t o n x . o r g

So I’ve been a bit coy about my new gig for the last few months. Mainly because the project I’m working on still has a ways to go and there is no sense honking the horn of a car that isn’t yet on the road.

Back in April my life changing coffee roasting gig in Seattle came to a life changing halt. My instinct was to crawl under a rock but my coffee-mate Kyle was also on the skids and after some beers and ranting we took the leap and bought tix to the big industry conference happening just days later, throwing ourselves into a big pile of possibilities. We spent the next months exploring our options - most of them outside of Seattle. Actually deciding where to land was difficult, both geographically and professionally, and uprooting our women folk and sense of home weighed heavily in our thinking. There were several projects we turned down that were very hard to say no to. When the dust settled though, the right move for us was clear.

The top criteria for us was to go where we could do the most good. It is our contention (and that of many colleagues) that our freaky fringe of the coffee industry still has a lot of work to do - both in evolving the public dialogue about coffee and advancing the crafts of roasting and beverage preparation.

Intelligentsia Coffee was always a bright star in our industry cosmology. The guys from Chicago had good game, from barista competitions and roasting accolades to the reputation of their eloquent green buyer. From our perspective in Seattle they were the big guys, well established, and it seemed unlikely to us on the surface that we’d be well matched.

As we got to know founder Doug Zell, coffee buyer Geoff Watts and their crew more, we came to discover there was much more to this book than its cover - and the best chapters were still being written. Intelligentsia is doing the work that few others can aspire to, from direct trade with coffee growers to really pushing the envelope on cup quality. The vision, ethic, and dedication to deeper sustainability of those guys is a guiding light in this industry -if that doesn’t sound too hokey (it does sound hokey, but I think many folks working in coffee would concur). The chance to participate in the good work Intelligentsia is doing in coffee ultimately trumped our other ambitions.

So where do Kyle and I fit in? What is this big project we’ve taken on? Why are we living in Los Angeles?

There’ll be plenty of time for me to flap my gums about it as things move forward. Suffice to say we’re pretty excited and there is an awful lot of hard work and adventure ahead. Some big things are starting to happen in coffee, and many of them will be happening out here. Watch this space.

For my non-coffee geek readers, friends, family… here are some links about this outfit I’ve signed up with:

good NY Times piece about Intelligentsia’s buying practices.

blog post from after one of my earlier visits with Intelli with Geoff dropping knowledge on sustainability in coffee.

Roaster of the Year profile in Roast Magazine:

Intelli’s website

This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 11:53 pm and is filed under Coffee, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.