counter culture coffee training center seattle washington

Counter Culture Coffeeโ€™s Seattle Training Center is the sort of space you might stumble upon by chance. Located in a narrow storefront on 1st Street in the cityโ€™s Pioneer Square, its two-C logo affixed to the buildingโ€™s facade just looks like it belongs. Has it always been here?

It hasnโ€™t, but Counter Culture’s Seattle “TC”, as itโ€™s colloquially referred to, has been in the making since 2016. The independently owned Durham, North Carolina-based company entered the market in the city with one customerโ€”the diminutive Anchored Ship cafe in Ballardโ€”but grew exponentially when hometown favorite Cherry Street Public House picked them up as a supplier that same year. Counter Culture cut the ribbon on its new space in mid-April. Seattle regional manager Amanda Byron explains that the company wanted to have a unique launch event, not just another coffee party.

Amanda Byron
Amanda Byron

โ€œIt wasnโ€™t just an open house,โ€ Byron says of what will surely be the first of many special events at the training space. โ€œThe idea was that we would do a book launch for A Reference Guide to Ethiopian Coffee Varieties.โ€

The book, written by Counter Cultureโ€™s Getu Bekele and Timothy Hill, is exactly what it sounds like, and sets out, according to its introduction, โ€œto provide a more complete picture of the unique coffee varieties found in Ethiopia and showcase the work researchers have been doing in the country for over 40 years to make Ethiopian coffee more disease-resistant and better tasting.โ€ Sounds like a lot to bite off? It would be, perhaps, for a roaster with less depth of knowledge in the field.ย The opening also featured Jeff Koehler, who wrote Where the Wild Coffee Grows, and showcased a limited-release single-farmer-lot coffee from Jose Sebastian Rodriguez in Colombia to commemorate the occasion.

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counter culture coffee training center seattle washington

Before opening their own space, Counter Cultureโ€™s Seattle operations were run out of the La Marzocco showroom in nearby Ballard. But having a facility fully their own is key to the Counter Culture model, says Byron.

โ€œThere are four corners to a complete regionโ€”education, sales account management, tech support, and a training center,” she explains. “We could’ve existed at La Marzocco for quite a while, but it never would’ve been our space.โ€

Operating in lockstep with other TCs, the Pioneer Square space features a Mazzer ZM, La Marzocco Strada and Linea PB machines, and a Marco Mix system.

counter culture coffee training center seattle washington

โ€œWith each new training center,โ€ Byron says, โ€œyou’ll see slightly different equipment, depending on what’s new at the time of its opening. But what weโ€™re really doing in each is creating spaces that are easy to use, functional, and welcoming.โ€

That means the companyโ€™s popular Tasting at Ten series will continue in Seattle, and Counter Cultureโ€™s customers will of course have access to the space for trainings. Current partnerships include all of Cherry Streetโ€™s cafes, two General Porpoise locations, the Miir flagship,ย 5 Stones Coffee Company in Redmond, and James Beard Award-winning Seattle institution Canlis, which serves exclusive off-menu coffees whenever possible.

Tasting at Ten

โ€œI’m interested in how [the new center] impacts our ability to expand in Seattle,โ€ Byron says. โ€œWe have a support model like nobody else does, and I think that a lot of places here don’t yet know it exists. My hope is to get people in here to see this.โ€

Whether theyโ€™re invited in or just happen to be walking by, her hope seems a reasonable one.

The Counter Culture Training Center is located atย 313 1st Ave S., Seattle. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Michael Light (@MichaelPLight) is a features editor at Sprudge Media Network.ย Read moreย Michael Light onย Sprudge.

Some photos courtesy of Counter Culture Coffee.

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