Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador

Why it’s easier for wealthier producers to grow specialty coffee

It takes money – and sometimes a lot – to grow specialty coffee. Producers not only need to continuously maintain and improve quality and yields, but they also have to invest back into their farms. Whether it’s replacing equipment and machinery or planting more resilient varieties, producers need to turn a profit to operate their […]


Understanding the Process: Koji Fermentation

Continuing our series on coffee processing, we learn about koji fermentation, a unique process usually associated with the brewing of sake. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Forest Coffee If brewed properly, a cup of coffee can offer countless variations of flavor and aroma. The quality and complexity of these attributes depend on many different […]


The First Women-Only Coffee Championships Held in Costa Rica

Feria del Café Frailes seeks to increase the gender diversity of coffee competitions. BY SUNGHEE TARKSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Cover photo by Sunghee Tark The coffee industry has come a long way in the past 20 years, with innovations happening in many parts of the world and in different links of the supply chain. […]


Philadelphia’s Café Don Pedro Seeks to Build Up Small Businesses

A Dominican-owned coffee roasting company called Café Don Pedro recently launched in Philadelphia with ambitions for direct trading and boosting more Latino-owned small businesses throughout its supply and distribution networks….

Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador

How to roast anaerobically fermented coffee

Among the many different kinds of experimental processing methods, anaerobic fermentation is perhaps the most popular and intriguing. Interest in this processing technique is only growing, with more and more anaerobic fermented coffee available in cafés and roasteries around the world. Moreover, of all the advanced processing methods, this particular technique has one of the […]


Book Review: From Nerd to Pro, by Patrik Rolf

From Nerd to Pro: A Coffee Journey is an autobiography by roaster, café operator, and coffee competitor Patrik Rolf sharing his coffee journey. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Tanya Nanetti I’ve read plenty of books on coffee over the years: manuals on how to brew great coffee at home, books on […]


Design Details: A Petit Le Café Coffee in Midtown Manhattan

Welcome to Design Details, an ongoing editorial feature in Daily Coffee News focused on individual examples of coffee shop architecture, interior design, packaging design or branding. If you are a coffee…


Competition, Cold, and More from the 2024 U.S. Coffee Competition Qualifiers in Houston

The first round of qualifiers for the 2024 season of the United States Coffee Competitions featured the U.S. Barista, Cup Tasters, and Roasters qualifying competitions. BY KATE VAN PETTENSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE Photos courtesy of U.S. CoffeeChamps The first round of qualifiers for the 2024 season of the United States Coffee Competitions took place January […]

Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador

Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador

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...

Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador

Meet Camila Khalifé, the brains behind Girlsplaining, a unique coffee learning experience with an emphasis on creating space for women in the industry.

BY JORDAN BUCHANAN
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE

Photos courtesy of Camila Khalifé

Men may hold most of the positions of authority and teaching roles within the specialty-coffee industry, but Camila Khalifé, the owner of Botánica Café in Quito, Ecuador, is actively working to alter those gender dynamics. According to Camila, the male majority leads to the trope of “mansplaining.”

Girlsplaining Welcomes Women in Coffee

Girlsplaining is a workshop in Quito that Camila has established to flip this dynamic. The Ecuadorian specialty expert describes her workshop as “mansplaining but positive.” The learning environment is “a space where us women speak to each other about coffee. Various professionals and experts that are women come to give classes and share their knowledge.”

Anyone can attend these events, but Camila notes that it’s mostly women who come along. She feels that many men don’t think that they can learn from women in coffee, as they feel that women don’t carry the same status and reputation as the men of the industry. With women often having to learn in male environments and/or in courses led by men, the result can be that women are marginalized in the learning space and are undermined. “We wanted to create a space where if you are a woman that you feel comfortable,” Camila says.

Participants take part in a ”Nuestros Orígenes” cupping of Ecuadorian coffees during the first edition of Girlsplaining.

Behind Girlsplaining

Camila has been a specialty-coffee pioneer in Ecuador for over a decade. She opened her café Botánica (one of the first outlets of specialty coffee in the country) in 2014. Throughout that time, she has encountered the condescension of men and at times struggled to be taken seriously as a woman in a male-dominated industry. Camila has prospered despite these challenges.

Girlsplaining has already been a success, and many people have come to learn from the women at the workshops. Camila says that it’s “great to see that we can generate spaces for women where women feel confident to ask questions, and if they do not have the knowledge, they have the confidence to come and learn more.” Camila’s goal is to break the norms of learners feeling nervous and intimidated in the classroom. She wants people to be themselves without worrying about how they will be perceived based on their gender. This goal supports the growth of the specialty industry by allowing humans to express themselves as authentic beings. Both these outcomes are major challenges, but Camila faces them head on.

Beta Campo, barista instructor, leads a latte art workshop.

Growth and Collaboration

And she hasn’t stopped in Ecuador. Camila hopes for other people across the world to position women as important sources of knowledge in the coffee industry, and to host Girlsplaining elsewhere. This year Camila will collaborate with Anggela Sara Garcia, a leading coffee specialist in Peru, for the first transnational edition of Girlsplaining in Peru. The concept is easy to move across borders. Camila says, “The format is pretty flexible; it can include workshops, panels, cupping sessions, lectures, competitions, or any women-led activity, depending on the location and what makes more sense in each place (we’ve even had flash tattoos!).”

Rafaela Iturralde, Wilma Peñaherrera, and Camila Khalifé participate in a panel about sustainable relationships with producers.

Changing the Dynamic

What Camila is doing serves as a push for positive change for all of us in the coffee sector. Whatever your gender identity, we all benefit from challenging the dominant gender dynamics that have led to limited expression, lack of emotional safety, and fierce competition in society. These tendencies have been established over a long period, and it takes a lot of work—through events like Girlsplaining—to deconstruct them.

Attendees of the second edition of Girlsplaining.

The specialty-coffee industry also encourages deep knowledge of the trade. Learning environments that are safe and egalitarian will advance our collective understanding of coffee and the people involved in getting it to the bar. Girlsplaining maintains these goals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jordan Buchanan (he/they) is completing their Ph.D. in Latin American history at UC San Diego. Their research focuses on the growth of specialty-café cultures in producer nations in Latin America. Jordan grew up in Scotland and currently lives between there and Mexico when not doing doctoral work in San Diego. After purchasing their first AeroPress, Jordan has been an avid specialty-coffee enthusiast, which has added a new perspective to their lust for travel and exploration. 

Subscribe and More!

December 2023 + January 2024 Issue cover

Out now: It’s the December 2023 + January 2024 issue! Read it for free with our digital edition. And for more than three years’ worth of issues, visit our digital edition archives here.

You can order a hard copy of the magazine through our online store here, or start a subscription for one year or two.

The post Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

Shopping cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping
0