Coffee Takeover: Twitter Reacts to Peet's Acquisition of Intelligentsia

Some coffee drinkers are more excited than others.

This morning California-based coffee giant Peet's dropped the bomb that it had acquired a majority stake in Intelligentsia Coffee, the cultishly adored Chicago-based roaster. It comes just on the heels of Peet's purchase of Portland, Ore. hipster icon Stumptown Coffee, which was announced only three weeks ago.

Peet's director of marketing told Eater this morning the company intends to continue business as usual at Intelligentsia, but nonetheless, third-wave coffee devotees are getting awfully nervous as they watch their favorite roasters get snapped up by a big corporation.

Here's a look at all the acquisition-related murmurings going down on Twitter today:

Tony Konecny, founder of the L.A.-based coffee subscription service Tonx, thinks the move makes business sense:

.@erik_davis our little niche of high end coffee product is way smaller than the potential market for it. these moves are long overdue.

— tonx (@tonx) October 30, 2015

Journalist Jim Romenesko seizes the opportunity to crack on Peet's social media game:

@Intelligentsia Will your wi-fi be downgraded to match the slow speed of @Peets_Tweets now that you've been acquired?

— Romenesko (@romenesko) October 30, 2015

The move has left a bad taste in the mouth of at least one Twitter user:

@Intelligentsia You don't get it - it's more about whether your coffee improves - it's about customers/city/employees. Enjoy the $$$ though.

— lake county democrat (@lakecountydem) October 30, 2015

One person takes solace in the fact that at least coffee roaster Counter Culture remains indie:

Long live the few and the strong like @counter_culture https://t.co/qVkBOoYQhE

— sara billups (@hellobillups) October 30, 2015

A few Intelligentsia fans are congratulatory, yet concerned about the fate of their favorite roaster:

Dear @Intelligentsia, please don't lose your soul. https://t.co/44FFH0SUoB

— Tim Schraeder (@TimSchraeder) October 30, 2015

@Peets_Tweets congratulations on acquiring the best coffee ever, intelligentsia. Please, PLEASE, do not change anything about the recipe…

— Jonathan Kennedy (@jrkennedy77) October 30, 2015

Others simply wonder about a potential portmanteau of a name:

So if Peet's owns Stumptown and is about to own most of Intelligentsia, what will happen? Intellistumptown? Stumpgentsia? #coffeenerdtweets

— ☕️Kate☕️ (@SBinLondon) October 30, 2015

At least one person is heralding it as a possible sign of the apocalypse:

Intelligentsia is Peets and Grantland is dead. I no longer recognize this World.

— Kyle Glanville (@glanvillain) October 30, 2015

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