Coffee With A. Duck » Intelligentsia

Intelligenstia Coffee, Venice Beach Cont’d

Aaron — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:34:23 +0000

There’s a new video out from Intelligentsia, this time featuring cappuccinos. It is as good as the other two, but this one really got me jonesing for Pórtico to hurry up and get open! I have actually spent most of today arm wrestling vendors and equipment suppliers for the best prices. I do this for every customer, but with the extra knowledge of trying to be responsible about spending other people’s tithes and offerings, I am feeling a bit more pressure than normal.

Anyway, watching this video made me start to twitch a little bit seeing the tricked out La Marzocco and the Robur-E grinder along with some good milk and someone who knows what to do with it all (Kyle Glanville is a good egg). Pórtico’s tricked out Marzocco has been ordered, as has the Robur-E. Milk will come from the Heartland Creamery and if I do say so, I’m pretty sure I can figure out what to do next especially since I know that both Benetti’s Coffee Experience and Oddly Correct Roasters got my back.

Happy twitching.

This is how we do it

Aaron — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:26:34 +0000

Again, big props to Mike Philips of Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea for a successful USBC title defense. Hether Perry of Coffee Klatch has won twice, but this is the first back-to-back wins for any competitor in USBC history. In case you missed it, this both his semi-final and finals round.

Intelligentsia Coffee, Venice Beach

Aaron — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:00:39 +0000

I have long been a fan of Intelligentsia Coffee. In my first barista competition (the ’03 MWRBC), there were two “out of region” competitors from Chicago. An out of region competitor is allowed to complete their entire routine and receive real scoring before a live panel of judges, but they may not advance in the competition. Effectively, they are “one and done,” regardless of how they do. This also allows competitors to see how they stack up against other competitors from around the country. This can be helpful if a barista makes it on to the USBC to know how they stack up against the rest of the field. At any rate, the dynamic duo of Ellie Hudson-Matuszak and Amber Sather showed up for their exhibition run and I have to say, we were all immediately glad that they were not competing against us for real. Being polite, I will say that even back then, we would have gotten SCHOOLED! There’s just no other way to say it.

That was 2003 and Intelligentsia hasn’t slowed down since. They continue to push the quality envelope and from what I can tell, every member of their staff from top to bottom is somewhat of a proficient barista. The best proof of this is some of the past Intelligentsia USBC champions Matt Riddle (2006 USBC Champion) is their Director of IT. Current USBC Champion Mike Phillips started out packing coffee bags in their warehouse, although I believe he is now their Retail Director of Coffee. They are quality through and through and it shows.

Anyway, I have been storyboarding some training videos of my own, and while these are kind of plain and general in terms of content, they are still awesome! Very methodically explained, the first one goes over how to use a Vacuum Pot / Syphon Brewer and the second one goes over espresso brewing basics on their SWEET custom La Marzocco espresso machine. I will say that I was a little surprised to see the water for the Syphon pot actually boil, but I know that Chris Owens more than knows what he is doing so I’ll trust his judgment on the matter. I love the color contrast with the coffee, their video productions guys did a great job! I highly recommend viewing these full screen instead of just in your browser as they were shot in HD. Take a look and let me know what you think.