Intelligentsia Menu & Prices

This lot was grown by smallholder farmers who are part of METAD's Kirite network in the Guji region of Oromia. It is an elegant coffee with floral aromatics and notes of fresh peach, sweet meyer lemon, and hibiscus.

In 2020, we expanded upon the concept of our Extraordinary Coffee Workshop, an event that brings our global Direct Trade network, and convened a coffee quality event for smallholder cooperatives in Guatemala that we called Intelligentsia ECWx. We were impressed with the three women from La Libertad, Huehuetenango who represented the Coopesqui cooperative, and even more impressed with the coffee they offered us.

Look for nectarine, citrus, golden raisin. A perennial favorite of our coffee team and one of the unsung heroes of our single-origin menu.

Established over 50 years ago in Kirinyaga, Central Kenya, Faith Estate serves as both Cecilia Wanjiku Haniel's farm and the hub of a network she created that connects the work of 30 neighboring small estates. While each estate grows coffee independently, they unite to share best practices for cultivating, processing, and selling exceptional coffees. As a leader of this collective, Cecilia ensures selective hand-picking of coffee cherries, followed by proper dry fermentation and washing protocols before the coffee is carefully dried on raised beds. By processing their coffees at a centralized location, Faith Estate farmers benefit from improved infrastructure and more precise protocols, allowing them to develop the highest quality possible. This lot features an AB selection, one of Kenya’s top quality grades. It is a vibrant coffee, brimming with tropical fruit and juicy citrus notes.

In the highlands of Nyeri County in Kenya’s Central Province, some 800 smallholder growers deliver their selectively harvested cherries to the Kangocho Factory washing station. The region’s high elevation and volcanic soil are well suited for growing highly regarded local varieties like SL-28, SL-34, Batian, and Ruiru. Once cherries reach the washing station, they are hand sorted for ripeness, then pulped and rinsed. A double fermentation follows, breaking down the mucilage and contributing to a complex, sparkling clean cup that lets the terroir shine. The profile is further refined at the dry mill where the coffee is sorted to meet AB standards, one of Kenya’s most premium quality grades.

This washed Castillo lot comes from neighboring farmers in the Cauca region of southwestern Colombia. After selectively harvesting cherries from only their Castillo trees, they delivered their coffee to our partners at Banexport for classification and processing. Introduced to Colombian farmers in 2005, Castillo has since been widely adopted for its resilience against coffee leaf rust, a devastating fungus that affects farms around the world. A testament to the quality potential of hardy varieties, this coffee has bright notes of citrus and dried cherry layered over a sweet toffee base.

Our first release of the new Rwanda harvest comes from our partners at Kivubelt Coffee, located in the Nyamasheke District in western Rwanda. Grown by a group of smallholder farmers collectively known as The People’s Farm, this lot was cultivated on the rolling hillsides that overlook majestic Lake Kivu. Cherries from Red Bourbon trees were hand-picked and delivered to Kivubelt’s Murundo washing station, where they were carefully processed and separated into smaller lots based on quality and sensory characteristics. In the cup, we love its complex yet comforting fruit notes, defined by honey-sweet persimmon, juicy orange, and a hint of herbal sarsaparilla.

In the renowned coffee region of Huila, Carlos Fernando Cerquera tends three hectares in the village of Bruselas, Pitalito. Beyond producing coffee, he has represented Colombia on the world stage as a cupping competitor in the World Coffee Championships, bringing that same curiosity and discipline back to his farm, Finca Ginebra. This washed Castillo lot was comes from the mitaca harvest, six months after the main crop, when trees yield fewer cherries yet quality remains exceptional. Picked every three to four weeks, ripe cherries were carefully sorted and rested for 24 hours before pulping. The coffee was then fermented in tanks for 24 hours and washed twice to remove remaining mucilage. The resulting cup profile is clean and vibrant, layered with notes of bright tropical fruit, blackberry, and orange concentrate.

Raised in a family of coffee farmers, Julian Palomino learned how to cultivate coffee alongside his grandparents before heading to university to study agronomy. Using his degree, he spent years working with coffee producing families across Cauca. Eventually, he and his wife, María Teresa, purchased land to establish a farm of their own: El Progreso. Over the past decade, they have transformed former pasture land into a thriving four-hectare coffee farm planted primarily with Castillo, a Colombian variety with resistance to coffee leaf rust. This lot showcases the Palomino family’s take on Castillo, shaped by the cloud-covered terrain of Totoró and careful double-washed processing. The resulting cup is clean and sweet, layered with notes of ripe stone fruit.

Carlos Alberto Estrella has been cultivating coffee for nearly three decades, carrying forward a family tradition passed down through generations. Inspired by both legacy and a desire to chart his own path, he transitioned from cattle farming to coffee production, embracing new varieties and production techniques while building on the knowledge inherited from his parents and grandparents. Today, he manages a nine-hectare coffee farm in Nariño, refining his approach through continuous learning and collaboration with his brothers. Despite challenges like climate variability and rising costs, Carlos' dedication has earned him recognition in both national and regional competitions, placing 9th in Colombia's Cup of Excellence and 2nd in Nariño. This lot showcases La Estrella's Castillo, a resilient variety well suited to the high elevation growing conditions of Buenos Aires, La Unión, which lies just north of the Equator.

A shade-grown organic blend designed to enlighten, anchored by a luminous Ethiopian single-origin lot.

Extraordinary Coffee Workshops, or ECW. Together, we visit farms, tour processing facilities, explore innovations, and taste extraordinary coffee. Over the years, ECW has become a family reunion devoted to celebrating and exploring coffee quality. At our most recent gathering in Chicago, we brought together fifty Direct Trade partners and tried something new. We asked them to create our next blend, which led to four days of spirited competition. After tasting, experimenting, and blending side by side, they voted. The winning recipe is the coffee we are proud to share with you now: our first-ever ECW Blend. The autumn edition brings together coffees from the Alaka washing station in Ethiopia, Costa Rica’s Coopedota cooperative, and the Caballero family farm in Honduras — a Direct Trade trio in perfect ha

The Borealis Seasonal Blend is a combination of our sweetest coffees from Guatemala and Ethiopia. A perfect balance of tart and sweet notes creates bright flavors, symbolic of the brilliant display of northern lights this time of year. Look for notes of pomegranate, green grape, and dried apricot to illuminate even the coldest winter days.

Persephone is our annual celebration of spring, evoking its spirit of renewal and hope. The 2024 edition features coffees from small-scale family farmers from three exciting coffee origins in East Africa: Burundi, Ethiopia, and Kenya, including two of our favorite single-origin offerings Yandaro and Buku.

This syrupy sweet espresso blend has been the staple of our lineup since the very beginning. Supreme balance and a wonderful sweetness make this a classic.

A sweet, full-bodied espresso that balances flavors of roasted nuts and chocolate with cherry and dark fruit. Look for: roasted hazelnut, cherry, nougat.

In the northernmost reaches of the Peruvian Andes lies the small coffee community of Alto Ihuamaca, where high elevation, sun-soaked days, and cool nights create ideal conditions for growing exceptional coffee. It is here that Dionisio Pintado carries on a family tradition of coffee farming. His farm, Agua Cristalina, is named for a nearby spring whose crystal clear waters reflect the natural beauty of the region. After selectively picking cherries from Bourbon and Caturra trees, the Pintado family carefully segments and processes lots in small batches, preserving the unique character of their farm’s terroir. This lot stood out as perfectly suited for pulling fruity espressos with soft, balanced acidity.

Sapsucker is a seasonal blend named for the bird whose pursuit of sugary-sweet tree sap reflects our own approach to crafting this coffee. This year's blend unites distinct lots from Colombia, Burundi, and Kenya into a lively espresso defined above all else by its sweetness. The result is vibrant yet balanced, layered with notes of bright tropical fruit, ripe stone fruit, and zesty citrus.