Posts Tagged ‘Intelligentsia’

Posted on July 9, 2008 - by deCadmus

Coffee Notes from All Over

• Super-size me? Not any more. Doug Zell and the gang at Intelligentsia Coffee are ‘just saying no’ to Big Gulp portions of brewed coffee, as they discontinue their 20-oz. serving size. Is it about the bottom line? Doug says no, it’s not that at all…
  

  “Drinking our coffee is not like drinking jug wine,” said Intelligentsia Coffee founder and Chief Executive Doug Zell on Tuesday. “We’re focused on intensity of flavors and providing coffee in the way it tastes best. And it’s not in that size.”

  As a coffee snob, I think it’s a good call… coffee does not want to be slurped in giant takeaway cups. As a commentator on the business of coffee, I worry about the timing: folks are minding their pennies these days, and “value shoppers” may migrate to someplace where they feel they get more caffeine for their buck. ‘Course, that might be offset by an increase in same-day sales… folks who used to buy a Venti to last them the morning may visit twice for two twelve ounce cups. Maybe.

  P.S. Speaking of Zell, have you seen his Amex ad? He’s the new Mr. Big, man.

• Rwanda preps for its first Cup of Excellence! Rwanda is rightly celebrating one coming out party after another… last year it hosted its first Golden Cup competition, and this year it’s joining the ranks of the prestigious Cup of Excellence program.
  

  “As the host country of the first Cup of Excellence competition in Africa, Rwanda will set the stage and create the benchmark for the rest of the quality coffee-producing countries on the continent where coffee was born,” said Susie Spindler, Cup of Excellence director. “The farmers of Rwanda have worked very hard to produce exquisite coffee. We are pleased by the support these farmers have received from even the highest levels of their government and think this competition will have thrilling results.”

  If you’ve been reading here for any length of time you know that I’m extremely happy about the rise of Rwandan coffee — and the consequent lifting-up of the Rwandan people. More, the recognition is well-deserved… through hard work and force of will, Rwandan coffee growers and processors just keep raising the bar on their own performance. Good on them. And congrats to friend-of-Bloggle Stephen Leighton [HasBean], who will be one of the jurists for the first Rwanda CoE. Lucky guy.

• Cold-brewed coffee is hot. It’s the sweaty season (not you: you don’t sweat, you glisten), and folks all over — even in the northern climes — are discovering a whole new way to drink coffee.
  

  Cream and sugar is fine — for children. Once you start messing with the temperature and natural flavor of coffee, it’s a slippery slope ending in frothy, icy, sickeningly sweet concoctions.

  You see, I’m fussy about coffee. I’m the purist sipping a steaming hot cup, even in the dog days of summer.

  Then, one particularly sweltering day in Chicago last month, I broke down and had an iced coffee at a local Caribou Coffee; a large with a vanilla soy topper and one packet of raw sugar, to be precise. I was stunned. This velvety smooth, deeply refreshing, richly satisfying beverage was nothing less than a revelation in caffeine delivery.

  Not so long ago cold-brewed (or “Toddy“) coffee was strictly a B-list brewing method, save for a select set of the javaratti, who knew a cold-brewed concentrate is the ideal foundation for iced coffee.

  Me, I’m still holding out for the Coffee Snob Cold Drip Coffee Maker. Naturally.

Posted on April 8, 2008 - by deCadmus

Starbucks’ Extreme Makeover Continues

Continuing its excruciatingly public extreme makeover, Starbucks does a full-court press (release) on… a new coffee blend. Oh, goody.

Sure, while most every other coffee roaster in the land releases new roasts seasonally — you know, to align with new coffee crops and all that — Starbucks’ latest blend is different, apparently. Word is, it’s not… you know, burnt. More, Howie would have us believe this is a pivotal event in Starbucks’ history, even suggesting that it’s a peek into a future that isn’t steeped in an espresso + milk monoculture:

“We’ve been so focused on espresso … that we haven’t done anything to reinvent brewed coffee,” Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz said in an interview.

Profoundly true. Not only has Starbucks done virtually nothing to reinvent brewed coffee — or even support it — their general disregard for drip coffee, press coffee and the like spilled over into the marketplace, where thousands upon thousands of competing independents likewise ignored the possibilities of unique origin coffees. Unless, of course, they could chuck it in a portafilter with decent results. It’s fair to say that only very recently, I’d say the last five or six years — or a time line roughly consistent with the rise of the Cup of Excellence auction program — that the indie retailers have promoted non-espresso coffee with particular enthusiasm. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

And then Howie slips in this dubious bit…

Mr. Schultz says he believes Starbucks has underplayed its expertise in selecting and roasting coffees, something its main competitors don’t specialize in.

It’s left as an exercise for the reader whether Schultz is suggesting Starbucks’ ground-game at origin is better than that of Peet’s, Green Mountain, Stumptown, CounterCulture, Intelligentsia, The Roasterie, Terroir, Thanksgiving, and a few hundred assorted smaller roasters, or whether he doesn’t view them, individually or collectively, as his competitors. Either way, it’s a low blow. And one that may well come back to haunt him.

Posted on March 26, 2008 - by deCadmus

Intelligentsia Coffee’s Rwanda Golden Cup Melange

Rating: Rating:

While I’d talked up Rwanda’s Golden Cup competition last September, I’ve only late come to realize that I hadn’t actually tasted any of the coffees from this competition. That couldn’t stand, of course. And so this week the coffee delivery man brought me a package from Intelligentisa Coffee.

Intelligentsia’s greenie, Geoff Watts, was fortunate enough both to jury the competition, and to buy a number of lots… this coffee being an all Bourbon melange of coffees from three districts: Nyamasheke, Huye and Gakenke.

Just ground, this blend’s aromas are clean and sweet, with brown sugar the dominant note. On brewing the sweetness continues with a bit of apple pie spice. In the cup, mango and caramel flavors are accentuated by a shimmering acidity, and buttery, syrupy body. The finish is long, and sweet, and leaves a taste of candied pecans on the tongue.

Sweet. Balanced. Lyrical. This is Zen poetry in a cup.

Recommended, and available at Intelligentsia Coffee.

Posted on September 14, 2007 - by deCadmus

Coffee Notes from All Over

• It’s gotta come from somewhere… To the surprise of nobody at all, Starbucks is looking to double its coffee imports from Africa by 2009.
  

  “People are looking for something different, and East African coffee is very exotic in terms of its flavors and characteristics,” says Philip Gitao, director of the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association. The fine Arabica varieties found in East African highlands currently provide 18% of the world’s coffee, the largest share from Ethiopia, which claims to be the birthplace of coffee although Yemen disputes that claim. Says Gitao, “Starbucks is now taking African coffees very seriously.”

• I don’t know just when it started but I’ve taken to calling the collective of Stumptown, Intelligentsia and Counter Culture the usual suspects. Not only are they consistently purchasing the top lots at auction, but they’re also on the ground at origin wherever great coffee is to be found. Or is it that great coffee is getting found because they are on the ground at origin? Hmmm. In any case, they’re all getting some great press this week in the NYTimes in the feature, To Burundi and Beyond for Coffee’s Holy Grail, a piece that highlights the nascent Direct Trade model of coffee sourcing.
  

  “Direct trade — which also means intensive communication between the buyer and the grower — stands in stark contrast to the old (but still prevalent) model, in which international conglomerates buy coffee by the steamer ship, through brokers, for the lowest price the commodity market will bear.

  It also represents, at least for many in the specialty coffee world, an improvement on labels like Fair Trade, bird-friendly or organic. Such labels relate to how the coffee is grown and may persuade consumers to pay a little extra for their beans, but offer no assurance about flavor or quality. Direct-trade coffee companies, on the other hand, see ecologically sound agriculture and prices above even the Fair Trade premium both as sound business practices and as a route to better-tasting coffee.

  By spending months every year visiting farms, these roasters seek to offer coffee that is produced as well as it can be, bought responsibly and roasted carefully. They aim, simply, to sell the best coffee possible.”

  Good stuff.

• You know you’ve always wanted one… Finally — and just because — the Internet-enabled coffee maker.

Posted on September 3, 2007 - by deCadmus

Rwanda’s Golden Cup — The Results Are In!

It’s Labor Day in these United States — a celebration of the working stiff, the last gasp of Summer — and to mark the event I’ll be… laboring on the garage. (sigh)

I can’t help but take a moment, however, to mark the outstanding results of Rwanda’s Golden Cup competition and auction. In a few short years Rwanda has emerged from its national nightmare to become an increasingly prominent player in the specialty coffee trade, and perhaps nothing to-date has marked this more significantly than the results of the events of the past few days.

The cupping jury has seen some phenomenal coffees, some scoring as high as 95 — even 98! — and the results of the auction itself are now in. The winning bidders? The usual suspects: Stumptown walks away with the top lot from the Muyongwe cooperative, at $25 per pound. Lots from Ngoma, Karaba and Kanzu fetched in the neighborhood of $15/lb. and winning bidders included Zoka, Counter Culture and Intelligentsia.

Look for some of these stunning coffees at a winning roaster — perhaps even before the turn of the year.

Posted on August 20, 2007 - by deCadmus

Shade Grown Coffee — Just How Shady Is It?

All third-party coffee certifications are not equal. I’ve touched upon this idea before, most recently in How Many Labels are Too Many Labels. I think it’s a point that bears repeating, and some critical examination, too. To our good fortune Coffee & Conservation is doing both, by digging deeper into some of those certifications. They’ve recently offered a closer look at two labels that certify shade-grown coffee — Rainforest Alliance, and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s “Bird Friendly” mark — and found that not all shade is equal, either.

[T]he criteria having to do with vertical stratification — the number of layers of vegetation and the leaf volume in each — are critical components for preserving a rich mix of species. Many ecological studies support the key role of structural diversity (sometimes referred to technically as floristic heterogeneity) in increased biodiversity — of many types in many ecosystems well beyond the realm of coffee growing.
— Coffee & Conservation

If that’s a little hard to follow, then the pictures and tables you’ll find at Coffee & Conservation will help. ;)

For more, Intelligentsia’s RoastMaster Gerneral, Geoff Watts, has written a thoroughly accessible piece on the subject. In particular he compares and contrasts shade-grown certifications with Intelligentsia’s own Direct Trade model.

Too many of the programs marketed as “solutions” are really just patchwork attempts to fix historical mistakes and seek immediate gratification without trying to rebuild the system from the ground up in a way that can be enduring and self-sustaining. At their worst they involve a lot of moral posturing without providing a great deal of benefit to anyone except a handful of consumers who can feel better about themselves without having to work very hard or think too much to do it. Transparency is the key…delivery of facts and details with clarity (and documentation).
— Geoff Watts

I think Geoff finds it difficult to set aside his disenchantment with third-party certifiers — a point of view that’s understandable, as Geoff himself visits Intelligentsia’s coffee origins far more than any certifier I know. But for every Intelligentsia there’s a hundred other roasters who don’t have the wherewithal to visit origin with the same frequency, if at all.

For those roasters, third-party certification is the standard-bearer. So it’s important that we all — roasters and customers alike — understand just what those standards are.

Posted on August 13, 2007 - by deCadmus

Coffee Notes from All Over

• The snarkiness begins. Canadian papers are having pseudo-hysterics over the per cup retail price of Panama Cup of Excellence Extraordinaire, Hacienda La Esmeralda.
  

  Starting this morning, coffee drinkers in Vancouver will be able to sip some seriously expensive brew.

  At a staggering $15 per 8-oz cup ($135 per half pound in bean form), the Panama-grown, 100-per-cent geisha varietal bean is the most expensive coffee ever to hit lips in this coffee-crazy city.

  ‘Course it’s all offered with a wink and a nod, and the folk at Caffe Artigiano are surely giggling all the way to the bank with the free press. Me, I’m in for a cup, if only I could get one delivered.

• Brilliant! A UK teen was hospitalized after downing seven double espressos at her family’s sandwhich shop. Quoth the victim of her own excess:
  

  “My nerves were all over the place. I was drenched. I was burning up and hyperventilating. I was having palpitations, my heart was beating so fast and I thought I was going into shock.

  “I did not realise this could happen to you and I only hope other people learn from my mistake.”

  To be fair, I’ve had my own brush with espresso-fueled hyper-caffeination. In fact, just last week I’d commented on it on a post at Scazi’s Whatever:

  A few years back I spent an enjoyable Saturday in Chicago working with an eclectic mix of coffee pros and talented amateurs. The object of our attention: create a world-class espresso blend.

  Blending coffee for espresso is tricky; there’s a *lot* of trial and error, and lots and lots of tasting. We began ’round 9am, and finished around 4pm, ’cause — despite merely *tasting*, and not downing every lovin’ espresso that crossed our paths — most of us just couldn’t do it any more. My own palate was blown out, and I was literally *thrumming* like high voltage line.

  I should perhaps note that the result of that weekend’s exercise was the Intelligentsia elixir called Black Cat Espresso.

• I had no idea. Apparently Dunkin Donuts is the leading coffee retailer in the United Arab Emirates.
  

  “Dunkin’ Donuts, the UAE’s leading coffee & baked goods chain, has recently introduced a new iced drink that packs all the flavour of its renowned regular hot coffee, but at a chilled temperature that promises to help take the heat out of the summer.

  “Dunkin’ Donuts opened their first outlet in Dubai in 1997 and celebrated ten years of business across the UAE last month. The company has enjoyed phenomenal success within the emirates and now boasts over 40 outlets, with a target of 50 to be reached by the beginning of the New Year.”

  Waitasec. You’ve been in Dubai for 10 years and just now figured out that iced coffee might be a good idea?

Posted on April 19, 2007 - by deCadmus

How Many Labels are Too Many Labels?

Organic, Fair Trade, Direct Trade, Shade Grown, Bird Friendly, C.A.F.E., Whole Trade, Rainforest Alliance…

When Sam Fromartz’ article — Is This the End of Organic Coffee — first appeared in Salon it generated quite a lot of reader responses, with many folks writing along the lines of, “Just drink Fair Trade coffee, instead.” I wrote a letter, too, trying to make the point that not all certifications are created equal —

Organic and Fair Trade are each distinctive certifications, with different goals and methods and results in coffee farming communities. To suggest that in lieu of buying organic you can instead buy Fair Trade is well intentioned, but misstated.

Organic certification protects the land, the water supply, and the ecosystems that surround coffee farms — including many of those greenhouse-gas swallowing rain forest canopies that still exist — and exceeds the environmental goals and criteria of Fair Trade certification, alone.

It takes *years* to achieve organic certification on a coffee farm, and it costs not only dollars, but blood, sweat and tears to do so. Pulling the rug out from under coffee farmers who’ve worked hard to attain certification for their farm — and the subsequent price differential for their crop — only to lose it at the stroke of a pen in a government bureaucracy thousands of miles away is not just disheartening, but it could break the will of farming folk who’ve endured hardship enough, already.

In today’s Chicago Tribune, writer Monica Eng continues that theme by providing a Cert Cheat Sheet of sorts… and being in Chicago she includes Chi-town’s own Intelligentsia Coffee’s Direct Trade™ label, too —

Direct trade: A term that was created by Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea Inc. roastmaster and green coffee buyer Geoff Watts in response to his frustration with “Fair Trade.” Watts wanted to work more directly with individual farmers and to send his own representatives to verify adherence to a list of criteria, including a “verifiable price to the grower or the local co-op, not simply the exporter, must be at least 25 percent above the Fair Trade price; the grower must be committed to healthy environmental practices; the grower must be committed to sustainable social practices.” Watts is especially proud of the program’s ability to give a higher price to individual farmers who have produced outstanding harvests, even on small levels.

I admire the goals of Intelligentsia’s Direct Trade model (and have said as much, before) but I really begin to wonder: how many certification models do we need? Can any retailer-specific label carry the same weight as one that’s applied and certified by a third-party? And at what point do people who love specialty coffee start to get blinded and dizzy by the glare of too many labels?

Posted on February 27, 2007 - by deCadmus

Intelligentsia Coffee Gets Direct

Frustrated with the foibles and shortcomings of Fair Trade certification — among them Fair Trade’s failure to address coffee quality, and its inability to contract with family farms or estates but only coffee growing coops — a number of boutique coffee roasters have chosen to go their own way. Some have made-do with suggesting their coffee is, “Fairly traded, but not Fair Trade Certifiedâ„¢.” As a slogan it makes for pretty weak tea… especially as it’s a catch-phrase oft plied by merchants who in an earlier age might have specialized in snake oil sales.
(more…)

Posted on April 2, 2006 - by deCadmus

Rwanda Reborn as a Premiere Origin

Rwanda — in particular, Rwandan coffee — is enjoying a well-deserved coming out party.

At Green Mountain we celebrated the coffee of Rwanda by offering it as our very first Special Reserve origin. Its reception exceeded our loftiest expectations… Rwanda Karaba-Bourbon proved an exceptionally fragrant, extravagantly sweet and dynamic cup. It sold out within days. (more…)