The following is the latest edition of “The Nod” from Intelligentsia, the coffee company whose beans we proudly brew with every smidgen of love we can squeeze out of our hearts. Normally written by VP of Coffee, Geoff Watts, this nod comes to you from Intelligentsia’s CEO and founder, Doug Zell.
A quick request: If anyone knows more about the new Black Cat Project or the In Season Initiative mentioned in paragraph 2, please share your knowledge with the rest of us in the comments. You are all great.
“Greetings and salutations:
Tick, tock. Another Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) show has passed. Like other years, this one was a blur, but a blur off a different kind. The show is always a time to see all those you know from the far-flung places that make up Specialty Coffee. My first SCAA show was in Minneapolis, some 12 years ago. It is odd to go from wide-eyed observer to (perhaps overly) seasoned observer in this span of time. It is refreshing to see the Barista culture and youth (including an always positively restless George Howell, demonstrating that youth is not a reflection of chronological age, but spirit) driving change. I remember being awed by the big names in the industry and wondering how we as a start up would find our way. Lately, it seems we are beginning to.
For the first time I feel like we really executed on what promise we have as a coffee company. There was a knowing, positive fruition of our efforts from the way our coffee and espresso (Black Cat and the Single Origins) tasted at our booth to the way we presented our new Black Cat Project and Intelligentsia In Season initiatives to how we fared at the United States Barista Championship. The only other person that has seen this process from then until know is my trusty compadre Geoff Watts (and my wife Emily who founded the company with me but as of late has moved onto an endeavor much more charming than our business and her name is Scarlet). Clarity of purpose is nice and like any other business owner can tell you, we have made our fair share of mistakes. Some of them twice.
Geoff (the regular writer in this space) and I had some nice talks during the show, which we rarely have given the rigor of his travel schedule outside of the country and my time between the different pieces of what we do in the United States. I happen to like Geoff. In our work together I am confident we have both found times that we have been thrilled to be working together and others when we have been incredibly frustrated with each other. Lately it has been the former. In both of our cases we have been figuring it out as we go along, and I finally think we are getting to the point of being the professionals we had always hoped to be.
I remember our first trip to origin together, and I must say where he has taken things with our work at source is far beyond what I (and I think he) imagined possible. That said, I think we both know we are just getting started.
And to everybody that helped to get us to where we are now, I am deeply grateful. I have watched a lot of you grow up (some quite quickly in the past couple of years) and it has been immensely gratifying watching your efforts shape an industry. It hasn’t been easy. But man, it sure has been fun.
I hope I can stay I can be as invigorated about it as George Howell is now for 20 more years. That could be nice.
I invite you to read about our Finca Matalapa, El Salvador. We served this coffee in our booth at the show and Kyle Glanville used this coffee as a single origin espresso en route to his championship in the United States Barista Competition. (Many congrats to Kyle and good luck at the World Barista Competition in Copenhagen in June.)
Cheers,
Doug Zell
CEO/Founder
Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea”
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