The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (sometimes shortened to simply "The Coffee Bean") is a Los Angeles, California-based coffee chain, owned and operated by International Coffee & Tea, LLC. The company was founded by Mona and Herbert Hyman. The first store opened in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood in September 1963. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf celebrated its 45th anniversary during the month of September 2008. The Coffee Bean has locations in San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Honolulu and all over Southern California including Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura. Many "Coffee Beans" found outside of California are franchises, Singaporean entrepreneur Victor Sassoon has opened locations throughout Southeast Asia, and Hawaii's stores are franchises as well.

Wi-fi access is offered at most locations. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is an international presence with locations in Qatar, Singapore, Israel, Korea, United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Kuwait, Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Mexico City.

Several Southern California Ralphs supermarkets feature full-service Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf kiosks in their stores.

Halal & Kosher

Most, if not all, of the products at Coffee Bean are certified as kosher. At least one Coffee Bean store even goes to the extent of meeting the higher standard of cholov yisroel in their dairy products. Unlike Starbucks, Coffee Bean has fared fairly well in its entry into the Israeli coffee chain market. This may be attributed to its kosher food selection, though the main reasoning is said to be that Coffee Bean allowed smoking. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's beverages are also halal.

Giving Back

SUPPORT FROM HOME

In 2008, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf launched its “Support from Home” campaign. From July 1 until August 31, 2008, consumers were invited to purchase a bag of coffee, a tin of tea and/or retail merchandise to donate to U.S. troops overseas. During the campaign, the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf also offered a “Support from Home” limited edition blend of coffee. The packaged coffee was designed with a special back label created to allow consumers to write a personalized message to soldiers. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf worked in conjunction with an organization called “Soldiers’ Angels” to provide the product donations. They also donated a portion of the proceeds from the “Support from Home” blend to the Fisher House, an organization that acts as a “home away from home” for families of military personnel and veterans receiving medical care at major medical facilities. In total, Coffee Bean customers donated more than 18,000 pounds of coffee to military personnel.

Free Wi-Fi

In order to cater to consumers’ demands to be online 24/7, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf began offering “totally free” Wi-Fi Internet access at virtually all company-owned stores. The company started installing the Wi-Fi units in July of 2008 and many stores had the wireless service by the end of August 2008. The service is totally free and unrestricted without the need to create an online account or use a credit card.

Television/Movie Appearances

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has appeared in a number of television shows. It is unclear if this is part of the company's marketing strategy.

• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was featured in the HBO show Entourage as the regular meeting place for Vincent Chase and his associates.
• The Coffee Bean was repeatedly featured on Jamie Kennedy´s MTV show Blowin' Up as his favorite hangout place.
• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was featured in the 2005 film version of the TV show Bewitched.
• In two of Ashley Tisdale's Youtube videos, she mentions The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. One video, she is seen drinking it. In a video of her on tour, she is going to Starbucks and says that she is "cheating on The Coffee Bean."
• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was featured in the film The Holiday, where the drink held by Jack Black is the "Ice Blended," recognizable by a purple straw and the logo on the cup.
• Some promotional pictures of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were taken for the fifth season of The Simple Life within a The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf location.
• Gary Arndt, noted travel blogger, used to work at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf mobile cappuccino station appeared in the 2007 comedy Meet the Spartans
• A Phineas and Ferb episode features a shack built by their androids called "The Robot Bean and Tea Leaf", and Phineas responds by saying, "Over-powered coffee chains are so '90's."

External links

• Official website of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
• Company profile on Yahoo! Finance
• Hawaii Franchise Website

References

• BruneiDirect.Com Coffee Bean drinks are halal Retrieved on July 1, 2008.
• coffeebean.com. International Franchise Locations
• Coffeebeanhawaii.com. Hawaii Franchise Website