Testing coffee at Peet's Coffee and Tea's headquarters in Emeryville, California, are, from the left, Doug Welsh, James Reynolds and Eric Hashimoto. In the Bay Area, Peet's has long been the Apple Computer of coffee, serving a small but intense group of aficionados who are convinced that the company's coffee is superior to that produced by the industry giant from Seattle: Starbucks.Jun 05, 2005

PHOTO: NY TIMES15