Intelligentsia Coffee Pasadena

A cold coffee with clarity, vibrancy, and sweetness!

Rotating daily option of our finest Direct Trade coffees.

Our cold coffee blend infused with nitrogen for a creamy mouthfeel, served neat.

In the highlands of Nyeri County in Kenya’s Central Province, some 800 smallholder growers deliver their selectively harvested cherries to the Kangocho Factory washing station. The region’s high elevation and volcanic soil are well suited for growing highly regarded local varieties like SL-28, SL-34, Batian, and Ruiru. Once cherries reach the washing station, they are hand sorted for ripeness, then pulped and rinsed. A double fermentation follows, breaking down the mucilage and contributing to a complex, sparkling clean cup that lets the terroir shine. The profile is further refined at the dry mill where the coffee is sorted to meet AB standards, one of Kenya’s most premium quality grades.

A double shot of espresso with finely textured, steamed milk.

A double shot of espresso with hot water.

A double shot of espresso with 4 oz of steamed milk.

A double shot of espresso with 3 oz of milk, steamed slightly cooler than a cappuccino. Crushable.

A double shot of espresso with 4 oz of steamed milk, served a few degrees hotter and with less foam than a cappuccino.

Our classic latte with our house-made ganache, using Askinosie single origin chocolate.

Equal parts espresso and steamed milk.

A double shot of our syrupy sweet Black Cat Classic Espresso crafted with a blend of coffees from Brazil and Colombia.

Our classic latte served over ice.

A double shot of espresso with water, served over ice.

Our signature iced latte with house-made ganache, using Askinosie single origin chocolate.

A double shot of espresso with 4 oz of milk over ice.

A double shot of our Black Cat Classic Espresso served over ice.

Persephone is our annual celebration of spring, evoking its spirit of renewal and hope. The 2024 edition features coffees from small-scale family farmers from three exciting coffee origins in East Africa: Burundi, Ethiopia, and Kenya, including two of our favorite single-origin offerings Yandaro and Buku.

In the highlands of Nyeri County in Kenya’s Central Province, some 800 smallholder growers deliver their selectively harvested cherries to the Kangocho Factory washing station. The region’s high elevation and volcanic soil are well suited for growing highly regarded local varieties like SL-28, SL-34, Batian, and Ruiru. Once cherries reach the washing station, they are hand sorted for ripeness, then pulped and rinsed. A double fermentation follows, breaking down the mucilage and contributing to a complex, sparkling clean cup that lets the terroir shine. The profile is further refined at the dry mill where the coffee is sorted to meet AB standards, one of Kenya’s most premium quality grades.

In the renowned coffee region of Huila, Carlos Fernando Cerquera tends three hectares in the village of Bruselas, Pitalito. Beyond producing coffee, he has represented Colombia on the world stage as a cupping competitor in the World Coffee Championships, bringing that same curiosity and discipline back to his farm, Finca Ginebra. This washed Castillo lot was comes from the mitaca harvest, six months after the main crop, when trees yield fewer cherries yet quality remains exceptional. Picked every three to four weeks, ripe cherries were carefully sorted and rested for 24 hours before pulping. The coffee was then fermented in tanks for 24 hours and washed twice to remove remaining mucilage. The resulting cup profile is clean and vibrant, layered with notes of bright tropical fruit, blackberry, and orange concentrate.

A blend of coffees from Burundi, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Flavor notes: cranberry, cherry, & tangerine.

This release features a variety that is new to us and a farm that is not. The variety is known locally in Peru as Bourbon Marshell, named for the owner of the farm where the unusual seed was first discovered and later multiplied for distribution. It was grown at Finca La Palestina by the Alarcón Coronel family, a rising star in our global Direct Trade network. Flavor notes: toffee, dats, & white grapefruit.

Welcome Spring with our take on an espresso tonic. Black Cat Classic espresso, Fever Tree tonic water, and Fee Brothers orange bitters.

Our Black Cat Latte made with Oat milk and our organic turbinado sugar simple syrup spiced with ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, and orange peel. Served with an optional sprinkling of cayenne.

Our Black Cat Latte made with Oat milk and our organic turbinado sugar simple syrup spiced with ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, and orange peel over ice. Served with an optional sprinkling of cayenne.

Four shots of espresso shaken with milk and homemade vanilla syrup. A sweet treat.

Our Matcha is an exceptionally sweet powdered green tea from our own Kilogram Tea. Made with oat milk, shaken and over ice.

Our Matcha is an exceptionally sweet powdered green tea from our own Kilogram Tea. Made with steamed oat milk.

Our classic chai tea latte over ice. Made with our own Kilogram Tea's Organic Masala Chai Tea.

Made with our own Kilogram Tea's Organic Masala Chai Tea, combined with steamed milk.

Look for nectarine, citrus, golden raisin. A perennial favorite of our coffee team and one of the unsung heroes of our single-origin menu.

In 2020, we expanded upon the concept of our Extraordinary Coffee Workshop, an event that brings our global Direct Trade network, and convened a coffee quality event for smallholder cooperatives in Guatemala that we called Intelligentsia ECWx. We were impressed with the three women from La Libertad, Huehuetenango who represented the Coopesqui cooperative, and even more impressed with the coffee they offered us.

Established over 50 years ago in Kirinyaga, Central Kenya, Faith Estate serves as both Cecilia Wanjiku Haniel's farm and the hub of a network she created that connects the work of 30 neighboring small estates. While each estate grows coffee independently, they unite to share best practices for cultivating, processing, and selling exceptional coffees. As a leader of this collective, Cecilia ensures selective hand-picking of coffee cherries, followed by proper dry fermentation and washing protocols before the coffee is carefully dried on raised beds. By processing their coffees at a centralized location, Faith Estate farmers benefit from improved infrastructure and more precise protocols, allowing them to develop the highest quality possible. This lot features an AB selection, one of Kenya’s top quality grades. It is a vibrant coffee, brimming with tropical fruit and juicy citrus notes.

In the highlands of Nyeri County in Kenya’s Central Province, some 800 smallholder growers deliver their selectively harvested cherries to the Kangocho Factory washing station. The region’s high elevation and volcanic soil are well suited for growing highly regarded local varieties like SL-28, SL-34, Batian, and Ruiru. Once cherries reach the washing station, they are hand sorted for ripeness, then pulped and rinsed. A double fermentation follows, breaking down the mucilage and contributing to a complex, sparkling clean cup that lets the terroir shine. The profile is further refined at the dry mill where the coffee is sorted to meet AB standards, one of Kenya’s most premium quality grades.

This lot was grown by smallholder farmers who are part of METAD's Kirite network in the Guji region of Oromia. It is an elegant coffee with floral aromatics and notes of fresh peach, sweet meyer lemon, and hibiscus.

In the renowned coffee region of Huila, Carlos Fernando Cerquera tends three hectares in the village of Bruselas, Pitalito. Beyond producing coffee, he has represented Colombia on the world stage as a cupping competitor in the World Coffee Championships, bringing that same curiosity and discipline back to his farm, Finca Ginebra. This washed Castillo lot was comes from the mitaca harvest, six months after the main crop, when trees yield fewer cherries yet quality remains exceptional. Picked every three to four weeks, ripe cherries were carefully sorted and rested for 24 hours before pulping. The coffee was then fermented in tanks for 24 hours and washed twice to remove remaining mucilage. The resulting cup profile is clean and vibrant, layered with notes of bright tropical fruit, blackberry, and orange concentrate.

Our first release of the new Rwanda harvest comes from our partners at Kivubelt Coffee, located in the Nyamasheke District in western Rwanda. Grown by a group of smallholder farmers collectively known as The People’s Farm, this lot was cultivated on the rolling hillsides that overlook majestic Lake Kivu. Cherries from Red Bourbon trees were hand-picked and delivered to Kivubelt’s Murundo washing station, where they were carefully processed and separated into smaller lots based on quality and sensory characteristics. In the cup, we love its complex yet comforting fruit notes, defined by honey-sweet persimmon, juicy orange, and a hint of herbal sarsaparilla.

Raised in a family of coffee farmers, Julian Palomino learned how to cultivate coffee alongside his grandparents before heading to university to study agronomy. Using his degree, he spent years working with coffee producing families across Cauca. Eventually, he and his wife, María Teresa, purchased land to establish a farm of their own: El Progreso. Over the past decade, they have transformed former pasture land into a thriving four-hectare coffee farm planted primarily with Castillo, a Colombian variety with resistance to coffee leaf rust. This lot showcases the Palomino family’s take on Castillo, shaped by the cloud-covered terrain of Totoró and careful double-washed processing. The resulting cup is clean and sweet, layered with notes of ripe stone fruit.

A shade-grown organic blend designed to enlighten, anchored by a luminous Ethiopian single-origin lot.

Persephone is our annual celebration of spring, evoking its spirit of renewal and hope. The 2024 edition features coffees from small-scale family farmers from three exciting coffee origins in East Africa: Burundi, Ethiopia, and Kenya, including two of our favorite single-origin offerings Yandaro and Buku.

This syrupy sweet espresso blend has been the staple of our lineup since the very beginning. Supreme balance and a wonderful sweetness make this a classic.

Sapsucker is a seasonal blend named for the bird whose pursuit of sugary-sweet tree sap reflects our own approach to crafting this coffee. This year's blend unites distinct lots from Colombia, Burundi, and Kenya into a lively espresso defined above all else by its sweetness. The result is vibrant yet balanced, layered with notes of bright tropical fruit, ripe stone fruit, and zesty citrus.

Almond Milk (Water, Almonds), Rolled Oats, Date, Cocoa Powder, Sea Salt.

Coconut Milk (Water, Coconut), Rolled Oats, Date, Cold Coffee Concentrate, Sea Salt.

Roasted Almond & Himalayan Pink Salt