The Third Sacrament

Writing under the influence of... Intelligentsia Los Inmortales, El Salvador Direct Trade, brewed in my Chemex. A balanced, nutty, milk chocolaty brew, I recommend this drip and press-friendly coffee to both geeks and folks who just like a decent cup of coffee.

Garrison Keillor was on Colbert last night, which reminded me of the former's quip that Scandinavian Lutherans drink the stuff like it's the "Third Sacrament." Well, we attended coffee Catechesis last weekend when we took a tour of the Intelligentsia Coffee Roasting Works. Shouts to Sandy & Al for the b-day gift. I was already impressed with Intelligentsia's baristas (Charlie is my new coffee hero) and of course their coffee, but I left the tour even more impressed. It certainly helped that they served us as much coffee as we could drink, and gave us each a half pound fresh from one of their vintage roasters at the end of the tour. I was a caffeine ninja for the rest of the day.

When I got into beer, I read anything that I could find, but it wasn't until I went on brewery tours and home-brewed with a friend that everything clicked. In the coming weeks, I am going to roast up some coffee at home. My better half might guest post if my attempts provide opportunities for humor. I'll post, in any case.

Anyway, Intelligentsia is working towards emphasizing coffees that are "in season" for its growing region. More importantly, they have removed one more middleman with their Direct Trade
program, which will hopefully funnel more money to coffee growers.
Americans tend to moralize their consumption--we secretly feel superior when we eat organic--so I don't want to make too much of all of this. But as one of the, if not *the*, biggest third wave coffee roasters, I think that what Intelligentsia's doing is supercool. So, there's my Sally Struthers moment. For just the price of a more expensive, and way more tasteful, cup of coffee a day, you can have an impact on the second largest commodity in the world.