Raise a cup of joe in honor of Kaldi’s. The St. Louis-based coffee company made Fortune magazine’s list of the nation’s best small coffee makers, shining a light on the post-Starbuck’s era of artisan coffee we talked about in-depth back in March. Despite providing little information as to why it chose Kaldi’s, Fortune ranked the local roaster No. 10 out of the 17 companies it sees as coffee’s most promising players. Kaldi’s was one of only four companies named in the Midwest. Chicago’s popular Intellegentsia Coffee & Tea came in seventh, Oakland, Calif.-based Blue Bottle Coffee landed at No. 3, and taking the top spot was Bard Coffee in Portland, Maine. To read Fortune’s coverage of Kaldi’s, click here.
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2011.