Geoff Watts is the green coffee buyer and roastmaster for Intelligentsia Coffee. His solicitous engagement with coffee began while a student at the University of Vienna in Austria, where his study of German literature and language often led to extended visits to many of the city’s famous cafés. As fortune would have it, his academic pursuits (and in equal part a keen appreciation for lovely weather, oceans, and those sorts of things not readily available in the Midwest) landed him at UC Berkeley, where many of this country’s most accomplished coffeemen have set up shop, allowing ample opportunity to continue cultivating a coffee palate. It was there, under the tutelage of a most tremendous Ghanaian drummer, that music became a principal focus, providing a foundation which would become a steadying force in what most would agree is a fascinating but not altogether stable world.

Upon returning to Chicago in 1995, Geoff began playing with the African American Unity Ensemble, a West African percussion group with which he is still involved. In the fall of that year, following a brief yet highly pleasurable tenure as a dog-walker, Geoff helped open Intelligentsia with founders Doug Zell and Emily Mange. An innate tendency towards tinkering and experimentation was the driving force behind the pursuit of the most delicious cup of coffee possible, and what began as an investigation of coffee as a beverage, from roasting to preparation, naturally evolved into what is now a continuing exploration of coffee’s development at the farm level.

Each year, extensive travels to farms throughout Central and South America, Africa, and Indonesia forming new relationships with farmers, exporters, and specialty coffee importers throughout the world continue to provide insight and understanding of what it is that makes coffee extraordinary.

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Coffee Buying & Delayed Gratification by Geoff Watts July 27, 2007 The work of a coffee buyer always involves a lot of patience and anticipation. Read more...