Photo by Needmore Designs.
In this week’s episode of Unpacking Coffee, Kandace and Ray check in with one of the most influential early bearers of coffee’s contemporary wave: Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee.
It was just about a year ago that the company was acquired by Peet’s Coffee, 20 years after its founding by Doug Zell and Emily Mange in 1995. Around the same time, the company welcomed longtime specialty coffee pro Marcus Boni back into the fold, who had been with the company from 2002 to 2008.
As current vice president of retail, Boni discussed Peet’s in-store branding — or lack thereof, as he described it, as each of the company’s shops are uniquely designed in response to local surroundings — and the resulting importance of the company’s bag designs and retail displays. Kandace and Ray caught up with Boni at the La Marzocco Café and Showroom in Seattle, where Intelligentsia is currently the featured roaster:
Unpacking Coffee is a weekly show discovering new coffee roasters one episode at a time led by Kandace and Ray of the Portland-based studio Needmore Designs, which specializes in coffee, wine and lifestyle brands.
Nick Brown
Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
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Intelligentsia has some of the most wasteful packaging ever. After 20 years of doing coffee, can’t you find a way to improve upon delivering fresh coffee without contributing to the “one and done” packaging mentality that pervades corporate product sales. Please give us something that is made from recycled material or, at least, can itself be recycled.