21st Street Coffee and Tea

Intelligentsia’s in the Chicago Tribune today… effective August 1st, they’re taking the 20oz size off their drink menu- drip, espresso drinks, etc.  GONE!

We almost pulled our 20oz sized drinks with the new menu, but we decided against making too many additional changes (after eliminating singles, blended coffee drinks, and scaling back our pre-brewed coffee program) and risk alienating people.  At this point we’ll recommend you get the smaller drinks, but I can pretty much guarantee the next version of our menu will not have a 20 oz coffee on it, and most definitely will not have a 20oz espresso drink on it.  It’s about making the drinks in the sizes and proportions that best represent the coffee and allow it to be enjoyed in a temperature range that tastes good for a reasonable amount of time.  I think this is a great move by Intelli and shows a lot of respect for the product they serve.

Since there is an army of internet trolls out there at any given time, Intelli and Doug Zell took a real spanking… much of it is HILARIOUS.  Read the comments.  Doug finally chimes in to explain the shift in sizes.

Hi folks. Doug Zell here. Just to set the record straight… the Chicago Tribune called me after we put up an 8” x 10” sign in our Chicago coffeebars that said, among other things, that as of August 1st we will be eliminating our 20 oz drink size as we feel it does not best represent what we do and does not make for the best tasting beverages. So, no press release was sent and I can assure this is not a “publicity stunt”. Frankly, we are stunned and flattered that all of you care so much about this. Quality, taste and not financial considerations are why we are doing this. You will not see the price of our other beverages go up on August 1st. Also you will see us re-introduce the 8 oz beverage into coffeebars because honestly, we think it is a great size and we love how it tastes. When my wife and I first opened our first coffeebar thirteen years ago on Chicago’s Northside, we offered 8, 12, and 16 oz beverages. In the meantime we got a little swept up in things like blender drinks and increasingly large sizes. We do not want to dictate the sizes people chose, but rather we want to present the coffee at its best. We have eliminated the blender drinks and are thrilled to be getting the focus where it should be, on delivering great coffee to our customers. After paying the growers above fair trade prices at source and working side-by-side with them to develop great coffees and then carefully roasting the coffees, our only goal is to assure that our customers enjoy them in what we believe is the best way possible. For those of you we may have offended, my apologies. For those of you that have shown support, thank you. To us it’s never just a cup of coffee. Thanks for listening.

P.S., And no, I am not related to Sam Zell, owner of the Tribune. My parents are named Donald and Daisy and they live in Milwaukee, where I grew up.