If it surprises you, raise your hand. No one? Well, that doesn't surprise us, since you can hardly walk a block in a major city in the world without bumping into a Starbucks. By just about any metric you can think of, Starbucks tops the list of successful coffee companies and has nearly 30,000 locations around the world. Starbucks was originally founded in Seattle 50 years ago, in 1971, but has since reached every corner of the world.
Costa Coffee is like European Starbucks, except that Starbucks also exists in Europe. In a surprising coincidence, Costa Coffee was founded in 1971, the same year as Starbucks, in the United Kingdom. They have approximately 3,500 locations, mostly in European countries, and are still very popular in Europe despite the meteoric rise of Starbucks. Dunkin' Donuts is probably better known for its coffee than for its donuts, and that's something to say considering that it's literally called doughnuts.
Recently, the company has initiated a rebrand to simply “Dunkin” to reflect the growing popularity of its coffee and other offerings, in addition to donuts. They have around 11,000 locations, making them one of the biggest coffee companies, although they also offer breakfast sandwiches, bagels and, yes, donuts. Tim Hortons is a Canadian coffee company that has 5000 establishments in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and China. If you're from the United States, you probably think of Tim Hortons as Canadian Dunkin' Donuts, and that's not a bad comparison.
They serve sandwiches and donuts, in addition to coffee, which is responsible for their rise to fame. McDonald's isn't usually known for coffee, but the hamburger giant is also one of the biggest coffee companies in the world. The McCafé brand began in 1993 as a complement to the shift in fast-food restaurants, so it's relatively new to the coffee scene compared to the other companies on this list. This only makes its 10,000 stores around the world even more impressive.
Not all McDonald's offer the McCafé brand, but more are being added every day. Given the growth rate over the past three decades, it wouldn't surprise us if they eventually became the biggest coffee company in the world. Lavazza is the oldest company on this list and also the first that is not associated with a vast empire of physical stores. Founded in Italy in 1895, Lavazza is very popular and one of the most famous coffee brands in the world.
Lavazza's popularity comes from its impressive selection of high-quality coffee beans and coffee brewing equipment. Peet's Coffee doesn't have an impressive variety of stores (just 200 locations), but its coffee is sold in 14,000 stores around the world, making it one of the most important coffee brands. Unlike the other companies mentioned so far, Peet's is basically completely focused on the United States, where all but one of its stores are located. Even so, the large number of stores that sell them makes them one of the largest producers of coffee, despite their relatively narrow geographical reach.
Gloria Jean's is an Australian coffee company with 1,000 stores in nearly 40 global markets. Despite their global presence, they are less well-known than other brands, especially since almost half of their locations are in Australia. Even so, strictly following the numbers, Gloria Jean's is one of the most famous coffee chains in the world. At one point, Tully's would have been close to topping this list, but recent supply chain problems have reduced Tully's to a shadow of what it was before.
In the past 2 or 3 years, Tully's has closed a large part of its locations, which has dramatically reduced its presence around the world. Even so, they have more than 300 open locations and are one of the most famous and recognizable brands, mainly due to their prominence in the past. Rounding out the top ten, we have Caribou Coffee. Founded in 1992, a year before McCafé, in Minnesota, Caribou has slowly grown to become one of the largest and most recognized coffee companies in the world.
Caribou Coffee has around 600 locations around the world and, like Dunkin' Donuts, Tim Hortons and Starbucks, they also serve snacks, baked goods and other beverages. Founded in 1979 in Long Grove, Illinois, Gloria Jean's Coffee is known for its high-sugar coffee beverages. Founded in Southern California in 1963, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf are committed to providing the best Arabica coffee and premium teas to their customers. Another cornerstone of the coffee giant's success has been the constant creation and mass marketing of different novel coffee beverages, which often use large amounts of sugar and cream to attract a wider audience.
Although Peet's Coffee has only a few stores open, its exclusive and luxurious coffee blends are sold in more than 14,000 stores in the United States. The chain began as a simple potting shed that was used to roast coffee beans and a single coffee cart that was used to sell the product. The vast majority of Americans were only familiar with coffee through the bulk-packaged drip coffee they prepared at home in the morning or drank at work. After backpacking through Alaska, Kimberly and John Puckett founded Caribou Coffee in 1992 with the goal of capturing the essence of their adventure over a cup of coffee.
In 1992, brothers Dane and Travis Boersma went from producing milk to selling coffee, and their first coffee shop was opened in their barn in Oregon. By reproducing European coffee shops, Starbucks was able to turn coffee from the United States into a social experience where you could sit at the chain and have a cup with your friend. By focusing on the image and creating coffee blends with extremely rich and unique flavors, the chain has a place in consumers' minds as the brand to go to when they really want a good and expensive cup of coffee. Blue Bottle Coffee Company is a specialty coffee roaster that began in Oakland, California in the early 2000s.
Founded in Berkeley, California, in 1966, Peet's Coffee is credited with introducing darker roasted coffee, such as French Roast, to the United States. These coffee chains have harnessed the enthusiasm of coffee to produce a product that keeps customers coming back. This is a coffee chain with the mission of promoting inclusion, sustainability and great-tasting coffee. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is a chain based in Southern California that began in 1963 as a coffee roaster and now has more than 1,200 locations around the world.
Every day they roast coffee in small batches at their facilities and partner with sustainably grown coffee certifiers through the Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade USA. .
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