our coffee

 
 

Intelligentsia Coffee’s mission is to provide our customers, staff, and community with an unparalleled and complete coffee and tea experience in an environment steeped in understanding, knowledge, skill, service and mutual respect.

Intelligentsia exists to provide both a fulfilling work environment for our employees and the highest quality products for our customers. Both goals are equally necessary to the success of our business.

Offering the highest quality product includes:

  1. •Training staff to be the most knowledgeable and skilled in the coffee industry

  2. •Creating and maintaining a satisfying work environment of continued education and constantly evolving knowledge

  3. •Providing each customer extraordinary service

  4. •Treating our vendors with respect and courtesy

  5. •Contributing as a valuable member of the local and world community

  6. •Contributing as a valuable member of the world coffee community

  7. •Never sacrificing quality

 

About Intelligentsia

Three Bananas Cafe has been serving Intelligentsia Coffee in Edmonton for over two years! Widely recognized as one of the finest roasters in North America we encourage you to come and try it out. Fresh roasted beans arrive weekly and is available in our retail area!

What is Direct Trade?

Intelligentsia Coffee’s buying philosophy is not very complicated. We believe in coffee quality and have made a commitment to our customers to offer only truly dazzling Specialty Coffees that speak for themselves in the cup. We believe that to get such coffees we need to work closely with actual producers, not just importers or exporters, so that we can build great coffees from the very start.

Almost all coffee roasters claim that they "work with farmers" but few can back the promise. Intelligentsia travels to our coffee’s source each of the 12 months of the year. We visit farms, roll up our sleeves, and get to it. We take 24-hour redeye flights and 10-hour, high-altitude pick-up rides over serpentine roads. You pick up our coffee and we shake the hand of a farmer in Peru. Or Rwanda. Or Guatemala. And when you see the Intelligentsia Direct Trade logo on our bag, you know how much effort is invested in each bean.

In the broadest terms, these coffees should be understood as a true collaboration, with both sides investing a great deal of time, energy and ideas to produce something great. At the end of this process, the coffee farmer who grows an award-winning cup is an artisan, and should be regarded as such. We believe human effort is the most critical factor in quality coffee and that the growers who do the best work should get the best price and individual recognition.