A history of women's unsung contributions to the coffee world — and why it matters today.
At Swelter Coffee, we talk a lot about the women producing our coffee – but we were curious about how women have shaped the coffee industry historically, so we did a little digging. The following is a short not-so-well-known history of women in coffee!
Since the Very Beginning, Women were in the Fields
Coffee originated and was first cultivated in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and women were central to the work. In places like Ethiopia and Yemen, where coffee culture first took root, women's expertise in planting, harvesting, and processing was invaluable to the industry's early growth.
Today, women make up nearly 70% of the global coffee labor force, responsible for planting, harvesting, sorting, and processing coffee beans across the bean belt . Yet women own only approximately 20–30% of the world's coffee farms. That gap — between the work women do and the recognition they receive — is exactly what Swelter was built to help close.
1670s: Dorothy Jones, America's First Licensed Coffee Trader
In the 1600’s, tea was the dominant beverage of choice in the American colonies. A woman from Wales, named Dorothy Jones, had a tavern in Boston. Her husband traveled a lot as a minister and educator, so she needed to find a way to support herself. She knew coffee was growing in popularity in Europe, and saw an opportunity to offer it here in America. She applied and was approved as the first established coffee trader in the US. She also sold chocolate, which was itself new to the Americas at the time. She offered both products primarily at her tavern, and later started to sell cider and wine. From there, many more coffee houses started popping up in the Americas, and after the revolutionary war, coffee’s popularity skyrocketed.
1907: Alice Foote MacDougall Builds an Empire
Alice Foote MacDougall had a talent for roasting coffee, so after her husband passed, leaving her to care for their three children, she started soliciting sales to her friends. It was common to host tea and coffee parties in that time, and she felt the coffee everyone served could be much better.
She quickly grew her roasting business into wholesale partnerships with hospitals and colleges, carving out her own path in a male-dominated industry. In an effort to find more customers, she set up at Grand Central Station to sell her coffee directly to the public. It was slow, as none of the busy travelers would stop to buy her freshly roasted beans. One very dreary day, she felt bad for the miserable travelers, cold and wet, so she got her waffle iron and started selling freshly brewed coffee with waffles. This was the turning point and the beginning of her restaurant business in NYC.
She went on to run 9 different eateries across NYC, with a uniquely European theme contrasting the simple decor of most other diners, making her one of the most successful entrepreneurs of her time. The onset of the Great Depression was her downfall as people could no longer afford to eat out. She no longer could keep the lease contracts and ended up going bankrupt. A humbling lesson: even the most successful ventures can be turned around due to factors outside our control.
1908: Amalie Melitta Bentz Invents the Coffee Filter
In the early 1900s coffee was typically brewed using a percolator, which tends to result in an overly extracted coffee with a harsh taste. Cloth filters existed, but were challenging to use and clean. Amalie wanted to find an easier way to brew her coffee, and to make it taste better.
She developed the first paper filter using her child’s blotting paper and a perforated brass pot. She found the coffee brewed this way tasted more balanced and clean, as the paper filtered out the oils from the coffee, and prevented the beans from over-extraction with the pour-over technique.
She patented her design in 1908, where she and her husband launched their company, named after her maiden name: Melitta. They survived hardship through WWI, where her husband and son were drafted. They developed a cone-shaped filter that further refined the brewing technique, while refining the company’s brand to compare imitator products. The iconic colors, red and green, as well as the Melitta logo - haven’t changed much ever since.
In 1935 Amelia and her husband stepped down from operations and let their sons run the business. She stayed involved, advocating for better working conditions for their employees, and defining a 5-day work week with 3-weeks vacation. She also started a social fund to better support Melitta employees.
1970s: Erna Knutsen Coins "Specialty Coffee"
A young girl from Norway emigrated to the U.S., escaping one depression to another. This was Erna Knutsen. She grew up in NY, where she married and became a secretary at a young age – getting married was “the only way to move out of the house back then”. Working mostly in banks and on Wall Street, she grew to be a skilled secretary, or more of an executive assistant over the years.
Eventually she found herself in the San Francisco area, where she started working for Bert Fulmer at B.C. Ireland, a large coffee trader at the time. She was tasked to keep track of the coffee moving in and out initially, and grew an interest in the nuances of the coffee trading industry. In short, she spearheaded the notion of selling smaller lots, building relationships, and visiting coffee farms, all in an effort to address and track coffee quality. At the time, her peers refused to let her into the cupping room, which is where coffee is evaluated and scored – but she was encouraged by Bert to continue pursuing her interests.
Her reputation grew as she saw opportunities to connect smaller roasters who were looking for better coffee options, with broken lots that the larger companies discarded, paving the way for a more specialized industry tied closer to quality and relationship. She coined the term “specialty coffee” to reference the higher-quality coffees that were being traded and sought after. Eventually, she was able to buy the whole trading company, and changed the name to Knutsen Coffees LTD in 1985. She was a pioneer and a strong feminist, proving all her male peers wrong. She finally retired from coffee at age 96, in 2018.
Today: The Work Continues
While these women are notable and inspiring, the truth is most the work women do to foster and grow our global industry goes unrecognized. At Swelter Coffee, we talk a lot about the work women do in producing communities, but gender inequities are persistent up and down the supply chain. As a woman-owned and roasted coffee brand, Swelter is rare in the industry. From cafe owners, coffee roasters, decision makers – men are still viewed as the standard and expected leaders.
These stories are important to share, as it normalizes our role and ability for all to see. We are proud to learn about these women! And proud to partner with the women producers we work with. And proud to share amazing coffees.
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REFERENCES
1. AMG Coffee — Empowering Women Coffee Farmers in Ethiopia
2. Melitta — Melitta Bentz: History of the Paper Coffee Filter
3. Rainforest Alliance — Gender Equity Research: Closing the Gender Gap in Coffee Production
4. The Coffee Project — Strong Women Strong Coffee
5. Teeccino — Alice Foote MacDougall
6. Sprudge — Remembering Erna Knutsen, Coffee’s Feminist Pioneer
