When it comes to coffee, most people don't like to mess around. And now that we're in the middle of a serious rise in coffee snobbery, the category is starting to get looked at as closely as wine and beer. So Food Republic dropped a list of the top 10 most influential folks in coffee in the U.S. and Doug Zell, founder and CEO of Intelligentsia, came out on top. Noting that Zell and company pioneered the direct-trade model, they not only closely monitor the quality of the beans, "but the quality of life in the communities that farm them." [Food Republic]
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