Blue Bottle Coffee Concepts

Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century

by W. David Marx · 18 Nov 2025 · 642pp · 142,332 words

Effing Tired? and another called Nerd Alert. Start-ups like Care/of offered “personalized” vitamin packs with minimalist design reminiscent of the trendy café chain Blue Bottle Coffee. Ritual, a competing vitamin brand, gained traction with aesthetically pleasing capsules featuring beadlets suspended in oil. Its marketing promised “traceable” ingredients and a commitment to

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(TV series), 160 Black Panther (film), 154 Blackpink, 177 Black, Rebecca, 94 black swan theory, 69 blank space, 3 Blogger, 50–51 Blonde (album), 109 Blue Bottle Coffee, 194 Blueprint, The (album), 33 “Blurred Lines” (video), 121–22, 155–56 Bogost, Ian, 161 Boiling Points (TV series), 79 Boing Boing (zine), 50–51

Frommer's San Francisco 2012

by Matthew Poole, Erika Lenkert and Kristin Luna · 4 Oct 2011

colored, homemade candies to go, you know, since we’ve already come all this way—followed by a cup of joe across the way at Blue Bottle Coffee ★★, 315 Linden St., a well-hidden kiosk down a side alley that serves some of the city’s best organic, gourmet, brewed-to-order coffee

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New People World), which offers five levels of J-awesomeness. The basement offers a THX-certified theater to showcase Japanese cinema; the first floor includes Blue Bottle coffee and Bentos snack shop; the main floor offers a New People shop that offers “all that is kawaii, fun, fabulous and bizarre”; second floor shops

Fodor's California 2014

by Fodor's · 5 Nov 2013 · 1,540pp · 400,759 words

San Franciscans flock to the street-level marketplace, stocking up on supplies from local favorites such as Acme Bread, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Cowgirl Creamery, and Blue Bottle Coffee. Lucky diners claim a coveted table at Slanted Door, the city’s beloved high-end Vietnamese restaurant. The seafood bars at Hog Island Oyster Company

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and cutting-edge Asian (largely Japanese) films and is home to the San Francisco Film Society. Grab some onigiri (rice balls) and a cup of Blue Bottle coffee at the café, then head upstairs and peruse Japanese pop-culture items and anime-inspired fashion. The cuteness radiating from the Rilakkuma store may overwhelm

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Street in the next block of Shattuck is the art-filled Guerilla Cafe (No. 1620), a breakfast and lunch spot beloved for its waffles (the Blue Bottle Coffee doesn’t hurt). Also look for the Local Butcher Shop (No. 1600), with locally sourced meat and hearty made-to-order sandwiches. A former Ritz

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The Rough Guide to New York City

by Rough Guides · 21 May 2018

local bodegas in those paper Anthora “Greek” cups, newer chains such as Bluestone Lane have raised the bar considerably, competing with West Coast imports like Blue Bottle Coffee and Stumptown. Another recent trend has been the arrival of the gourmet food hall. The Financial District With the neighbourhood becoming more residential, eating options

California

by Sara Benson · 15 Oct 2010

their food seriously, and breakfast could easily turn into lunch once you get a whiff of the pastries and hot sandwiches on offer. DOWNTOWN AREA Blue Bottle Coffee Company (Map; 510-653-3394; www.bluebottlecoffee.net; 66 Mint St; 7am-7pm Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm Sat, 8am-4pm Sun) The microroaster with the

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; 415-861-0198; www.missionbeachcafesf.com; 198 Guerrero St; 7am-6pm Mon, to 10pm Tue-Thu, to 11pm Fri & Sat, 9am-10pm Sun) Come for Blue Bottle coffee and housemade pie in the afternoon, and linger over a glass of small-production local wine. Brunches are not to be missed – chef Ryan Scott

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artist-owners and order numbers spotlighting guerillas and liberation revolutionaries. Organic and Fair Trade ingredients feature in the breakfasts and panini sandwiches, and locally roasted Blue Bottle coffee is served. Occasional film screenings pack the place, as do live music or DJ sessions on some weekend afternoons. Caffe Strada (Map; 2300 College Ave

Patricia Unterman's San Francisco Food Lover's Pocket Guide

by Patricia Unterman and Ed Anderson · 1 Mar 2007 · 263pp · 61,784 words

cotton candy spun from rose geranium-, lavender-, or vanilla-scented sugar. The wooly candy releases a delicate fragrance as it melts on your tongue. COFFEE BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE 315 Linden Street (at Gough); No telephone number; www.bluebottlecoffee.net; Open Monday through Friday 7 A.M. to 5 P.M., Saturday and Sunday

Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz · 8 Mar 2016 · 233pp · 58,561 words

“hard way.” At GV, we’ve run sprints with companies like Foundation Medicine (makers of advanced cancer diagnostics), Nest (makers of smart home appliances), and Blue Bottle Coffee (makers of, well, coffee). We’ve used sprints to assess the viability of new businesses, to make the first version of new mobile apps, to

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he brewed and sold coffee by the cup. His manner was polite and accommodating, and the coffee was delicious. Soon James and his cart, called Blue Bottle Coffee, developed a following. In 2005, he established a permanent Blue Bottle location in a friend’s San Francisco garage. Over the next few years, as

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a Blue Bottle location. If that coffee cart had been Sputnik, the next phase would be more like a moon shot. So in October 2012, Blue Bottle Coffee raised $20 million from a group of Silicon Valley investors, including GV. James had many plans for that money, but one of the most obvious

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makes an excellent kickoff. But sprints aren’t only for long-term projects. Here are three challenging situations where sprints can help: High Stakes Like Blue Bottle Coffee, you’re facing a big problem and the solution will require a lot of time and money. It’s as if you’re the captain

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team leader. These Deciders generally understand the problem in depth, and they often have strong opinions and criteria to help find the right solution. Take Blue Bottle Coffee’s sprint. Having CEO James Freeman in the room was critical. He was there to talk about Blue Bottle’s core values and share his

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, but as Savioke’s head of business development, she knew more than anyone about how hotels operated and what they wanted from the robot. For Blue Bottle Coffee, important insights came from the customer service manager and the CFO, people who normally wouldn’t have been involved in building the website. In other

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frustrating for a moment, but the satisfaction and confidence of a clear goal will last all week. Sometimes, setting the long-term goal is easy. Blue Bottle Coffee knew where they were headed in the long term: Bring great coffee to new customers online. Of course, they could have simplified their goal to

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into the future and our project failed. What might have caused that? An important part of this exercise is rephrasing assumptions and obstacles into questions. Blue Bottle Coffee assumed they could find a way to convey their expertise through their website, but before the sprint, they weren’t sure how. It’s not

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. This is their map: Savioke’s robot delivery map. On the first day of their sprint, Blue Bottle Coffee sorted through information about coffee selection, customer support, café operations, and distribution channels. Here is their map: Blue Bottle Coffee’s online sales map. The common elements? Each map is customer-centric, with a list of key

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example, with Blue Bottle, we could ask, “How might we re-create the café experience?” or “How might we ensure coffee arrives fresh?” Some of Blue Bottle Coffee’s How Might We notes. Now, some folksI will bristle at the slightly unnatural “How might we” phrasing. After all, most people don’t talk

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and opportunity were at the guest-room door. And they knew that if they got the delivery right, they could apply what they learned elsewhere. Blue Bottle Coffee decided to target their most challenging audience: Customers who had never heard of their cafés and who were shopping for beans they had never tasted

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form a quick strategy. Should your team split up to tackle different parts of the problem, or should you all focus on the same spot? Blue Bottle Coffee had one specific target for their sprint: helping customers choose beans. But there were several smaller pieces of the website that were involved: the home

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your preparation, you’re finally going to get a chance to sketch some solutions. Wait a minute. Did somebody say “sketch”? 9 Sketch Serah Giarusso, Blue Bottle Coffee’s customer support lead, looked uneasy. And she wasn’t the only one. James Freeman, the CEO, furrowed his brow. It was Tuesday afternoon of

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a great solution. To show you what we’re talking about, let’s take a look at one of the sketches that came out of Blue Bottle Coffee’s sprint—a solution called “The Mind Reader.” Each sticky note represents one page on Blue Bottle’s website. The big idea behind “The Mind

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know coffee.” It was the big winner of Friday’s test, and it became the foundation for Blue Bottle’s new website. A solution from Blue Bottle Coffee’s sprint. Each sticky note represents one screen. So, who sketched that solution? It wasn’t a designer, an architect, or an illustrator. It was

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put the power of the sketch in perspective, let’s check out a few more solutions from the Blue Bottle sprint: Three solution sketches from Blue Bottle Coffee’s sprint. As you can see, these sketches are detailed, but they’re not works of art. Each sketch consists of words, boxes, and the

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your phrasing. As you’ll see in the next step, writing is often the most important component of the solution sketch. Crazy 8s from the Blue Bottle Coffee sprint. The frames show experiments with phrasing (“hand pour coffee” vs. “pour over coffee”), navigation, and page layout. Sometimes Crazy 8s leads to a revelation

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seat backs and tray tables are in their fully upright and locked positions. Your solution sketches are ready for takeoff. A solution sketch from the Blue Bottle Coffee sprint. To understand how this idea works, read the notes from top to bottom—as you would a comic book: In the top frame, the

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customer, we use Craigslist. We know it sounds crazy, but it works. It’s how we found perfect participants for our tests with Savioke and Blue Bottle Coffee—and dozens of other companies. The secret is to post a generic ad that will attract a broad audience, then link to a screener survey

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can discover with your survey. Do the same thing for characteristics you want to exclude (for example, people with too much expertise in your industry). Blue Bottle Coffee wanted to interview “coffee-drinking foodies.” To find these customers, we used measurable criteria like: they drink at least one cup of coffee per day

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, the team chose “Gather” for the second prototype. That name was perfect: It wasn’t a real product, but it sounded like it could be. Blue Bottle Coffee faced a similar challenge when they tested different ideas for their online store. They needed fake brand names that sounded like real coffee companies, and

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build it next week, then seeing it in a prototype won’t teach you much. Skip those easy wins in favor of big, bold bets. Blue Bottle Coffee’s storyboard shows all of the clicks required to select and order coffee beans. Detail from Savioke’s storyboard, showing the robot delivery at the

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some acting. Slack had two competing ideas to prototype. First was “The Tenacious Tour,” a step-by-step explanation of the software. Just as with Blue Bottle Coffee, this idea could be faked with a series of slides that looked like a website. No sweat. But the other idea, “Bot Team,” was tricky

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experience begins. Be sure to assign a Maker and a Writer to your opening scene, just as with every other part of the prototype. For Blue Bottle Coffee, the opening scene was an article in the New York Times, and we needed someone to write a plausible article. (We’re not up for

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team poured their efforts into bringing those ideas to market, and it paid off in the form of great press coverage and new hotel customers. Blue Bottle Coffee tested three competing prototypes in a classic Rumble. One idea was an efficient failure; the other two were flawed successes. Blue Bottle took the best

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of GV portfolio companies. Their curious, talented teams gave me the most transformative learning experiences of my career. Thanks in particular to Pocket, Foundation Medicine, Blue Bottle Coffee, Savioke, and Cluster. To Kristen, Daniel, Jake, Michael, and Braden (yes, you again, Braden): Thank you. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it

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Atlanta Falcons, 172 Atlantic Ocean, 83–84 BadgerCo, 42–43 Balsiger, Peter, 2 Bentz, Melitta, 95–96 big questions, finding answers to, 28 Blogger, 6 Blue Bottle Coffee sprint, 16, 21–25, 28, 30, 33, 57, 65, 66, 73–74, 84, 96, 101, 103–4, 108, 113, 116–17, 119, 120, 146, 153

Rough Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area

by Nick Edwards and Mark Ellwood · 2 Jan 2009

any grande eggnog lattes at these places, but you can expect to get a cup of fresh coffee for a mere $1.50–2.25. Blue Bottle Coffee 315 Linden St at Gough, Hayes Valley t415/252-7535. Located down an alley off a main thoroughfare, this quirky spot offers excellent breakfast and

San Francisco Like a Local: By the People Who Call It Home

by Dk Eyewitness · 5 Apr 2023 · 168pp · 33,200 words

when it comes to amping up a latte. g Drink g Contents Coffee Shops NOT LATTE PHILZ COFFEE ANOTHER CAFE ANDYTOWN COFFEE ROASTERS SIGHTGLASS COFFEE BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE g Coffee Shops g Contents Google Map NOT LATTE Map 5; 2142 Irving Street, Outer Sunset; ///down.shunts.flute ; www.not-latte.com As you

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without sipping a sparkling cascara shrub soda, a health drink, flavored with the dried skins of coffee cherries. g Coffee Shops g Contents Google Map BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE Map 1; Ferry Building, Embarcadero; ///gender.last.bumpy; www.bluebottlecoffee.com It’s a fairly typical story around these parts: Oakland-based freelance musician who

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a sustainably sourced, third-wave coffee empire with outposts in Tokyo and Seoul, and has a cult following of caffeine-addicted fans. And that’s Blue Bottle Coffee. Whatever you order here, be it an outrageously silky cappuccino or a chicory-spiked, New Orleans-style iced coffee, take it outside and sip with

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most proud to call this community home because of how we all stand up for what we know to be just.” JASON MILLER, BARISTA AT BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE g Drink g Contents An evening of cocktails in the Tenderloin It’s scrappy, it’s ragged around the edges, but the Tenderloin is home

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’s Kitchen House of Nanking Humphry Slocombe The Italian Homemade Company Liholiho Yacht Club Mister Jiu’s Rooster & Rice DRINK 620 Jones Amelie Another Cafe Blue Bottle Coffee Bourbon & Branch Buena Vista Cafe The Cheesecake Factory Comstock Saloon Key Klub Li Po Cocktail Lounge Resolute Top of the Mark Union Larder Vesuvio Cafe

Lonely Planet Pocket San Francisco

by Lonely Planet and Alison Bing · 31 Aug 2012

bourbon cocktails in the old-new fashion. (www.aventinesf.com; 582 Washington St; 11:30am-midnight Mon-Fri, 8:30pm-2am Sat; Kearny St) 32 Blue Bottle Coffee Company Cafe Offline map Google map Don’t mock SF’s coffee geekishness until you try a superior fair-trade organic drip that spurts through