An homage to Peet's coffee

I love Peet’s coffee. I’ve been a fan ever since my sister introduced me to it years ago.

Back in early 1995, I had just moved to San Francisco and had only become a daily coffee drinker a few months earlier. My sister Carolyn, who was studying to get her teaching credential, was working at this coffee shop called Peet’s. One day, she came to visit me in my apartment on Hayes Street. She saw me making coffee and said, “You need to stop drinking that crap.”

“What’s wrong with Yuban?”

“I brought this for you.” She handed me a half pound of Peet’s coffee. “Trust me, this stuff is superior to Yuban.”

“Isn’t all coffee pretty much the same?” I was 23 and clearly pretty clueless.

Carolyn kind of smiled and said, “Just brew this and be enlightened.”

I opened the bag of coffee and immediately noticed that it looked a lot different than Yuban. It was much darker. And the smell was amazing.

“This smells great.”

“This is real coffee,” Carolyn said. “The blend is called Major Dickason’s and it's super strong.”

When I took a sip, I heard angels singing, harps playing, and saw the gloomy fog outside my kitchen window immediately disappear. (I’m exaggerating – the fog never went away in my neighborhood.)

Since that day, I’ve been a big fan of Peet’s. And their Holiday Blend is delicious. I think it’s because of the ground up reindeer antlers.

If any higher-ups at Peet’s happen to read this, please know this cartoon is meant as an homage to coffee excellence. If you feel compelled to send me a free pound of coffee because of this endorsement, shoot me an email. (Or you can use that same email address for your "cease and desist" letter.)