nd while most young Americans were perfecting their disco moves, one young man, Jeffrey Cohn, focused instead on a new venture—launching a specialty coffee company. Having grown up in a family of coffee entrepreneurs (his grandfather was the founder of coffee giant Superior Coffee), Cohn wanted to provide people with a higher-quality coffee than the one they could get to with a can opener—one that people could enjoy solely on the merits of flavor. In 1977, his vision became a reality with the establishment of “The Brewing Market” in Boulder, Colorado.

Soon after opening his second shop in 1980, Cohn began roasting his own beans on-site, exposing Boulder to authentic, freshly roasted specialty coffees for the first time. In 1985, increasing demand in the wholesale market prompted Cohn to sell the Brewing Market and launch Allegro Coffee Company, an import, roasting and wholesale distribution venture. Cohn’s insistence on using only the purest quality ingredients and traditional, handcrafted roasting methods sparked the interest of Boulder’s natural foods retailers just as natural foods markets were beginning a phase of dynamic, nationwide expansion.

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