Tower’s Passion for Acquiring the Best Coffees

The Inspiration Behind Tower Coffee

It all began, when our founder, Robert Brown, went for his morning walk one day, as he is accustomed to doing. Bob, who went to seminary college, soon after, followed this education by acquiring an engineering degree and found himself in the burgeoning technology field. However, over the years, he’d always had a penchant for discovering incredible coffees and hoped to turn this passion and discoveries into something he could share with friends and neighbors.

A Conviction To Drive Coffee Innovation

As a man of deep faith and conviction, as well as of analysis and logic, Bob found himself relying on the power of prayer to ask what he should call his coffee company? Immediately, the image of a “tower” came flooding into his head. A tower is symbolic of excelling, transcending, the top, a pinnacle, the highest. Every molecule in Bob’s being felt good about this. So much so, he made a promise then and there to his maker that his company would always live up to the highest of standards. 

Tower Coffee’s Quest

Bob next sought out the Pacific Northwest’s best roasters, even acquiring a roasting machine from the family of an award-winning coffee roaster. He brought aboard Dan McCormick, Tor Naarheim and Christian Rea, coffee connoisseurs and award-winning design and product experts. As the team quickly grew, they took on a mammoth research effort to locate the world’s best coffee growers and beans.

Tower’s Relationships Matter

The Tower team had several standards they were looking for. First, they wanted to build passionate relationships with suppliers whose purpose, objectives and values mirrored theirs. Everyone at Tower’s mantra is “Flavor Above All” and they wanted partners driven by this calling. Equally important, Tower’s goal was to find partners who treated people fairly, had a thorough understanding of plant genetics and who practiced clean farming from growing to harvesting and washing to processing.

It’s really important that there always be complete transparency when working in a direct trade partnership, as coffee partners become part of the Tower family. Tower buys coffee from multiple countries around the world and each farming partner has their own story brewing. Having a sympatico relationship with quality and flavor as part of that story is key. Tower’s single-origin bean, and the upper prices they demand, tend to shine, but the premiums paid for their creative blends can often bring more value for direct trade partners by helping them profit on coffees that before may not have been in the limelight.

A Commitment to Biodiversity and Invention

Coffee first arrived in ancient tree-covered forests and in many places continues to grow organic and wild in the shadiest parts. These areas replenish and improve water sources and quality, increase ground fertility, fend off erosion and nurture biodiversity. A hefty part of Tower’s single bean investment supports growing in this natural fashion.

Last but not least, having come from the technology world, Tower’s team is data-driven, so performs extensive research when partnering with technologists who believe as we do -- that it is possible to make more earth-friendly coffee pods. Considering the creative partners that we have, there is absolutely no reason millions of unrecyclable pods need to go into landfills every year. We challenge our team to be inventive, creative and evolutionary. If not for that, we would not have invented the sustainable SUPER POD™ that serves coffee lovers with up to 47% more coffee and flavor!

Tower customers can be assured not a day goes by that Robert Brown and the Tower team are not excelling, reaching for the top and finding the pinnacle of flavor to honor Brown’s promise that Tower would always live up to the highest of quality and ethical standards.