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Tom in Sulawesi way back in 2012 -
We actually exist in the non-virtual world. Here's our Adeline street store front. -
Our retail space and will-call pick up area. -
Here's our little old shop in Columbus, Ohio way back in 1999! -
Our first Emeryville warehouse was 5000 square feet.
That's small by coffee business standards but to us it was huge! -
We got our very first forklift in Emeryville so we didn’t have to break our backs unloading coffee one bag at a time. -
Our current Oakland warehouse on Adeline. More room for coffee and a more spacious/safer place to work. -
The back end...where we ship and receive coffee.
About Sweet Maria's Coffee
Sweet Maria's was founded by Thompson Owen in 1997 with Maria Troy, who he met in the Masters program at School of the Art Institute Chicago. Thompson (or Thom or Tom) is in charge of the green coffee side our company and does much of the writing and photography etc. He evaluates incoming coffee samples and travels to our sources around the world. Maria has now retired from the business, but was involved with all the business side of things.
Sweet Maria’s Coffee started in a dimly-lit basement in Columbus, Ohio in late 1997! Basically, coffee options weren't great at the time, and having done a stint roasting before (in New Orleans ...a different story), Thompson wanted to find green coffee and roast at home. That was no easy task in 1997.
A local roaster offered to sell green coffee at 10% off the roasted price. It dawned on Tom that, factoring in 18-20% weight loss, he was actually paying extra for the favor of having them not roast his coffee. Given that all their coffee tasted smoky because they didn't maintain their machines, he figured it was still worth it. But it seemed like there must be a better way.
Our First Locations
Armed with a cursory knowledge of how to code html in a text editor, Tom made a web site. Then, realizing that doing business in a dark basement was generally a bummer, he found a small, well-lit, and rather well-hidden retail location 9 E. 2nd Avenue in Columbus. While SM then became a small coffee shop and roastery (with a 12 kg Diedrich), it was really just a location to do the home coffee roasting mail order business.
Tom and Maria moved the company to Emeryville, CA in 2002. Emeryville is a city wedged between Oakland and Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco. It used to have the largest scrap heap of crushed cars in the state. Now, there’s a giant Ikea and a fancy shopping center. Times change.
We moved to our first Oakland warehouse on 21st Street in 2005. It was a huge upgrade for us ... but we grew out of it as well. At times we had coffee and merchandise stacked to the ceilings. Ever play the video game Tetris? Well, our amazing crew had to play the real life version every day with boxes and bags of coffee.
We moved up the street to our current Oakland warehouse during the summer of 2016 and are still only a few minutes from the port of Oakland, the Specialty Coffee port in the US. The majority of top grade coffees come through here - and you know it, New Jersey! Cupping with local coffee brokers and picking up coffee from the local warehouses has made up for all the annoyances that come along with being based near some of the trendier areas in California. We have a staff of dedicated folks that work tirelessly through the week to make sure your orders are shipped to you ASAP. This location is larger than the last, which means more room for coffee and our staff can work a little more comfortably.
We have a retail area too which means you can come down here, buy some coffee and actually take a look at home coffee roasting equipment in person. Our pick up rack is in the same space so you can grab your online will call orders here too. Parking can be a little scarce so feel free to park in the red zone front of our storefront if you plan on being here for a few minutes. Please don't enter from the rear of our business. There's a lot of dangerous, fast-moving stuff going on back there.
Location: 2823 Adeline Street, Oakland, CA 94608
Phone: 510-371-4882
Email us: [email protected]
Also see our Ordering Policies page.
