Peets Coffee & Tea

A fairly nice Peet’s. (Ethical rating: 3.5 Green Stars) Some things I like about this branch of Peets. 1. The music volume is always fairly low – you’re not subjected to the B52s at painful volume (actually the B52s are painful at any volume). 2. It’s pretty clean, usually. Not sure what it is about Peet’s policy on cleaning (especially the bathrooms) but several branches leave a lot to be desired. 3. There’s usually some free seating. 4. Lots of light. On the downside, I never find the staff here to be friendly (compared to the branch on College and Alcatraz) but perhaps they are just a bit thick-skinned from dealing with “characters” from Telegraph Ave. I can now find a few things to eat at Peet’s – like the veggie frittata and particularly the “Everything Plant-Based Sandwich,” which consists of a sausage patty from Beyond Meat combined with JUST vegan egg and vegan cheddar on a thin bagel. It’s also nice that we can use our own mugs again at Peet’s, avoiding coffee cup waste and the 25 cent charge that Berkeley folk now pay for disposable cups. I’m also giving the Peet’s 3.5 out of 5 “Green Stars” for social and environmental impact, based on this: • Reasonable selection of vegetarian items and now one good vegan sandwich and a vegan brownie. • Beyond Meat (who makes the Everything Plant-Based sandwich patty) rates highly in my book (4.5 Green Stars) • Peet’s now allows customers to bring their own coffee mugs again & gives a 25 cent discount for using one. • Peet’s disposable cups and lids are now both compostable. This helps quite a bit in terms of waste sorting, because everything can go into the compost bin. Let’s face it, at many coffee places (hello, Starbucks!) customers’ trash pretty much ends up in random bins. But bring your own mug, for goodness sake! • Peet’s main coffee roastery in Alameda is certified LEED Gold– the first in the US. (LEED = Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) • Peet’s have been a bit better than other US chains (Starbucks, Philz) at introducing coffee that’s organic, songbird friendly, or processed by the natural method, etc. • Las Hermanas blend is “100% women-produced, Fair Trade certified.” Burundi Turashobora is also women-produced. In 2019, Peet’s helped establish the Women's Center for Entrepreneurship for women coffee famers in Columbia. • Peet’s has now merged with Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) and the joint venture had its IPO in 2020 on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. JDE scores poorly for ethics, for example on Ethical Consumer. • Peet’s sells coffee pods (and JDE sells two machines that use pods), encouraging plastic waste. • Peet’s doesn’t reports enough on social and environmental impact (e.g., coffee pricing) for a company of this size. So a mixed bag from Peet’s: Better than Starbucks or Philz but not as good as some other local spots. Interested in writing green star reviews? If so, please check out the Green Stars Project.