In the history of coffee culture, there have been three major waves: before the 60s of the 20th century, coffee as a beverage has just begun to popularize, Nestle, Maxwell and other companies have met people's growing craving for caffeine with cheap instant products. At the end of the 60s of the 20th century, Peet's, Starbucks and other chain coffee shops created a new mode of drinking coffee, people can drink freshly ground and brewed coffee in the store, the quality and flavor are much better than instant coffee, and various coffee-based beverages have also won people's love, which is the second wave of coffee; Since the 90s, some experienced coffee owners have begun to pay attention to the quality of green coffee beans, focusing on roasting and brewing techniques, and tend to drink hand-brewed black coffee, which is the third wave of specialty coffee that enthusiasts are now happy about.
 
Founded in 1995, Intelligentsia is considered one of the three pioneers of the specialty coffee wave, along with Stumptown and Counter Culture, and giant acquisitions have become their common outcome: in 2015, Intelligentsia was acquired by Peet's, the largest coffee chain in the United States, and Peet's's parent company, JAB Holding Company, took over Stump City. As a pioneer of specialty coffee in the United States, compared with Blue Bottle, the intellectuals are in a corner of the country, with only stores in Chicago, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, and three bean roasting factories in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
 
The intellectuals' contribution to the coffee industry was not only to promote the popularity of specialty coffee, but they were also the first companies in the industry to introduce Direct Trade. Unlike Fair Trade, direct trade refers to coffee merchants trading directly with coffee farmers, without going through alliances or organizations, and all income goes to farmers. Each new season, an intellectual bean search team visits the world to find potential farms and is stationed on the ground to provide technical guidance to farmers, which means that the direct trade of coffee beans can directly intervene in the coffee cultivation process. The intellectuals always get the highest quality coffee beans from the farmers because of the price they buy based on the cupping scores, and today they maintain stable cooperative relations with more than 20 estates, most of which are exclusive to the intellectuals.
 
Every year from 2009 to the present, intellectuals gather their partner estate partners to travel to a specific coffee producing area to discuss local coffee industry practices, a project known as the Extraordinary Coffee Workshop. In addition, in 2017, Intellectuals launched the Extraordinary Coffee Competition, inviting its global partners to select the best green beans of the year to participate in a double-blind selection, in order to promote the overall level of cooperative estates.
 
The intellectuals have thoroughly refined the coffee beans, drawing on the concepts of wine terroir and plots, and providing detailed information on the manor conditions, planting, harvesting, and processing of each fine bean on the official website, such as altitude, soil type, precipitation, shade, harvest period, etc., for the reference of senior coffee lovers. The official website and stores are the main purchase channels for intellectuals to buy coffee beans, but there is no convenient channel in China, so if you have the opportunity, you can ask a friend to buy on your behalf.
 
Black Cat Project Espresso is an intellectual's espresso product line, including classic beans, organic beans, SOE beans and low-factor beans, the most worthwhile of which is the Black Cat Classic Espresso Black Cat Espresso Classic Espresso Bean, this flagship espresso is the most important product of intellectuals to date, the Espresso extracted from it is covered with chocolate-colored rich oil, perfect for lattes, Fancy coffees such as cappuccinos.
 
In Season is the intellectual's season series, this series of green beans are intellectuals according to different regions, different harvest seasons, quantitative procurement of green beans in the best condition, only roasted on the day of customer order, to ensure that users receive coffee beans less than nine months from the harvest, still maintain enough freshness.