Founders of Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company celebrate 35 years of business
Founders started Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company after watching the Alpine World 撸先生 Championships in 1989
Tricia Swenson/Vail Daily
It was 1989 and Chris Chantler and Craig Arseneau were in Switzerland visiting friends when they decided Vail was the place to open a coffee shop.
“Each night we were out watching the 1989 Alpine World 撸先生 Championships, which were held in Vail that year, cheering on one of the local Swiss ski racers,” Chantler said. “At that point we knew Vail was being watched by the world, and now on the global ski map. We both decided it was time to make our move to Vail.”
Chantler and Arseneau met in Boston after college and became more interested in starting their own business rather than being in the corporate world. They were excited by what was happening in the coffee industry and just how good specialty coffee was and thought it looked like a great opportunity. The pair traveled to Vail in 1988 to seek out prospects.
“We investigated retail spaces and areas to put espresso carts. Vending permits were not allowed, and retail spaces were not affordable. So, we put the project on hold,” Chantler said.
A call from a realtor who knew they were looking for retail space clinched the deal. In November of 1989 they opened The Daily Grind on Bridge Street.
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“It wasn’t easy moving across country to start a business. We were totally under financed and very na茂ve,” Chantler said. “I will never forget when we finally opened for our first full day of business and did a whopping $45 in sales. We looked at each other and said, ‘are we the two stupidest people on this planet?'”
But what they lacked in resources Chantler and Arseneau made up for with youth and energy and The Daily Grind quickly became the heartbeat of Vail Village. Chantler and Arseneau embraced the community and created community.
“We gave away 1,000 travel mugs with our logo on them to locals so they could get discounts on drinks. The mug quickly became a local badge of honor hanging from everyone’s backpacks,” Chantler said. “We had a wall of photos that people sent us with their mug on tour. We had pictures from the top of Everest to the Eiffel Tower and Wrigley Field. I think we ended up selling about 40,000 of those mugs.”
The success of The Daily Grind in Vail inspired Chantler and Arseneau to open four other locations in Vail and Denver, including one in the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria Campus. With the large quantity of coffee brewing up in each location it was a logical step to start roasting their own coffee. In 1992, they found a used roaster in New Mexico and set up a roastery in Minturn and they spent six months experimenting with different coffees and roast profiles.
The wholesale side of the business grew rapidly, and they felt like they were spread a little thin. So, Chantler and Arseneau sold the retail stores and went into the wholesale business and became Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company. They grew throughout Colorado to over 250 wholesale accounts.
“This gave us time to travel to meet the wonderful people that grow our coffee and tea,” Chantler said. “Over the years, what we are most proud of is the relationships that we have made with the farming communities around the world. Along with paying a fair price for the coffee and teas, we try to see if there are opportunities to give back to their communities.”
One of the programs Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company has supported for the last seven years is in the . The program helps to empower women and promote gender equity in Colombia’s post-armed conflict zones. Many women there were widowed and left without clear title to their coffee farms or knowledge of how to successfully operate a coffee farm.
“Vail Mountain Coffee has partnered with the CAFISUR Cooperative, the FCLI, a Canadian government fund and The Coffee Source. Together we have financed new equipment, given hours of sustainable farming training, milling equipment and cash flow to help these women become a sustainable coffee community,” Chantler said.
In 2018, Chantler and Arseneau brought back the coffee house feel to their roastery in Minturn.
“We wanted to share our passion and expertise and bring community back into our business. With a lot of help from Arrigoni Woods we glassed in the space inside the facility adding lots of reclaimed timber creating a real alpine feel. People can now order coffee six different ways, hang out with their friends, watch the roasting process or simply park in the corner with their laptops for the day,” Chantler said. “The goal of the roastery caf茅 is to give an amazing coffee and tea experience to our guests.”
The roastery caf茅 caught the attention of Vail Resorts, who was looking to replace their corporate partnership with Starbucks with local coffee shops.
“Vail Resorts offered us the opportunity to take over the Starbucks locations in Beaver Creek during the 2020-21 season and then the Dumont location off I-70 in July 2022,” Chantler said. “These opportunities happened right in the middle of COVID. There was still uncertainty about when our wholesale business would return and when restaurants and hotels would be back to full capacity. It turned out to be a great decision.”
Looking back on 35 years, Chantler and Arseneau joke about their struggles during the early days of Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company.
“We joke about writing a book on how not to run a business,” Chantler said. “We were pioneers in coffee and spent a lot of time educating the consumer about what specialty coffee was and convince people that they should spend $2.75 for a latte.”
Chantler also said that one of the most challenging parts of their business is the commodity market.
“Most people don’t know that coffee is the second largest commodity traded with oil being number one. This means that the price of coffee is changing daily. Currently, coffee is trading at an all-time high due to lower crop forecasts in the major coffee producing areas around the world, mainly due to drought and rising temperatures,” Chantler said.
But through it all, perseverance and authenticity helped them prevail.
“A lot of this was blind determination,” Arseneau said. “Waking up every day, not giving up, getting after it and just being passionate about what we want to do. And you must be authentic too, and do it for the right reasons.”
“We wanted to create something that would bring us joy and happiness and we came to Vail and created this business from nothing,” Chantler said. “And it’s all driven by our love for the lifestyle, our love of the mountains, skiing, biking, hiking, everything that makes you want to live here. It’s also driven by our love for the community.”
What’s next for Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company?
“One of our goals for 2025 is to grow our national online business,” Chantler said. “We recently upgraded our website, . We know that many guests are enjoying our coffee up and down the valley and now they can continue their journey at home with a taste of the Vail Valley in every cup.”
