3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

Is the World Barista Championship too exclusive & expensive for competitors?

There are a number of competitions in specialty coffee designed to test the skills and knowledge of industry professionals. However, many consider the World Barista Championship (WBC) to be one of the most esteemed and highly regarded events, acting as a platform to showcase excellence in the barista profession. There are many reasons to celebrate […]


What are modular espresso machines & how do they work?

For decades, espresso machine design and technology have been evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of coffee shop owners and baristas. From multi-boiler systems and automation to custom branding, there are now more factors to consider than ever before when it comes to the design of an espresso machine. Many businesses choose to position their […]


María Andrée Is Honing Olfactory Skills in Antigua 

A sensorial class in Guatemala at Artista de Café teaches how to use your nose for the ultimate coffee experience. BY JORDAN BUCHANANBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Photos courtesy of Arista de Café Walking into a specialty café in Guatemala, your nostrils are infused with aromas from the best coffees in the country. Your nose recollects the […]


Know Your Sweeteners: Agave: Part One — Indigenous Use

Known today primarily as a sweetener, agave can be traced back thousands of years. BY EMILY JOY MENESESBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured photo by Bruno Cervera via Unsplash Recently, we launched our brand new article series “Know Your Sweeteners,” where we’re discussing a variety of sweeteners and syrups, and analyzing the unique characteristics of each one. […]

3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

3 Elements Coffee: Supporting Veterans, One Cup at a Time  

The Australian roasting company helps to create opportunities for veteran communities.  BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of 3 Elements Coffee  Brisbane, Australia-based 3 Elements Coffee, founded by Navy veteran Terry McNally in 2016, has a mission to support the transition of ex-military personnel into the commercial workspace. To help achieve their goal and raise […]


An In-Depth Look at Gruppo Cimbali’s Coffee Technician Wheel

The Coffee Technician Wheel is a new tool that helps technicians understand the complexity of coffee extraction. BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Edgardo Ferrero and Espresso Academy Coffee technicians are responsible for a complex set of tasks related to the production and extraction of coffee. They manage customer requests and need to […]


Know Your Sweeteners: Agave: Part Two—Environmental Concerns

Agave has become an increasingly popular sweetener in the coffee industry. But is it as environmentally friendly as people claim it to be? BY EMILY JOY MENESESBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured photo sourced via Pixabay In recent years, you may have noticed an increase in demand for “alternative sweeteners” like agave. While today, the nectar serves […]


Hawaiian Legislators Introduce Bills for Stricter Coffee Labeling

Legislators representing the Kona district of Hawaii have introduced a series of bills that would require more strict labeling requirements for single-origin coffees and blends containing Hawaiian-grown coffees. Some Kona…

3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

We continue our deep dive into honey, bringing to light environmental and animal rights concerns related to the product, and how the industry is addressing them. BY EMILY JOY MENESESBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Feature photo via Unsplash This week we started our discussion of honey, uncovering how it’s produced, the differences between varieties of honey, and […]


Don’t Skip the Budding Specialty-Café Culture in Quito, Ecuador

Introducing the specialty cafés of Quito, a city worth exploring on your coffee quest. BY JORDAN BUCHANANSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE Featured photo courtesy of Stratto When traveling across South America, Ecuador can be forgotten between the high profiles of Colombia and Peru. Similarly, coffee from Ecuador may be overlooked due to its giant neighbors, including […]


The 2023 Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide Has Landed

The 2023 edition of the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide (SCTG) guide went live today, providing actors throughout the coffee chain a data-driven tool for green coffee price discovery. The full…


Medium-sized farms play an important role in specialty coffee

For many consumers and industry professionals, specialty coffee and direct trade are inextricably linked. Building strong and mutually beneficial working relationships between producers and roasters is often seen as a cornerstone of establishing a truly sustainable supply chain. So with this association between specialty coffee and direct trade, there can be a narrative of smaller-sized […]

3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

minimum dose size?

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

The world of specialty coffee is still largely governed by men, but these all-female specialty-coffee roasters are helping to close the gender gap.

BY TANYA NANETTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT

Feature photo courtesy of Lot Zero/7Gr

As is the case for many commercial sectors, the world of specialty coffee continues to display gender disparity along the entire coffee chain. From countries of origin to roasting companies to the baristas behind the bar of many cafés in every corner of the world, men still fill more spaces than women do. But that is slowly changing, and more all-female entities are now entering the world of specialty coffee.

Here’s a short list of three all-women specialty coffee roasters you should know!

Six young women and three young men from Cafe Velvet pose for a group photo in front of a large sign that reads "velvet." The wall is purple and the floor is hexagon tiled.
Still women-owned, Cafè Velvet has grown and opened a second roastery in Brussels. Photo courtesy of Cafè Velvet.

Café Velvet, Colombia

Cafè Velvet, one of the pioneers of the Colombian specialty-coffee scene in Medellin, was founded in 2014. They had a precise idea in mind—that coffee will taste better in the country where it is produced, and that knows its history and the sacrifices required to produce it.

Ilse, the founder, created Velvet in order to share Colombian coffee with producers and their families, helping to raise awareness of the product itself, and creating a new generation of conscious producers, roasters, baristas, and consumers.

Soon, however, what began as a simple café evolved into a more complex project that deals with coffee along the entire supply chain, from production to roasting and distribution.

A basement type facility with a roaster and coffee equipment like grinders and tubs on metal shelves.
Café Velvet focuses on buying and selling Colombian coffee. Photo courtesy of Café Velvet.

To do so, Ilse began reinvesting the proceeds of the Medellin café into buying coffee, paying a fair price directly to farmers. She set up a roastery in Itagüí, Colombia, which still roasts exclusively for the local Colombian market.

Today, Café Velvet (still 100% owned by women) owns a café and a second roastery in Brussels that sells coffee throughout Europe.

Four smiling women, the Mauro sisters, hold up coffee bags at Lot Zero. Thwy all have long hair and wear business casual attire.
The brains behind Lot Zero, Sevengrams’ specialty-coffee division. Photo courtesy of 7Gr.

Lot Zero, Italy

The Italian roaster Lot Zero has its roots in another all-female company, 7Gr (Sevengrams), founded in 2009 in Milan by four sisters: Mary, Angelita, Anna, and Daniela Mauro. Coming from one of the historic families of Italian roasting, the sisters founded their own company. Their aim was to relaunch Italian espresso, upgrading the tasting experience of what still is, for many, a simple daily ritual.

From this pursuit of excellence, the next step was obvious. They approached the specialty-coffee world, also thanks to the new member of the team, Chiara Bergonzi.

Chiara is an SCA trainer, international coffee judge, Q Grader, and coffee consultant. She helped develop the line dedicated to specialty coffee, Lot Zero, a process that culminated with the inauguration of a roastery in the heart of Milan. The space is dedicated to roasting, coffee sales, and coffee training and consulting.

Noni sips coffee with a spoon from a cupping vessel. She has long blonde hair and wears a green dress.
Noni Morrison first fell in love with coffee in the French Alps. Now she owns and operates her own roastery in the U.K. Photo courtesy of Noni Morrison.

Noni’s Coffee Roasters, UK

Noni Morrison’s history with specialty coffee began at a specific moment: over a V60 filter coffee drunk on a mountainside in the French Alps. It was love at first sip.

Of course, the coffee tasted exquisite, but that was not all. For Noni—who was studying anthropology at university—what was beautiful was the story behind that specific coffee.

Ian and George, who brewed the coffee, were also just starting their coffee journey. They were eager to share all they knew about the coffee, its producers, and the long path it had taken from a simple seed to becoming a beautifully brewed beverage.

Noni sits in front of huge bags of green coffee from Sucafina and holds a ceramic coffee mug.
Noni’s passion for coffee has led her to commit to sustainability and investment in small coffee farmers. Photo courtesy of Noni Morrison.

That story, and those that followed, captured Noni’s imagination. She had finally found her career path in specialty coffee. 

Eager to learn more about small-scale, sustainable, and specialty-coffee production, Noni started working in a London roastery. After her first trip to Peru to meet the coffee farmers (followed by many others over the years, including Ethiopia and Kenya), Noni decided that the time was right to open her own roastery. She created Noni’s Coffee Roasters, a one-woman business based in Stroud, U.K.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tanya Nanetti (she/her) is a specialty-coffee barista, a traveler, and a dreamer. When she’s not behind the coffee machine (or visiting some hidden corner of the world), she’s busy writing for Coffee Insurrection, a website about specialty coffee that she’s creating along with her boyfriend.

The post 3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

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