Gloria Jean’s Coffee Story

After yesterday’s passion and purpose workshop I met my daughter in Brisbane for coffee at Gloria Jean’s Coffee House, on the ground floor of Borders. It was an excellent spinach and pumpkin lasagna and a decent latte. Only two purchases to go before I get my free regular coffee.

When I first came across Gloria Jean’s at Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast my first reaction was, What’s another American brand doing here? As it turns out, Gloria Jean’s Coffee is owned in Australia by Nabi Selah and Peter Irvine, Sydney businessmen who are members of Hillsong Church, Australia’s most well known mega church. Does that make it any better? The food’s usually over priced, just like Starbucks. But the coffee’s good.

At the end of last year Gloria Jean’s Australia arranged to buy the international operations wing off their USA parent company. Coffee roasted in Castle Hill, Sydney, will be exported to all Gloria Jean’s coffee shops in other countries. And it looks as though they’re doing fine. Imperialism is OK if it starts here!

Gloria Jean’s made the news last month (see SMH article) by building a cafe in the visitor’s section inside Dillwynia Correctional Centre, in Sydney’s west, where female inmates will sell coffee to visitors and staff. Gloria Jeans tells us they’re not making any money out of it. The prisoners behind the counter get paid something like 85 cents an hour on top of their usual allowance. I wonder if they’ll get paid extra for public holidays? I guess this could become a trend – a trend befitting Australia’s history as a collection of prison colonies.

In the meantime, the real Gloria Jean is doing fine. Gloria Jean Kvetko set up shop in Long Grove, Illinois, in 1979. She sold the gourmet coffee business in 1993. Since then she’s experienced marriage break up, the death of a close friend, and breast cancer. She’s written a book, Journey to Prayer, outlining her experience of God’s love in the tough times.

One of the quotes on her web site caught my eye:

There is even sexual division in coffee, believe it or not. Men want real coffee, masculine coffee. Women love flavored coffee. Hey, maybe we can learn something from that (laughs). When men have a little more flavor, they are more desirable to women!