A star floating on the exterior wing of Seochon For Intelligentsia. This is the logo of Intelligensia, a pioneer in the specialty coffee market in Chicago, USA in 1995, which no one paid attention to. Intelligentsia, which has become a role model for many specialty cafes by experimenting with light roasting and innovative extraction methods to preserve the unique taste of green coffee beans, opened a cafe in Seochon Hanok, Jongno-gu, Seoul last February. The structure of the Hanok, which had been a Korean-style house for a long time, was maintained as much as possible, and a window was opened through the wall to create a quiet place as if it had originally been there. And gave it a name. ‘Seochon for Intelligentsia’.
Intelligentsia’s expansion into Seochon is special because it is its first overseas expansion outside the United States. Why did Intelligentsia, which only operates 12 stores in the United States, including Chicago, Los Angeles (LA), New York, Boston, and Austin, choose Seoul as its first overseas store? In the late afternoon of the 7th, I met James Macroflin, CEO of Intelligentsia.
On this day, when the Seoul Cafe Show was in full swing, Intelligentsia prepared a networking party with people from the global coffee industry gathered in Seoul. Bright lights, cheerful jazz, and casually dressed staff preparing finger food greeted visitors beyond the open bar. “I literally wanted to prepare for a ‘party.’ “We created a comfortable space where everyone can enjoy coffee.”
James Macroflin, CEO of Intelligentsia, poses before an interview with the Korea Economic Daily at a coffee bar in Seochon, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 7th. /Reporter Beomjun Kim Macro Flynn has worked as CEO of Intelligentsia since 2014. As a lawyer, he entered the coffee business when he co-founded a law firm and an organic shade-grown coffee farm, Yaguara Ecologico. “It was a serendipitous opportunity. The more I studied, the more I fell in love with coffee. Before I knew it, I was utilizing my undergraduate major to set up a coffee farm website and blog, and even create a brand image. “While pursuing my passion for coffee, I came across Intelligentsia.”
Intelligentsia began when founder Doug Zell opened a small roastery cafe with the idea of ‘roasting fresh green coffee beans to increase the utility of coffee.’ Along with Blue Bottle and Stumptown, it was called one of ‘America’s top three specialty coffee brands.’ It has a reputation as a business model that protects the ecosystem of the coffee industry by maintaining stable prices even when green coffee prices plummet through contract cultivation with farmers.
There is one philosophy of Intelligentsia that attracted Macroline. “Light roasting that richly expresses the natural acidity of coffee. “It is the starting point and ultimate destination of intelligentsia.” As he said, the strength of Intelligentsia coffee is its flavor. ‘Light roasting’, which lightly roasts coffee beans to bring out the unique characteristics of coffee raw materials, brings out the best coffee flavor. The signature line that was created this way is ‘Black Cat Classic Espresso’. Unlike existing espresso, which mainly has a bitter and sour taste, the sweetness is emphasized by using dark chocolate coated with a rich brown sugar flavor.
There is also a menu that can only be found at the Seochon branch. ‘Alterate Espresso’ brewed with a manual coffee machine ‘Flare 58’. Choose the single-origin coffee beans that suit your taste, and the barista will brew the coffee right in front of you. Keep the brewing pressure low and slowly pull the lever by hand to brew the coffee.
“Manual espresso machines are risky because only highly skilled baristas can operate them skillfully. From a company’s perspective, the efficiency compared to investment is not high. However, as long as the coffee is brewed manually by controlling the extraction time and pressure, the unique flavor of the coffee beans can be richly expressed. “We thought that Korean consumers, who have diverse coffee tastes and excellent knowledge, would definitely recognize our efforts.”
This is also the reason why Intelligentsia chose Korea as the country to launch its first global store. “If you look at the proportion of coffee beans imported into Korea recently, those from Brazil, the main producer of specialty Arabica varieties, are the highest at about 25% of the total. This means that there are many consumers who enjoy high-quality coffee. “I was confident that a synergy effect would emerge when our brand’s obsession with ‘good coffee’ meets the outstanding discernment of Korean consumers.”
The key to making good coffee is the quality of the beans. Excellent coffee beans come from the hands of excellent farmers. “We travel around the world and have direct sales agreements with carefully selected coffee farmers in Mexico, Central America, and Latin America. “Strong solidarity with them is the power of Intelligentsia.”
Reporter Lee So-hyun y2eonlee@hankyung.com
