Intelligentsia Coffee

Intelligentsia Coffee was founded in Chicago in 1995 by Doug Zell and Emily Mange and became one of the most important institutions of American specialty coffee. It pioneered and trademarked the term 'Direct Trade,' sending buyers to origin to build long-term producer relationships, and its Black Cat espresso became a third-wave standard. Intelligentsia's training programs and cafés in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York produced an outsized number of champion baristas and future roastery founders, seeding the wider industry. Alongside Stumptown and Counter Culture, it formed the 'big three' that defined third-wave coffee in the 2000s.