McDonald's coffee initiative brings bean grower, roaster to front burner

Distant Lands' decision to become lead supplier has rewards, challenges

By Mike Hughlett | TRIBUNE REPORTER

TYLER, Texas -- Every day at the Distant Lands roasting plant here, a river of green coffee beans is transformed into espresso, fuel for McDonald's Corp.'s boldest gambit in decades.

Distant Lands' Russell Kramer was skeptical at first that it would ever happen. Could the burger giant really be serious about slinging cappuccinos and mochas? A dirt-bike ride with a McDonald's executive through the coffee-tree-studded mountains of the Indonesian island of Sumatra helped convince him it was.

And Kramer knew that signing on as McDonald's lead espresso provider meant hewing to rigorous rules aimed at making sure the world's best-known restaurant chain never suffers a supply-chain breakdown.

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