Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, colloquially known as Intelligentsia, is a coffee roasting company and retailer with its headquarters at 1850 W. Fulton Street in Chicago, Illinois. Intelligentsia has several cafe retail locations throughout the Chicago area. The company was founded in 1995 by Doug Zell and Emily Mange. They supply coffee to various Chicago-area cafes and restaurants, as well as other locations in the US and Canada.[1][2][3] They generally buy their beans directly from growers in Central America, South America, East Africa, and Ethiopia.[4] They use vintage German roasters to roast their beans daily.[4]
On August 17 2007, Intelligentsia opened its first store outside of Chicago at Sunset Junction in Silver Lake, a district east of Hollywood in Los Angeles, California.[5]
A 2008 decision to stop serving 20-ounce coffee and espresso beverages in stores was met with controversy. Zell stated that the proportions are altered at such large quantities and certain drinks become watered-down, arguing that 20-ounce drinks end up "masking and adulterating the pure, intense flavors we work hard to source, roast and produce. We don't want this to just be a caffeine delivery device." [6]
In 2009 they acquired Ecco Caffè of Santa Rosa, California, and have retained the brand.[7]
The intelligentsia (from Russian[1][2] интеллигенция, Russian pronunciation: [ɪntʲɪlʲɪˈɡʲentsɨjə]; from Latin: intelligentia) is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them (e.g., artists and school teachers). Initially the term was applied mostly in the context of Russia and later the Soviet Union, and had a narrower meaning based on a self-definition of a certain category of intellectuals.
The notion of an intellectual elite as a distinguished social stratum can be traced far back in history. Examples are the philosopher-kings and guardians of Plato's Republic and monks in medieval Europe, who are now seen as custodians of history and culture.
Use of the term "intelligentsia" is first reported to have occurred in the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. For example, the word was casually used in the diaries of Vasily Zhukovsky, dated to 1836. In Poland, or more precisely in Greater Poland (which then was a part of the Kingdom of Prussia) the term was popularised in a sense close to the present one by Polish philosopher Karol Libelt, and became widespread in Polish science after the publication of his O miłości ojczyzny (On Love of the Motherland) in 1844, in which he defines "inteligencja" to be those well-educated members of the population who undertake to lead the people as scholars, teachers, clergy, engineers, and who guide for the reason of their higher enlightenment. The term was also popularised by a Russian writer, Pyotr Boborykin, in the 1860s, who proclaimed himself the "godfather" of the notion in 1904. From there it came into English and several other languages. In English this word is often applied to the "intelligentsia" in Central European and Eastern European countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. The distinction was based on the economic and cultural situation of intellectuals in these countries and is different from that in Western Europe or North America.
The emergence of elite classes of intellectuals or well-educated people had been observed in other European countries (e.g., "intellectuels" in France and "Gebildete" in Germany) as well.
From signs of intelligentsia by Dr. Vitaly Tepikin:[3]
* advanced for its time moral ideals, sensitiveness to fellow creature, tact in manifestations;
* active brain work and persistent self-education;
* patriotism, which is based on faith in its own people and whole-hearted, inexhaustible love to little and big Motherland;
* creative activity all kinds of intelligentsia (but not only artistic its part, as many can consider);
* independence, aspiration to freedom of self-expression and finding of themselves in it.
