Published December 2004

Bargreen Coffee Co.:
Family business has been roasting beans
for more than a century

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Signs of the Northwest coffee culture are hard to miss, with coffee shops and drive-through espresso stands dotting street corners and fresh-roasted beans filling the coffee bins lining grocery store aisles.

Snohomish County Business Journal/ KIMBERLY HILDEN Howie Bargreen, president of Bargreen Coffee Co., empties a bag of coffee beans into the roasting chute.

But today’s coffee obsession is nothing compared to the turn of the 20th century, when people spent their evenings around the kitchen table or at the local coffee house enjoying coffee and conversation, not watching television, said Howie Bargreen, president and third-generation operator of Bargreen Coffee Co.

“The golden era of coffee was a hundred years ago. Dad (Howard Bargreen) said that at one time, there were 11 coffee roasters in Everett,” said Bargreen, whose own coffee-roasting company has been a mainstay of the city since 1898, when his grandfather, Sam Bargreen, founded the business.

Back then, Bargreen’s freshly roasted coffee beans made their way to customers’ doors via horse-drawn wagons.

Today, a variety of Bargreen gourmet coffees — from chocolate macadamia nut and espresso to Irish cream and Colombian dark roast — can be found at restaurants and regional retailers. Among them are Bartell Drugs, Red Apple Markets, Central Markets, Rosauers Supermarkets in Eastern Washington, Fairhaven Market in Bellingham and Swansons in Aberdeen.

Bargreen’s coffees also can be found at Cafe Amore, a coffee shop adjacent to Bargreen headquarters that opened in the mid-1990s, as well as three Espresso Time drive-through coffee stands that Bargreen operates on Everett’s downtown street corners.

The coffee stand was an idea that had been perking for some time, Bargreen said, but only became a reality when he learned they could produce enough revenue to provide a good wage for those manning the stations and brewing the beverages — thus attracting hard-working staff and discouraging turnover.

With that knowledge, Bargreen figured he’d “give it a try” about 10 years ago.

Now, the stands employ 15 part time, and Bargreen is looking at opening a fourth Espresso Time stand just south of Everett. He also has partnered with another coffee-stand operator to open Java Time in the Lake Stevens area.

When it comes to competing against a growing field of coffee competitors, both in retail and wholesale markets, Bargreen said his company’s advantage lies in its quality and consistency, delivered through the use of one coffee roasting machine and the skill of one coffee roaster, longtime Bargreen employee Michael Smith.

“It’s just like Grandma baking cookies,” Bargreen said, it’s using time-honored techniques and years of experience to produce a perfect batch every time.

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