Intelligentsia Coffee is on a mission to get the best beans money can buy, and they have an unusual strategy for getting results. Instead of seeking out beans and trying to get the at the lowest price point possible, they seek out direct trade relationships with growers, help them to grow the best coffee they can and then pay them far more than the going rate for the beans. In fact, they pay growers over 25% more than the Fair Trade coffee prices. They charge their customers a fair price, too, and no one is complaining.
Their goal is "to create a culture of quality" on "the grower side and the consumer side."
Why isn't Fair Trade's standard good enough for Intelligentsia? "Fair Trade relates to working conditions, not the quality of coffee beans." And while the working conditions are important, it is the beans, not the workers, which flavor the coffee. With the growers, Intelligentsia offers financial incentives and trains them to improve their growing methods, producing premium beans. They also help communities develop coffee tasting centers and teach them to evaluate their own products, because Intelligentsia pays individual farmers based on their products, not a flat rate to a production company or co-op. Furthermore, one of their guarantees to their growers is that their rates will only increase over time.
The company's promise to consumers is some of the best coffee in the world.
They supply coffee to restaurants like Alinea and sell their blends online, as well as at retail stores in Chicago.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-24-2006 @ 1:26PM
Benjamin said...
Intelligensia is a great shop! World class...for an article about home roasting beans and more about Intelligensia and other GREAT shops around the US, check out http://allthemarmalade.blogspot.com
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6-24-2006 @ 8:56PM
Bruce Dearborn Walker said...
The difference between average coffee and the best coffee in the world at the grower's level is only a few cents a pound.
I'm turning into such a coffee snob. Forget what I wrote. Everybody go to Charbucks. It's fantastic coffee. Really. Be sure to try their caramel dulce de leche latte with cocoa jimmies and extra whipped cream and a shot of melon flavoring. Or mint flavoring. Be sure to get the extra vente so that all the half and half hides the stale bitterness of the oil.
IN THE DESERT
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter- bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."
-- Stephen Crane
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