The Story
Counter Culture Coffee was founded in 1995 by Brett Smith and Fred Houk, who met at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in Durham, North Carolina . Their initial focus was creating custom coffee blends for Durham and Chapel Hill’s southern restaurants, with their first sale being a bag of coffee to Pop’s Trattoria . Starting from a modest 750 square-foot space in a strip mall near Research Triangle Park, the operation initially roasted only a few hundred pounds per week and sold exclusively to restaurants .
The company expanded its operations along the East Coast , evolving from a local roaster to a national specialty coffee brand. In 2015, Counter Culture opened its second roastery in Emeryville, California, to facilitate more efficient distribution and training for West Coast partners . By 2016, production had grown to roughly 50,000 pounds of coffee per week between the Durham headquarters and West Coast facility, prompting a move to a renovated 25,000 square foot warehouse space in east Durham . By 2024, the company had achieved national brand recognition after 29 years of consistent growth .
Counter Culture formalized its commitment to sustainability in a vision statement signed by Brett Smith, Peter Giuliano, and Daryn Berlin on March 10, 2003 . After an extensive application process, they became a certified B Corp and appointed a Board of Directors to guide business strategy . The company has remained true to its founding principles while scaling operations, maintaining a focus on education, transparency, and direct farmer relationships throughout its evolution.
Sourcing & Relationships
Counter Culture Coffee directly collaborates with coffee-growing artisans, building partnerships with farmers as the basis for their sustainable coffee model, which involves working with progressive and environmentally sensitive farms. In 2008, they launched a third-party Counter Culture Direct Trade Certification, establishing direct trade standards for sustainability, quality, and fairness in the coffee chain . Counter Culture pioneered third-party certified Direct Trade through Quality Certification Services, working with each farmer to determine production costs and beginning price negotiations accordingly .
Because they believe everyone deserves to make a living wage, they pay above the “market price” for all their coffees. In 2024, 85% of their coffee came from producers they worked with for five or more years . These lasting partnerships allow for collaboration and experimentation, with Counter Culture contracting as much coffee as possible before delivery to provide stability and transparency for operational and quality investments . The company buys primarily from small coffee producers at prices between $1.30 and $25 a pound, sourcing from multiple small estates and cooperatives rather than single large growers .
Since 2009, annual Transparency Reports have outlined their approach to green coffee purchasing, addressing persistently low prices in the coffee industry, believing that paying more for green coffee is an investment in the long-term sustainability of specialty coffee . On top of their Transparency Report, they publish data about every coffee they buy, combining all contracts from the same organization in a given year to provide a concise snapshot of their purchasing footprint . Through their Two for the Future program, they set aside two cents for every pound of coffee sold to fund sustainability initiatives, with their Seeds program offering financial grants to producers since 2009, allocating over $580,000 to date .
Roasting Philosophy
Counter Culture takes pride in sourcing the finest, ethically sourced coffee from around the world and roasting them to ensure a truly unique experience, with their goal being to bring a fresh, artisan approach to coffee roasting, offering a bean-to-cup experience that showcases the full potential of each coffee . Counter Culture Coffee is known for its emphasis on light to medium roasts, a method that preserves the natural characteristics of the beans and helps preserve their inherent flavors .
The company became the first specialty coffee roaster to deploy color-sorting technology for roasted coffee, using machines that eliminate coffee outside of a desired color profile, helping to create a higher quality product for their partners . Though some people equate dark roasts with lower quality, they’ve found this style can create an approachable, complex cup when the coffee quality is high, with dense coffees able to stand up to the high temperatures of darker roasting styles . Coffee is roasted in two production facilities: Durham, North Carolina (the company’s headquarters) and Emeryville, California .
They work directly with farmers and coffee cooperatives to identify high-quality coffee farms, tweaking and improving farming practices to be more sustainable while continually improving their product. Several quality control steps are used throughout the roasting process where members of the quality control team check the beans, remove defects, and taste the coffee to ensure proper roast and consistency . They set the standard for the best coffees by driving innovation at every step of the supply chain, taking action to invest in the environment and people through collaboration, communication, and transparency, while cultivating and exchanging knowledge to empower people to create extraordinary coffee experiences .
What to Try
Forty-Six, once known as Recipe #46, consistently stood out among wholesale partners and chefs as a favorite from their original 100+ blend lineup. When they simplified their menu, Forty-Six remained as their signature dark roast and a staple for dark roast lovers . This extraordinary blend of organic-certified coffees is sourced from some of the world’s most renowned coffee-growing regions, carefully chosen to maximize sweetness and maintain complexity through dark roasting, with components sourced from the same long-term partners that produce their single-origin coffees .
Hologram delivers the smoothest coffee with a nice milk chocolate taste, consistently praised by customers who actively searched for quality coffee for years before finding this blend . Big Trouble is another customer favorite, with friends specifically seeking out the “good stuff” when visiting . Fast Forward offers the perfect balance of nuttiness, creaminess, and sweetness, featuring the freshest organic coffees all year that transform morning routines into a celebration of coffee seasonality .
Their Roaster’s Choice single-origin program features monthly selections where the coffee team picks fresh seasonal roasts from coffee-producing partners, ensuring freshly harvested, whole-bean arabica coffees with rotating selections . Limited seasonal offerings like Perennial, a certified organic blend, include special community initiatives, with Counter Culture setting aside $1 per pound for the Bloom fund supporting sustainability projects identified by wholesale partners nationwide . Every Friday at 10 a.m., they host free public tastings at their regional Training Centers, welcoming friends, customers, and coffee lovers to guided tastings with details about coffee origins and why they love each selection, a tradition they’ve maintained for nearly three decades .