Peace Coffee: Bringing cold coffee to the land of 10,000 lakes
Cold Coffee Success Stories is a series that focuses on pioneering companies in the cold coffee space and their unique journeys. Today, we feature Peace Coffee, a Minneapolis-based specialty coffee company with eyes on the future of sustainable cold coffee.
When people think of Minnesota, they think cold. Nestled against the Canadian border, freezing conditions are part of life for residents of the land of 10,000 lakes; their sports team names are evidence enough. The state men’s basketball team? The Timberwolves. The women’s hockey team? Frost.
Indeed, cold coffee is simply not needed. When it’s forty below, a refreshing glass of cold brew or an iced latte can’t hit the spot, right? Well, despite the climate, cold coffee trends hold as true in Minnesota as they do across the country, and Peace Coffee is leading a vanguard of local specialty coffee companies that are giving the people what they want.
We spoke with Marc Hubble, vice president of Peace Coffee, to learn more about Minnesotans’ relationship with specialty and cold coffee.
Peace Coffee in more than name
Peace Coffee has been serving Minneapolis residents specialty-grade coffee since 1996, long before the advent of coffee’s Third Wave, which began to make higher quality the norm. However, the core focus of the business was never just coffee shop operations.
A non-profit organisation founded the company, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, in the mid-1980s. At the time, American farmers were grappling with a farm crisis, an after-effect of the surge and subsequent collapse of agricultural lending policies established by the US government a decade before in an effort to ‘feed the world’ following the Cold War.
The 1985 Food Security Act was passed in an effort to assist farmers who were struggling with the sudden lack of global demand for the massive crops they produced in the years before. The Act provided more effective commodity price income support and new conservation programs, and the IATP began considering how this rubric could be applied in other countries in the region with rich farming roots, starting first with Mexico before expanding to the coffee-producing nations of South America.
The result was a new fair trade coffee model that began to bring coffee from Chiapas, Mexico, to Minneapolis in 1996, supported by the IATP, flowing through Peace Coffee. Since then, Peace has been committed to sourcing 100% Fair Trade-certified, organic coffee from small-scale farmers as a means to help them avoid the same fate faced by American farmers a decade before.
In 1997, the first Guatemalan coffees arrived in Minneapolis via a partnership with Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel laureate: the name? Guatemalan Peace Coffee. The name stuck.
How sustainability stacks up at Peace
Sustainable, ethical coffee sourcing may be the central tenet of Peace Coffee’s mission, but the company’s commitment to environmentally friendly business practices goes far beyond the beans themselves.
“In 2023, we undertook a comprehensive redesign of our packaging to reduce waste and improve sustainability,” says Marc.
“Our updated retail bags now generate 10% less waste by using less material and consolidating applied label sticklers from three to just one. Additionally, for our highest-volume coffees, we’ve transitioned to digitally printed bags, eliminating the need for stickers on up to 75% of our packaging volume.
“As Peace, we are deeply committed to balancing product freshness with environmental sustainability. We need to ensure both the freshness of our products and the durability required for shipping. As part of this commitment, we will continue to explore and implement solutions that align with our values while delivering the highest quality to our customers.”
Here, Peace’s forward-thinking status as a leading specialty coffee business shines through. For modern coffee companies, trading on quality alone is no longer feasible. The democratisation of high-quality coffee has opened up an enormous market for consumers to choose from. Success is predicated on a broader approach, one that includes excellent coffee but also emphasises sustainable packaging and business practices, product variety, and engaging brand storytelling.
“At Peace Coffee, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, from the moment the seeds are planted to the time coffee grounds are brewed,” Marc adds.
“While our current packaging is not recyclable or compostable, we are continuously evaluating innovative solutions and remain committed to finding a more sustainable option in the near future – one that matches our quality expectations.
“To reduce packaging waste, we encourage customers to consider purchasing our coffee in bulk whenever possible. Our mission remains clear: to deliver exceptional coffee that respects people and the planet, and we are steadfast in our pursuit of sustainable solutions from our packaging.”
How does cold coffee fit into Peace Coffee’s ethos
The rising popularity of RTD coffee served cold is a national phenomenon in the United States. Cold beverages are not reserved only for the warmer climates of Southern states; they broke seasonal barriers in American food culture long ago.
A 2014 article from the Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine titled Land of 10,000 Crazy Iced Coffees is evidence that Minnesotans, too, haven’t let cold weather stop them from enjoying a chilled caffeine boost. Peace Coffee offers a premium organic cold brew concentrate to help them do so at home.
“We proudly offer our Yeti Blend as an excellent option for traditional cold brew production, catering to operators who value quality and consistency,” says Marc.
“However, we also understand the complexities of coffee production and recognise there are many steps where things can go wrong. To address these challenges, we provide innovative solutions like our premium organic coffee concentrate, which helps operators meet customer demands while simplifying operations for their staff.”
Peace Coffee’s cold coffee solutions are suitable for both its wholesale business and its direct-to-consumer and retail channels.
Brewing cold brew without specialist equipment is an arduous, long-winded process, requiring extra staff, extra space, and extra time – all in short supply in the competitive food service industry.
As more customers seek cold coffee and cold brew options from their favourite cafés, cold brew concentrate is an easy way for behind-counter staff to serve high-quality beverages without sacrificing quality or workflow.
For consumers, cold brew concentrate is a convenient way to enjoy cold coffee at home – simply dilute with water, milk, or a non-dairy plant-based alternative for a quick, customisable cold brew fix.
“Cold and iced beverages continue to grow in popularity among US coffee consumers, with cold brew driving a significant portion of this trend,” Marc says.
“Today’s customers increasingly expect cold beverage options wherever coffee is served. To meet this demand, we’ve introduced our cold concentrate, which enables the creation of high-quality cold and iced coffee beverages without the need for additional equipment or operational complexity.
“Our cold brew concentrate is ideal for crafting high-margin offerings, like cold brew, iced lattes, espresso tonics, cocktails, and mocktails.”
Across the board, Peace Coffee exhibits all the signs of a complete specialty coffee operation. Alongside a foundational commitment to sustainable sourcing practices, Peace is constantly on the lookout for ways to make its product portfolio and business operations more environmentally friendly. Add to this an acute awareness of key consumer trends and a willingness to develop innovative coffee solutions to meet demand, and you will have a winning formula.
For Minnesotans, icy conditions call for iced coffee.
Cold Brew Pak offers a range of sustainable, 100% recyclable and biodegradable packaging solutions for cold coffee products, including customisable cold brew cans, bag-in-box cold brew packaging, and flexible cold brew pouches.
To source industry-leading, environmentally-friendly packaging for your cold coffee portfolio, visit our website or get in touch with us directly.
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Peace Coffee
