A couple of weeks ago, Mitch McMullen, owner of Newhall Coffee Company, issued a challenge. He said that his coffee was better than Intelligentsia. This set off a series of tweets both on his part and on the part of us devoted Intelligentsia fans. There are some of us that actually go all the way to either SilverLake or Venice just to get some Intelligentsia. If you follow my blog or know anything about me, then you know just how loyal I am to Intelligentsia. You also know that I’m a coffee doofus and I only like my coffee iced and shaken with agave, aka an Angeleno from Intelligentsia. I don’t drink coffee on a daily basis, and I don’t even drink that much coffee. Usually every other Sunday or whenever I can get to Intelli, I’ll have an Angeleno.
Since the owner of Newhall Coffee issued the challenge, this became the perfect opportunity for my coffee enthusiast friends to gather and figure out if Mitch’s points were valid. The showdown would take place at Mike’s house, and he would act as a barista. An Evite was created and people started to RSVP. So exciting!
A little background. Mitch’s Java and Jazz at the mall was the hangout spot when I was at Valencia High School. Everyone went there on Friday nights to hang out. I never drank coffee at Java and Jazz though. I always opted for a non-coffee beverage because before my first visit to Intelligentsia SilverLake in 2007, I was not a coffee drinker.
After unsuccessfully searching the SCV for Newhall Coffee espresso beans, Mitch himself offered some for the challenge. Perfect! Yesterday I went to Newhall Coffee headquarters and was surprised to receive a whole box of coffee, books, stickers, and a special espresso blend that was freshly created that morning, just for us. Wow! As for the Intelligentsia Coffee, Mike was able to pick some up from the SilverLake store this past weekend.
Today, at 1:30 we all gathered at Mike’s house, ready for a taste test. Those in attendance were: Carrie, Brian, William, Jason, Scott, Greg, Kendra, and RE. Mike would serve as the coffee preparer and let me clarify that this was a double blind taste test. Mike did not know what brand of coffee he was preparing at any given time since his wife Allison is the one that separated the beans and she was the keeper of the beans. Meaning, only she knew which coffee was in each bag. Newhall’s California Blend and Intelligentsia’s Finca Santuario Columbia Heliconias Bourbon were each separated into two bags: product C and product D.
We were allowed to smell each of the bags as they were passed around the table. We were soon ready to get this party started.
Did I mention there were plenty of desserts on hand? It seems like almost everyone brought a little something! Of course, Mike also baked some goodies for us. Scott’s homemade biscotti (using his grandma’s recipe) was a huge hit!
Round 1: Cold Brew
We were each served a cup of cold brewed coffee and were given paper and a pen to take notes. We weren’t giving scores, rather we were just putting down comments and deciding which one we liked better. Some people took the note taking process more serious than others. At this point we could add half and half, sugar, but had to make sure to write down what we added. I’m a fan of iced coffee, so starting off with the cold brew was nice.
Round 2: French Press – Hot Coffee
Each mug was different so we wouldn’t confuse which one belonged to who.
I got a mug from The View. I totally channeled my inner Star Jones Reynolds.
After tasting the cold brew and the hot brew, we compared notes on which one we liked the most. This is my paper. I did not write a lot, but you can clearly see that for cold coffee I liked D, and for hot coffee I like C.
After some sharing about what we thought of each, the coffees were revealed.
So, for the cold brew, Intelligentsia won 9-2 over Newhall. As you know, I drink my Intelligentsia cold, so I guess my taste buds were spot on for picking them in this round. Phew!
For round 2, the winner was Newhall, 8-1-1.
At this point everything was starting to taste the same to me. Between 2 cups of cold brew and 2 cups of hot coffee? This filled my coffee quota for the year. Luckily, we were all given a water glass in an attempt to cleanse our palates.
We took a coffee sipping break so that Mike could get to work with the espresso. Before that, he made a latte for Jason. Check out that latte art! A lovely pretzel…I’ve never seen Nicely do that! 😛
I don’t remember who else had a latte, but Jason got to work preparing it to his liking while we all looked on.
Jason then proceeded to write down some notes.
While he was doing that, the rest of us had some downtime so we proceeded to read through Mitch’s Coffee Revolution book, which he included in his box for us. Mitch? We were a little disappointed to find that they weren’t autographed!
Soon it was espresso time, and I opted to sit this one out, along with RE. William had never had espresso before, so he was totally game.
He even wrote down some notes that were pretty funny. At first he liked one over the other, until he added some milk. Then he liked that one more. It was all very confusing. The bottom line is, William had espresso for the first time. Here are his notes. Try to make sense of it.
Here, Carrie and Mike were inspecting the espresso beans that were part of a blend that Mitch created just for us. Carrie made some VERY valid points about the beans, but I don’t remember exactly what it was. All I remember is that we were all very impressed with Carrie’s knowledge and ability.
I would like to note that an Intelligentsia tamper was used for the espresso part of this challenge. 😉
Round 3: Newhall Espresso
vs
Intelligentsia Black Cat
Here’s a little behind the scenes look at the effort that went into taking these photos…
As I noted earlier, I did not participate in the espresso tasting for a couple of reasons. Mainly that I don’t drink that much coffee and felt like I had reached my coffee limit for the day. However, I would like to say that Greg was such a trooper when it came to the coffee tasting! Kendra definitely offered a lot of moral support too!
This is where the details start to get a bit fuzzy.
There seemed to be some discrepancy on opinions and the way the espresso was prepared. At the end of the day, it was split right down the middle. It was getting late, we were wired on coffee, and so we left it at a tie. Once again, this was a completely double blind taste test.
I have suggested an espresso rematch, to which RE and Carrie are in agreement. Perhaps early in the new year we can make this happen, and hopefully Nate and Lisa are able to join us this time around.
Here is a look at some of the “tools” that were used for the challenge:
And for those of you that always tell me that they never see pictures of me within my blog posts? Well, check out this self portrait! Look closely! You’ll see me!
Now, we were left with some questions in regards to Newhall Coffee’s California Blend. Brian (and the rest of us) would like to know where the beans that go into the California Blend come from, as it is not listed on the package. We wondered if perhaps the beans actually come from California. Lulz. We concluded that we like Intelligentsia’s packaging better and their business practices. While Mitch is very passionate about his coffee, we don’t like the bashing and we were used to the anti Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts rants, but the anti-Intelligentsia stuff came out of nowhere! Especially because we couldn’t recall Intelligentsia ever badmouthing anyone else. We also like the fact that Intelligentsia stamps the date that the coffee was roasted on the bag, and we did not see the same for Newhall.
An interesting note about Intelligentsia, Carrie noted that back many years ago, she interviewed Doug Zell over the phone for her studies, and that he was very nice. She also noted that at the time, he mentioned how they would love to open up a shop in California. I should also mention that out of all of us, Carrie is the most qualified in coffee. She has worked at all of the big coffee companies, holds various degrees, and is very smart.
A HUGE thank you to Mike for hosting the showdown and preparing the coffee and the cookies/shortbread! Thank you to everyone that came out and participated in this challenge. Thank you to Kyle Glanville (2008 US Barista Champion) for always answering our coffee questions and putting up with our antics at the expense of Intelligentsia, and to Mitch McMullen for issuing the challenge and providing us with enough Newhall coffee and special espresso blend for the challenge, and also coffee and books to be used as the parting gifts for the guests.
At the end of the day, both companies make good coffee. We all agreed on that part. In Carrie’s words “none of it was vile”. Speaking for me? There is just something so special about going to Intellivenice and having a knowledgeable barista prepare a wonderful coffee beverage right in front of me. As a person that does not brew coffee at home or even drink that much coffee, I would not buy coffee at the store or at Sam’s club, or even at Intelligentsia. Rather, I go there for coffee and the experience. Despite the outcome of this showdown, I will continue going to either Intelligentsia Silverlake or Intelligentsia Venice. I feel that anybody that likes coffee should make the drive and experience Intelligentsia first hand. It will change your life! 😉
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