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Peet's buys Stumptown coffee, hoping to ride the success of 'third wave' roasters
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Oct 8, 2015
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Peet's buys Stumptown coffee, hoping to ride the success of 'third wave' roasters
Roasters like Stumptown represent one of the fastest growing and profitable segments in the business: Craft coffee.
A man drinks coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters.
A man drinks coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters.
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Flickr user girl_onthe_les (Creative Commons)
)

Roasters like Stumptown represent one of the fastest growing and profitable segments in the business: Craft coffee.

There is a lot of dough in a cuppa Joe.

The national chain Peet's just bought the relatively small but hip coffee roaster Stumptown for an undisclosed amount. The food and beverage industry is buzzing, because these roasters represent one of the fastest growing and profitable segments in the business: Craft coffee.

Stumptown is part of what's known as the "third wave" of roasters because they take the art and love of coffee beyond where Peet's and Starbucks brought it in the 1990s.

Cory Eldridge, editor of the trade magazine Fresh Cup magazine, explains why coffee drinkers are turning to these craft brews in droves, and how national chains don't want to be left behind.