.7 billion in sales in fiscal 2009. It also partners with Marczyk Fine Foods in Denver, Whole Foods (NYSE: WFMI), SmartCo Foods, and Sprouts Farmers Markets.
Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company is involved in several industry organizations and nonprofits. It provides a private label tea to assist Greg Mortonsen’s (author of Three Cups of Tea) organization, the Central Asia Institute, whose mission it is to support community-based education, especially for girls, in the remote northern regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea has also partnered with Colorado Proud, the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s effort to support locally grown and produced food. The company is also active with Socially Conscious Coffee, a nonprofit organization providing support for sustainable prosperity for coffee harvesters, their families and their communities through education, health care and environmental stewardship.
In an every-changing market place, the company has proven to be ground-breaking as a small business in a resort market for its flexibility and embracing the new economy. “We know we have a quality product, but we have had to reconfigure our brand to move with the ebb and flow of the industry and the economy,” said Chantler. “The success of the company is not purely its commitment to the mission of quality, freshness and sustainability, but rather it is because of our ability to adapt and grow in a changing economy, balancing our business between the mountain resorts and metropolitan markets.”
Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company – Leaders in Micro Estate, Single Origin, Sustainably Farmed Coffees & Teas providing quality, freshness and sustainability for over 20 years. For more information, please call (970) 827-4008 or visit www.vailcoffee.com.
