My first experience meeting someone in the specialty coffee world was Ken Stevenson, an Australian eccentric roaster who liked to travel almost as much as he liked roasting some of the best coffee I've ever tasted. The day I phoned him, he sent me a ticket to visit him the next day in Denver and, by the week's end, we'd flown to San Francisco to meet someone he insisted be the second person I meet if I wanted to learn all there is to know about coffee. Her name is Erna Knutsen. She is noteworthy because she broke the glass ceiling. In her seventies when I met her, she'd started at Hills Brothers coffee. Early photos confirm she was hired for her looks. But, she shocked them all when she turned out to have exceptional taste buds and trading skills. Still, she was not allowed into the cupping (tasting) rooms at this old-school company. Erna struck out on her own and she scooped up the great list of coffee growers large companies no longer had an interest in, and began buying small lots of it, warehousing it in San Francisco and calling up the new wave of micro-roasters in the 1970s. Erna virtually founded the Specialty coffee world, and in fact is a founding member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. She and her (off-camera) boyfriend John Rapinchuk, run one of the most important bean trading companies in the US in an amazingly small office space, where she cups every day. I wanted her perspectives and plucky sense of humor and gave her the last word in many segments. Here's a change to see for yourself just how fun, and profound she is.

Knutsen Coffees