To help fund his education in optometry, Jim Stewart opened his first store, the Wet Whisker, in 1968 in Coupeville on Whidbey Island, Washington. In the summer of 1969, he purchased his first 12-pound Royal Roaster from a peanut vendor on the beach in Southern California. By the end of the second summer, Jim had roasted and sold nearly 500 pounds of coffee with the help of his brother, Dave, who soon became his partner in Stewart Brother's Coffee. Putting optometry aside in 1971, Jim and Dave Stewart opened another store featuring ice cream and coffee on Seattle's waterfront Pier 70. Five years later, Jim Stewart learned of another Stewart in the coffee business. He was asked to drop the Stewart Brother's name but was allowed to keep the elliptical SBC logo. That same year, the Washington State Chef's Association deemed SBC Coffee "Seattle's Best Coffee." This honor complemented the SBC acronym, so Seattle's Best Coffee was adopted as the company trademark. The company has been sold and resold to several different corporations over the years, and there are no longer any SBC coffee houses. But the brand still remains a popular choice for coffee drinkers.