Monday, March 10th, was the late Alfred H. Peet's birthday, and to celebrate, Peet's Coffee & Tea held the first public tour of their new roastery in Alameda on Saturday, March 8th. Shweetie and I were interested in going, not merely to see how Peet's coffee is "artisan roasted by hand each day," but because they were offering free "roasted today" coffee for the first 200 guests.
Unfortunately, we went to bed really late on Friday night, and knew we would not get up early enough on Saturday to ensure we were one of the first 200 guests. We got an even later start than we'd hoped, and didn't end up heading over to Alameda until after 1:30 pm, and the tour was only running between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. As it turns out, the roastery is located all the way over on Bay Farm Island in Alameda, so we didn't roll into the parking lot until 1:59 pm, where we were met by an employee who regretfully informed us that the tour was over.
However, there were still lots of people milling around outside, and the doors leading into the final room of the tour were still open, so we made our way inside and helped ourselves to free cups of Major Dickason's blend, and samples of chocolate covered cherries and raspberry truffles. We also peeked into the "fulfillment department," which bore a strong resemblance to the interior of Costco, including the throngs of people who were all queued up for coffee tasting. We'd missed the tour and the tasting, but Shweetie and I weren't too fussed.
In the end, our trip to the roastery was deemed a success! After all, we showed up for ten minutes, enjoyed complimentary coffee and sweets, and still ended up going home with a free pound of House blend coffee, of which they still had tons. I suspect that many of the first 200 guests declined the free pound of coffee, even if it was freshly "roasted today," simply because it was only House blend, but hey, I'm not going to be picky about a free pound of coffee. Those Peet's fans are such snobs. Oh wait, I'm one of them, aren't I?
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