A Woman's Touch

Women look beyond their coffee and tea workplaces for inspiration

By Cora Weisenberger

It's difficult believing that a short time ago a woman in the workplace, any workplace, was a pretty uncommon sight. It was the same for the coffee and tea industries. Forty years ago women were even barred from entering cupping rooms.

Today, in a very different world, women have followed their destinies into every facet of the business world. They flood our specialty fields as successful shop owners, roasters, importers, tea masters and every other positions of influence to which one can aspire.

Beyond making profits from their successful ventures into the worlds of specialty coffee and tea, these female entrepreneurs have more on their minds and look beyond their shop for inspiration. Their roles, as they see it, is to be caretakers of the planet and to give back to the people in coffee- and tea-producing countries whose hard work enable them to stay in business.

There are many women in the coffee and tea trades who meet these qualifications. This month, Specialty Coffee Retailer introduces you to just a few of these inspirational women.

Photo courtesy of Knutsen Coffees, Ltd.

Erna Knutsen
Knutsen Coffees, Ltd., San Francisco
In the early 1970s, Erna Knutsen worked as a secretary for a coffee and spice company. When she wanted to visit the roasting room, however, she was told that women weren't allowed. Ten years later, Knutsen got the upper hand in the situation and bought the company. “Men laughed at me," Knutsen says, remembering when she started in the coffee business in 1985. “No other woman was doing it." Today, she is known as an icon in the industry and is, in some cases, given credit for coining the phrase “specialty coffee." Her company, Knutsen Coffees, Ltd., is an importer of green beans specializing in boutique coffees. “I carry only the top, most expensive coffees, (but) we have customers from here to Beijing to New York," she says.

Born in Norway, Knutsen was ingrained with the love for good coffee, which is very characteristic of her homeland. When she came to the United States as a young girl with her family, she says her mother combed the streets of their new home looking for a source of whole beans. “She never bought anything canned," Knutsen says.

In adulthood, she found secretarial work at the coffee and spice company that produced “pretty bad robustos" for major coffee companies. But that was where she was introduced to an extraordinary Sumatra Mandheling. Although she wasn't authorized to make purchases, her boss said, “Erna, if you can sell it, you can buy it."

Today Knutsen has received recognition from the coffee industries both in the United States and abroad. She has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Coffee Alliance for being a pioneer in specialty coffee. She was one of the organizers of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA). She is also a member of the SCAA International Relations Committee and received the first Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the organization. Knutsen has also been the only woman invited to address the International Coffee Symposium twice.

Although cagey about her age, Knutsen says she's “no kid," but still travels every year to the coffee estates that produce the beans she buys. Kenya is on her itinerary for this October. “You can buy things blended, but that's not me," she says. “When you meet the farmers, there's so much trust there."

“I laugh a lot and smile a lot, but I can't help it. I love this business," Knutsen says.

Photo courtesy of Zhena's Gypsy Tea®

Zhena Muzyka
Zhena's Gypsy Tea®, Ojai, Calif.
It was a family crisis that spurred Zhena Muzyka into the tea business. Her son was born with severe health problems that required surgery when he was just 6 weeks old. To pay for the expensive procedures, Muzyka turned to what she knew–tea. The beverage had always played a vital role in the culture of her family, who are gypsies from the Ukraine. Hooking her infant son's carriage to a cart, Muzyka started selling her own blends. “I was picking things from my own garden and adding them to the blends," she says.

From the tea cart, Muzyka started selling directly to restaurants and later, in 2001, she founded Zhena's Gypsy Tea®. “People just really thought I was crazy," she says. “People thought Lipton was a type of tea." The tea industry was a natural fit for Muzyka's interests in aromatherapy and the use of natural herbs and remedies that she studied in Brazil. “I was definitely on the right track. I just didn't know it would lead me to teas," she says.

Muzyka says her business philosophy is “to do well financially by doing well in the world." From day one, her teas were all organic and produced through fair-trade practices. “I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't sleep at night if I wasn't entirely fair trade," she says. “Fair trade has been my biggest focus because of what I went through with my son. People need medical care." The company's teas are also certified allergen-free, gluten-free and contain no genetically modified organisms so they can be enjoyed by everyone, she says.

Muzyka says she thinks that environmental social issues related to business are particularly pertinent to women. “Women have a natural mother's instinct in nurturing one another and the planet," she says.

In addition to wanting to see her company flourish financially, Muzyka says one of her missions is to help end poverty in the countries that produce the teas used in her products. She has established a foundation called Daughters of Gypsy Tea which grants scholarships to the daughters of the tea pickers.

Photo courtesy of Brooke McDonnell (left) and Helen Russell of Equator Estate Coffees and Teas.

Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell
Equator Estate Coffees and Teas,
San Rafael, Calif.
Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell started in the coffee industry owning two espresso bars located in the San Francisco area. After getting their feet wet in the retail business, they became intrigued by the behind-the-coffee scenes as well as the wall that seemed to separate roasters and retailers. Buying a small roaster, they decided to educate themselves in the process. “(Brooke) did all the roasting and I did the selling," says Russell.

The pair eventually sold their espresso bars and in 1995 dedicated themselves to roasting. Originally intending to be only a catalog company, they are now a wholesale operation. “When I got involved, there were not that many women roasters," McDonnell says. She is now a master roaster.

From that one small roaster, Equator Estates has grown to a company that roasts 10,000 to 11,000 pounds of coffee a week and is closing in on $4 million in annual sales. In a little more than a decade, they have developed a reputation as purveyors of outstanding coffees and teas. Their products have won over some of the most highly respected chefs in the United States including Thomas Keller who exclusively uses Equator drip coffee at the renowned French Laundry restaurant located in Yountville, Calif.

While accolades are appreciated, Russell and McDonnell say their goal is to produce high-quality coffees and teas while maintaining a commitment to sustainability. “Coffee is such a sustainable product ... but you have to take care of the people you deal with," Russell says. They say that they think of sustainability as a giant tent that covers many areas including organic, fair-trade and supplying their employees with full benefits.

McDonnell says Equator buys beans from different growers of which about 30 percent are fair trade and organic. The company does not exclusively purchase Fair Trade CertifiedTM products because that may exclude some worthy farmers. “There are many cooperatives that have not yet been certified," she says. “It's important to realize that (fair-trade) certification is great, but just because its not certified doesn't mean (the coffee) is bad," Russell adds. “We're looking for quality first; certification is secondary."

To help monitor quality, Russell and McDonnell have donated a cupping lab to one of its Guatemalan farmers. In December of last year, they also initiated a micro credit loan program that provides funds to a Nicaraguan cooperative for the purchase of de-pulpers, which removes the coffee cherry from the bean. Money paid back from the loans will be used to make future equipment purchases.

Linda Smithers
Susan's Coffee & Tea, Akron, Ohio
“When people would say ‘coffee,' I would just cringe," says Linda Smithers. She says she never got a good cup of coffee and, hailing from English and Canadian stock, she was more familiar with tea. Her attitude changed, however, when Smithers and her husband, Ted, were in Palm Beach, Fla. Looking for a place to retire, they stopped in a coffee shop where the brew was “just outstanding," she says. “We just became enamored with coffee."

The couple decided to open a roasting and retail store. For two years they visited every coffee shop they could find, researching the still burgeoning specialty coffee industry and attending the very first SCAA convention held in 1988. Before leaving New Orleans, the site of the convention, Ted Smithers purchased a roaster and an espresso machine. “We had machines before we had a location," she says. “At that point, I knew we were going to be in the coffee business."

The very first Susan's Coffee & Tea (named for Smithers' late stepdaughter, who loved coffee) was open in Fairlawn, Ohio. “The challenge for us was to run a roasting and retailing business simultaneously," Smithers says. “The palate development for specialty coffee wasn't there yet; the curiosity wasn't there." Today there are four stores in the Akron area in addition to an online business, wholesale operations and mail order and gift basket businesses. Smithers is a former president of the SCAA and she is the only woman that has received the Colombian Coffee Federation's Manuel Majia Medal of Honor.

“I've always been a foodie. I enjoy tasting even more than eating," says Smithers. “With coffee, it's a bouquet everyday. You're so connected to such a spectacular, kind world."

Photo courtesy of Tea Education Alliance

Donna Fellman
Director, Tea Education Alliance, Louisville, Colo.
It took five years of working in retail managing teahouses for Donna Fellman to learn that retail was not her passion. Tea, however, was. “I became very enthralled and passionate about tea," she says. That passion inspired Fellman to found the Tea Education Alliance.

The ritual and history of tea fascinated Fellman. “I felt like it was a link to wisdom of the past, but it had a very modern appeal to me," she says. In the beginning, though, she found the general public's knowledge about the ancient beverage to be fairly limited. Some early students thought Lipton was the type of tea rather than the name brand, she says. “There's more to tea than crumpets," Fellman says.

By teaching continuing education and adult education classes and giving presentations at elementary schools, Fellman started spreading the word about tea. She has now co-written a book, “Tea Here and Now," and her educational classes are in demand by groups as diverse as botanical gardens to large corporations hosting a cultural diversity week. “It's so interesting how many different people call me to come talk about tea," Fellman say. “There are so many angles people can approach it from."

Fellman is also the chairwoman for the Specialty Tea Institute's Education Committee and is designing the Certification Program for Tea Professionals. The program's goal is to raise the professionalism of the tea industry. “Certification makes it easier to open (tea) shops," she says. “I never dreamed of hiring someone with experience in tea. You always had to train someone."

Although in the United States tea still does not enjoy the popularity of coffee, Fellman says it is gaining momentum. “There was a time when a coffee shop wouldn't sell tea, although a tea shop had to serve coffee," she says. “More and more coffeehouses are looking to serve tea and serve it well."

Photo courtesy of Schuil Coffee Co.

Greta Schuil
Schuil Coffee Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.
Schuil Coffee Co. was one of the first specialty coffee roasters in the United States. Started in 1981 by her parents, Greta Schuil took over the company upon their retirement 18 years ago, giving up a career in international finance. “My family has been in gourmet foods for over 100 years," says Schuil.

Schuil Coffee imports its beans and roasts, grinds and blends the coffee before distributing them–some under its own label. Customers can stop by for a cup of their fresh brewed beverage at the Schuil Coffee & Tea Shoppe in Grand Rapids, Mich., or they can buy bagged coffee on the shelves of regional grocery stores. “In the beginning, we were in a position where we were educating customers," says Schuil. “Now we're sitting on shelves with all the global guys." Schuil coffee is available in the Midwest and parts of Kentucky and Pennsylvania and also online.

Her background in international finance has helped her in the coffee industry where she deals with people from around the world. Running the retail and wholesale ends of her business requires her to work about 70 hours a week, Schuil says. Even so, she says she tries to be a mentor to working women in Western Michigan. “I think I'm a very good role model that, if they want a career, it comes at a cost. I've always thought that what holds women back is themselves."

Photo courtesy of Boot Coffee Consulting

Andi Trindle
Boot Coffee Consulting & Training, Mill Valley, Calif.
Andi Trindle started out in the coffee business where many people begin–behind the espresso bar. Eighteen years ago, Trindle was a part-time barista. She later went on to import green beans, sell coffee and train roasters and is now a coffee consultant working on both national and international projects. “What I principally love about (coffee) is that it's an industry where people are passionate about what they do," she says. She also works with VOLCAFE Specialty Coffee in sales and special projects.

As a woman in the specialty coffee industry, Trindle says she has always felt accepted and encouraged. That acceptance, however, is not always felt in the country's that grow coffee, she says. There is still abuse, “old-fashioned misogynistic behavior," a lack of education and men controlling the money. “It's changing, but it has a long way to go," Trindle says.

To help with the change, Trindle is the vice president of the International Women's Coffee Alliance (IWCA), which is developing chapters in several coffee-producing countries including Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and El Salvador. IWCA projects include education for women in the coffee industry and alternative business opportunities for off-coffee seasons. She is also serving her first year on the SCAA Nominating Committee after five years of the Training Committee and is on the board of the E-Café Foundation.

“I've always had a value system where volunteer work is important to me," says Trindle. “Life is unbalanced if I'm not giving back."

Photo courtesy of Schuil Coffee Co.

Karyn Lee-Thomas
Signature Coffee, Redway, Calif.
When Karyn Lee-Thomas and her husband, David, “ran away" from the San Francisco area in 1988, they were looking for a complete change in lifestyle. They eventually ran to the old-growth redwoods of Northern California where they decided to start a catalog of gourmet foods. And it was just about that time that the coffee-craze began taking hold. “It was divine intervention, or dumb luck," says Lee-Thomas. At that time, the couple was embracing private-labeling with another roaster's beans, but started roasting their own beans to better control the quality.

Signature Coffee is a small company and Lee-Thomas says that's the way she likes it. “To me, specialty coffee roasters should serve their immediate geographic area." She was organic when organic wasn't cool and was a pioneer in offering organic coffee. Her company started selling organic coffees in 1992. Today 80 percent of her coffee is organic and 40 percent of it is fair trade. She says she saw the necessity and impact of fair trade when she visited Nicaragua on a Women in Coffee trip in 2003. “I was just overwhelmed by the poverty I saw in Nicaragua," Lee-Thomas says.

She brings her dedication to preserving the planet to her personal life as well as her professional life. She and her husband live off the grid on 25 acres.

Lee-Thomas is a member of the SCAA Sustainability Committee and is a board member for the IWCA. She says she also sees environmental issues as being a major part of upcoming SCAA conferences.

Signature Coffee's beans are packaged in brown bags instead of foil because, Lee-Thomas says, she won't use packaging that will be on the earth longer than she will. She strives to run her company on a carbon-neutral basis, putting out only as much carbon as she removes from the atmosphere. Working with a group called Trees for the Future, she has assisted the group to plant trees in coffee-growing countries like Ethiopia and Honduras. Her company's Coffee with a Cause coffee line donates 25 cents per pound sold to local social and environmental causes.