Torrefazione Italia is a former coffee roaster and café franchise, now a high-end brand of Starbucks coffee beans sold in grocery stores.

 

History

The first Torrefazione Italia café opened in Seattle, Washington in 1986. Espresso, 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) 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, Portland, Boston, Chicago, 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,[1] 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.