Torrefazione Italia is a former coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 roaster and café franchise, now a high-end brand of Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

 coffee beans sold in grocery stores.

History

The first Torrefazione Italia café opened in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 in 1986. Espresso

Espresso

Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee. Espresso is widely known throughout the world....

, coffee and baked goods were served in their cafés.

Umberto Bizzari, Torrefazione's founder, teamed up with Stewart Brother's Coffee (later renamed Seattle's Best Coffee

Seattle's Best Coffee

Seattle's Best Coffee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Starbucks, is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler based in Seattle, Washington.Seattle's Best Coffee has retail stores and grocery sub-stores in 20 states and provinces and the District of Columbia. Sub-stores can also be found within many...

) founder, Jim Stewart, in the mid 1980s to create Seattle Coffee Holdings. This new company built a more modern roasterie on Vashon Island, Washington in 1995 and manufactured Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia Coffee. Seattle Coffee Holdings was purchased in 1998 by AFC Enterprises and renamed Seattle Coffee Company.

Torrefazione Italia expanded to other cities in North America, notably, Vancouver BC, the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

, Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, and Dallas. Their coffees are also wholesaled to restaurants, hotels, bakeries and cafés.

Starbucks, another Seattle-based coffee company, purchased Torrefazione Italia along with Seattle's Best Coffee in 2003. Starbucks announced in 2005 that all 17 Torrefazione Italia cafés would be closed before the end of the year, and all of the San Francisco retail locations were closed on 27 October 2005. The wholesale coffee brand has been retained, however, and is sold in grocery stores.

Caffè Umbria

The Bizzarri family has since started another roaster and coffee chain, Caffè Umbria, which was started by third-generation roaster Emanuele Bizzarri, son of Umberto. Umbria has been roasting since 2002, and opened its first retail branch in Seattle in 2005, following Starbucks' decision to shutter the Torrefazione cafés. The first Umbria branch is in fact the first Torrefazione branch, at 320 Occidental Avenue in Pioneer Square. As of late 2009, there are two branches: the Seattle Branch and a Portland branch in the Pearl District, while the wholesale coffee is sold more widely in cafés.

External links

• Torrefazione Italia – official site
• Caffè Umbria

sold at plaza deli cafe mountain view ca