Seattle's Best Coffee introducing lighter roasts

Starbucks lets its Seattle's Best Coffee brand try things it dares not touch: selling coffee through Burger King and Subway, franchising cafes to individuals, and beginning in December, roasting coffee lightly. Coffee roasts are a highly individual matter. Some coffee lovers sniff at light roasts, which they consider the purview of mainstream brands like Maxwell House and Folgers. Other coffee drinkers prefer certain lighter roasts, also known as northern Italian roasts, when they come from wizards like David Schomer of Espresso Vivace in Seattle.

Seattle's Best Coffee wants to help coffee drinkers bridge the gap between cheap, mainstream coffee and more expensive, specialty coffee — and that means adding lighter roasts, said President Michelle Gass. "Seattle's Best [blend], which we consider a medium roast, is still too strong for some consumers getting into premium coffee," she said.

So, the brand is adding two lighter roasts to grocery shelves in December — numbers one and two of a five-level system that Seattle's Best hopes will simplify the buying process for customers. Level three is the equivalent of the current Seattle's Best Blend and level four is the old Henry's Blend, which is used to make espresso at Seattle's Best cafes. Level five is the equivalent of a French roast.

Seattle's Best sells about $52 million in packaged coffee a year through stores other than Wal-Mart and warehouse clubs like Costco, according to A.C. Nielsen. Starbucks sells several times that much. Both are distributed by Kraft Foods, which is battling Starbucks over the coffee company's attempt to sever their relationship.