Kuma means bear in Japanese. The founder of the company spent time in Japan before moving back to the states and adopting a big shaggy dog that looked like a bear, so they named it Kuma. Years later came the coffee company and they named it after their dog.

Kuma Coffee started as a guy roasting coffee in his garage in Seattle, Washington. A guy with a passion to find coffee that tasted excellent, roast it very carefully, and get that coffee into people's hands. It was not about how shiny the package was, it was about how delicious the coffee inside it tasted.