Isa Cruz

After more than 20 years of serving Seacoast Coffee in dining halls and the Café, Bowdoin Dining Service found a new supplier for their daily brew over the summer: the Topsham-based company Wicked Joe Organic Coffees.

The switch came after Jim Peterman, the owner and operator of Seacoast, notified Dining Service last April that he planned to retire and sell his Wiscasset-based business.

Executive Director of Dining Ryan Miller highlighted his appreciation for Peterman’s commitment to keep providing Bowdoin with coffee until the end of the spring semester, which gave Dining Services adequate time to find a new supplier.

“Jim was great with working with us to continue providing coffee to campus all the way through Commencement and Reunion,” Miller wrote in an email to the Orient. “We were able to spend the last half of April and early May engaging with other local coffee roasters, ultimately making the decision to partner with Wicked Joe.”

With finding another local supplier as their “highest priority,” Dining Service selected three Maine-based companies as potential replacements for Seacoast. Miller said Wicked Joe quickly became a clear favorite, citing the company’s emphasis on sustainability and its Midcoast location as key strengths.

“All of their coffee is certified organic and fair trade, and their company has a long-held commitment to sustainability and providing high quality products,” Miller wrote. “The company has humble origins, first starting their business in 2003 in a small café on Water Street here in Brunswick. Over the past two decades they have grown into one of the largest roasters in the New England region. Everything from coffee blends, quality, distribution, equipment, delivery logistics, cost to sustainability all played a part in our decision making.”

However, to maintain their organic certification, Wicked Joe is prohibited from adding certain ingredients and flavorings to their coffee—meaning flavored coffees, previously provided by Seacoast, will no longer be available in dining halls.

Some community members who were frequent drinkers of Seacoast’s flavored coffee options, such as German Chocolate Cake, Yankee Doodle and Jamaican’ Me Crazy, have lamented the loss of their favorite drinks.

“I really liked [the flavored coffee]. I liked German Chocolate Cake a lot, I liked [the blueberry flavor],” Jonah Bussgang ’25 said. “It’s hard to replace the excitement of Yankee Doodle, seeing that sign on the pitcher in the morning.”

Bussgang, a former dining hall employee who occasionally helped with brewing coffee, added that although he misses his favorite coffee flavors, he remembers using a lot of plastic for the flavored coffees and is happy Wicked Joe’s coffee is more sustainable.

“There was a lot of plastic actually, all the flavors came in individual packets—which was interesting,” Bussgang said. “I’m excited about organic coffee. And Wicked Joe’s a good New England company.”

Miller recognized that Wicked Joe’s inability to supply flavored coffee was a drawback and noted that Dining Service considered the issue while selecting a new vendor. However, he said that given the small percentage of flavored coffee consumed on campus, Wicked Joe still remained the top choice.

“Before we made the decision to partner with Wicked Joe, we made sure to get a feel for how important flavored coffee might be in the process. Last year, less than 10 percent of all our coffee purchases were for flavored products,” Miller wrote.

Additionally, alternatives to flavored coffee might soon become available, according to Miller, as Dining Service looks into sourcing more flavored syrups.

“I think people would appreciate a vanilla, caramel pump and some of the flavored creamers,” Bussgang said when asked about other coffee flavoring options being offered in the dining halls.

Considering Seacoast’s long history at Bowdoin, Miller acknowledged the inevitability of some community members having negative feelings about the change, but said overall, the campus response to Wicked Joe has been positive.

“Coffee can be one of those divisive things in our line of work. Any time you have a provider on campus for as long as Seacoast was, there can be sentimental attachments one way or another,” Miller wrote. “Wicked Joe has been on campus since late June, so our faculty/staff and summer students have had a sneak peek. That feedback has all been glowing.”