Erna Knutsen announced her retirement at age 93 this year, and spoke at the Specialty Coffee Association of America‘s Opening Ceremonies in April. The SCAA, an organization she helped organize (it’s named after a term she coined), honored Knutsen with their very first Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.
She founded Knutsen Coffees in 1985, after years of working as the executive secretary of a coffee and spice company in the Bay Area. As a secretary, she was constantly pushed out of the cupping room for being a woman. In a must-read interview with Womenetics, she explained the atmosphere of having a woman-owned coffee company in the 80s:
She explains that there are still very few women in the coffee industry, and none that she could think of who are actually importing coffee on their own.
But Knutsen never paid much attention to the men who tried to stand in her way and instead sought out the few who were willing to help her, such as her boss at the coffee company who let her make that first buy. And it wasnโt long before she was accepted and respected by brokers from New York to San Francisco.
Erna Knutsen spoke on stage and touched on a few anecdotes from her career. Knutsen was accompanied by Knutsen’s Coffees CFO John Rapinchuk.
Speech begins at 7:49:
Speech transcribed below:
John Rapinchuk: Yeah, take a little time to travel!
EK: Yeah, up the Yangtze. Do they have coffee in China yet?
JR: โจโจYeah!
EK: (laughs) What a wonderful life, thank you very much. Itโs been a thrill. Even though I was kept out of the cupping room and the roaster because I was a woman, and they didnโt call me a woman either. They were all men and they didnโt think women deserved the break. But I fooled them. I bought the company and fired them all.
(loud whoops and applause)
EK: No! Did I? Oh! (laughs) Oh, no. Yeah. Imagine try to keep a woman out? Anyway, I learned a lot from them. One of the highlights was a young fellow dropped by the office and I said, โHi, there!โ And I remembered him. He was a kid from Stanford, the son of the people who brought Mandheling, Sumatra to the USA. Oh, God, what a thrill! He said, โIโm taking this to New York, itโs in my baggage and Iโm flying to New York to tell them about it.โ And I said, โOh, come on, letโs take it to the cupping room and roast it.โ And he said, โOkay, Iโll go get it!โ What a sweetheart!
So there was four men, and I was sitting in the back because I was a female, and they roasted it, made the coffee, and the guy who roasted it said, โErna, stay in your cubicle, weโll bring you a cup.โ Oh, that took a lot of – I donโt know what youโd call it, but anyway. Well, it was the beginning with my love affair with Mandheling, Sumatra, oh God. Itโs still my favorite coffee. So I looked at my boss, Wilmer, and said, โWell, can I buy a container?โ
He said, โIf you can sell it, sweetheart, itโs yours.โ
I said, โI can sell it!โ And I started the next day selling it and we sold out in about a month. A container! 250 bags. And to this day, itโs my favorite coffee. I know most of you have tasted it, havenโt you? Mandheling, Sumatra, oh, God, itโs creamy! (laughs)
But what a joy ride itโs been, going to all the producing countries and telling them about how wonderful their coffees are. Where was the wonderfulโฆ?
JR: Nicaragua?
EK: Nicaragua! Oh! The womenโs group in coffee [International Women’s Coffee Alliance] said weโre going to Nicaragua and I said โokโ and we got there and we walked in, all the men were put away somewhere, (laughs) and big gold and blue banners that said in Spanishโฆ
JR: Las damas de cafe verde. [The Ladies of Green Coffee]
EK: (laughs) Wasnโt that wonderful? We ended up dancing and crying with the women, they were so happy they finally had their hour in the sun. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
I donโt know what else to tell you, but here I am! Am I retiring?
JR: Yes!
EK: Okay.
JR: Joyfully!
EK: Yes, joyfully. Iโm going to miss though. But thank you, thank you, who ever thought of this. Thank you.
(loud applause)
Find out more about Knutsen’s Coffees here.