To close out Women’s History Month, we highlight more women-led coffee companies to support any time of year.
BY EMILY JOY MENESES
ONLINE EDITOR
In part one of this article, we shared a handful of women-led coffee businesses to support this Women’s History Month and beyond. To conclude the series, we’re highlighting four more women-run companies: Little Waves, Cafe Cà Phê, Sip & Sonder, and Guilder.
Little Waves Coffee Roasters
Serving the community of Durham, N.C., the team at Little Waves Coffee Roasters describes their business as “heart-forward and women-driven.” The roastery was founded by Areli Barrera de Grodski and her husband, Leon, and offers a wide variety of coffee, including one from the women producers of Al Oqabi, a farm in Yemen.
Little Waves also has three brick-and-mortar café locations throughout Durham under the name Cocoa Cinnamon. Through her work, co-owner Areli hopes to create a sense of community and connection, from farm to cup.
“With every decision we make, we work to honor people, places, cultures, and histories. We integrate personal narratives into our spaces and offerings in an effort to help our guests and clients feel more connected to us on a human level,” the Little Waves team writes on their website. “We name our roasts and drinks after places that inspire wonder, have cultural significance, and after people and places that we love. Every act is an invitation to connect, and we are fueled by the joy we get from cultivating health and wonder with the world around us.”
Cafe Cà Phê
Kansas City, Mo.’s Cafe Cà Phê is the brainchild of Jackie Nguyen, who was featured on the cover of the December 2024 + January 2025 issue of Barista Magazine. Though Jackie only made the transition from a life in theater into café ownership about two years ago, she has quickly made a name for herself within the coffee world.
Notably, Cafe Cà Phê is the first Vietnamese coffee shop to open up in Kansas City, and Jackie is vocal about empowering her fellow Asian American community, women, and other groups who may feel underrepresented in the coffee community.
“The environment that I seek is one of familiarity and home. The true reason I began selling coffee in Kansas City was because I had no friends here when I moved. I knew no one, especially nobody Asian,” Jackie says. “So I sought community. I sought comfort. I sought out the feeling of home—so I just created one. My hope is that everyone who feels a little left out or othered can come into my shop and feel otherwise.”
Sip & Sonder
Operating out of Los Angeles, Calif., Sip & Sonder was started by Shanita Nicholas and Amanda-Jane Thomas, who met while practicing law at the same law firm. They were featured in the August + September 2020 issue. Eventually, the two became friends and business partners, with their shared dreams converging into the creation of the coffee shop in L.A.’s Inglewood neighborhood.
Shanita explains the meaning behind the café‘s name, emphasizing the team’s intent to foster connection and community. “‘Sonder’ is the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own, a concept that reverberates across every facet of the brand,” she says. “As entrepreneurial and creative hubs, Sip & Sonder’s coffeehouses offer more than just coffee—they serve as spaces where creatives, entrepreneurs, curators, and everyone in between can simply exist, connect, create, and put sonder into action.”
Shanita also speaks about the importance of uplifting women across the industry, both at the café level and at origin. “Through representation, we can see ourselves in the role of an owner, barista, community organizer, roaster, or trader, which is the first step into being in those roles. The impact of increased presence of women is globally charged, and creates the ability for women across origins to see themselves as part of a larger industry,” she says. “By empowering women in one node of the system, we empower women entangled across that system.”
Apart from serving as a vibrant hub for L.A. locals, Sip & Sonder also offers a wide selection of intentionally sourced coffees online, including their “Native” series: a collection that highlights single-origin coffees from Ethiopia.
“Sip & Sonder intentionally curates specialty-coffee products that originate from communities of color around the world with processes that are sustainable, traceable, and intentional,” Shanita says. “By centering Black diasporic experiences and telling the stories of stakeholders at origin, we invite the world to come for the coffee (and) stay for the culture.”
Guilder
With two locations in Portland, Ore., Guilder has become a favorite amongst the PDX community since it first opened in April of 2017. The shop was started by Caryn and Mike Nelson, but was recently acquired by Laila Ghambari and her husband, Ryan Willbur.
Laila, who has ample experience as a barista, coffee consultant, and competitor (she snagged the U.S. Barista Championship title in 2014), is also a regular contributor to Barista Magazine, writing a regular print column called “The Knockbox” where she shares advice for those looking to build a career in coffee.
When asked about her journey in coffee, Laila shares how her perspective was largely shaped by her father, Ali Ghambari, who opened Cherry Street Coffee House.
“My father is an immigrant from Iran. He came here in the early ’80s and worked his way through various jobs before starting Cherry Street Coffee House in Seattle. I spent a lot of time in that space growing up, but I never thought I would make coffee my career. I wanted to be a teacher,” Laila says. “But as I got more involved in coffee, I fell in love with it, and opportunities started coming my way. That’s when my path shifted.”
“(Seeing my father’s work at Cherry Street) definitely shaped my understanding of hard work and entrepreneurship. Seeing my father’s dedication to his business instilled in me a deep respect for small business owners,” she continues. “Now, as a business owner myself, I carry that same intensity when it comes to my team and customers.”
Celebrating Women in Coffee Year-Round
As International Women’s History Month comes to a close, we encourage our readers to acknowledge the women who serve as the backbone of the coffee industry, at every level of the supply chain, all year long.
From women coffee producers to women baristas, roasters, and café owners—the industry wouldn’t be a fraction of what it is without them. And with that, we offer our year-round gratitude to all of the women who make the coffee world go round.
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