Nestle paid $7.1 billion for the rights to Starbucks, Seattle's Best, Teavana, and Torrefazione Italia, another brand Starbucks acquired when it bought Seattle's Best.

Just four months after opening in Cape Town's Cavendish Square, Seattle Coffee Company sold its 60-store business to Starbucks, which by 1998 was hungry to enter the UK's booming coffee shop market. Remarkably, once Starbucks absorbed Seattle's UK operation, South Africa became the brand's sole market.

Seattle Coffee's mission statement is "Statement is "to inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time"."

NestléSeattle’s Best Coffee / Parent organization Seattle's Best Coffee LLC is a subsidiary of Nestlé whose brand is used to sell wholesale coffee, ground coffee, and coffee K-cups.

According to press releases and information on their website and floating around the web, the majority of Arabica beans they use in their private label roast are imported by Gaviña. However, they do use Green Mountain, Newman's Own and Seattle's Best as well in some of their blends.

Getting back to doing what it does best could be what the coffee shop needs to grow once again. Starbucks (SBUX -0.18%) is selling its Seattle's Best coffee brand as it continues to narrow its vision about what the coffee experience means.

During AFC Enterprises' ownership, Seattle Coffee Company's Vashon Island roasterie was upgraded and the company's organic coffee line was established. AFC Enterprises sold SBC to Starbucks in July 2003, retaining franchise rights in eleven countries, Hawaii and U.S. military bases.

In July, Starbucks announced the closure of five stores in Seattle and 16 nationwide, citing safety concerns. One of the Seattle stores was also on Capitol Hill, on Olive Way. The Starbucks Workers Union countered the company's claim, saying it is a tactic to slow down unionization campaigns.

The city's first commercial roasting operations began producing fresh-roasted coffee more than 100 years ago, and the coffeehouse scene of the 1960s introduced espresso drinks to local aficionados who would then transform Seattle coffee culture into various multimillion-dollar businesses.

The Sustainable Coffee Company is committed to providing our customers with coffee excellence and real solutions for a sustainable future and healthy planet.

The nation's No. 2 burger chain will add Starbucks Corp.'s Seattle's Best Coffee to all its U.S. restaurants in a phased roll-out that begins this summer, executives told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Dunkin' coffee, manufactured and distributed by The J.M. Smucker Company, contains 100 percent premium Arabica beans.