As a child, Stephanie Hernandez liked to copy her grandfather Salvador’s drink of choice: instant coffee. She remembers hanging out in the living room of her childhood home in High Point, sipping the caffeinated drink full of milk and sugar as she watched TV. But these days, she’s elevated her beverage routine.
In December, Hernandez could be found in the decorated lobby of Down Home NC’s Reclaim Carolina Center in Greensboro — formerly known as Double Oaks Bed and Breakfast — carefully measuring out coffee beans, grinding them and sifting them into pour-over cones. She took care to get the drinks, which are much more involved than regular cups of coffee, just right, especially because she had picked out the beans herself.
For the last few years, Hernandez has been working as the co-founder of Girl Coffee to find and share female-produced coffee to the wider Greensboro community.
“A big part of my life has been sharing things with people,” she says.
It started a few years ago when Hernandez and her former co-worker Caitie Nagy came up with the idea for the company while working at Borough Coffee. The trend of “girl dinner” had been making its rounds on the internet and the two joked about starting a business that focused on girl coffee. Since they already worked at a coffee shop, they had connections to Loom Coffee, a local roaster, and got to know the ins and outs of ordering green coffee — or the beans before they are roasted — as well as the process of roasting.
(photo by Christopher Pierce)
In May 2023, Girl Coffee launched their first product, an Ethiopian coffee with notes of blueberry, lemon and jasmine produced by farmer Bedhatu Jibicho from Yirgacheffe. The goal of the company is to focus on female growers and create delicious coffee with their product.
“It’s our mission to support women in the coffee industry,” Hernandez says. “We like to go all the way to the root.”
After that first round successfully launched, Nagy moved to Raleigh and Hernandez took over the business operations. To source and roast the coffee, she works with Loom Coffee’s Christopher Pierce and Ashley Griffeth.
In December, Girl Coffee officially released their second product, a naturally processed coffee with notes of strawberry, red grape and cacao nibs by Cecilia Quan from Santa Maria de la Paz in Honduras. According to Loom Coffee’s website, Quan took over her family farm in Honduras after spending time in the US. Like Hernandez, she too was inspired by a relative — her 91-year-old grandmother, Doña Irma Acosta — to become a business owner.
(photo by Christopher Pierce)
Hernandez says that in addition to focusing on female growers from women-owned coffee farms, she likes to find coffee that’s produced sustainably. This latest coffee by Quan comes from a farm that prioritizes water conservation and organic farming techniques, is certified USDA organic and bird friendly.
For her, it’s all connected.
“I think it’s really important in the world that we’re in now,” she says. “A lot of big chains like Starbucks don’t care about ethical sourcing.”
As someone who started working in coffee at a big chain, Hernandez says that it’s important to understand where coffee comes from — something that many who drink it on a daily basis don’t stop to think about.
According to a 2018 report by the International Coffee Organization, 70 percent of the work of coffee production is done by women, but only 20-30 percent of farms are owned by women. That’s why highlighting female-owned farms is key to the mission of Girl Coffee.
“There are women throughout the entire process of the coffee industry doing extraordinary things,” she says.
(photo by Christopher Pierce)
Currently, Hernandez works for Chandler’s, a coffee shop in downtown Greensboro that took over the old Green Bean location. As someone who’s been in the industry for a while now, she says that women touch every part of the coffee pipeline, from growing to processing to roasting to selling to serving.
“We’re promoting the fact that women are doing extraordinary things and that they should be highlighted,” she says.
Now that she’s graduated from UNCG, Hernandez hopes to do another product launch this year. She’s looking forward to planning more pour-over pop-up events too.
“I just love being able to finally share it with everyone and seeing how much people enjoy it,” she says. “I just love coffee so much; it just brings everyone together.”
Learn more about Girl Coffee on Instagram at @girlcoffeenc or on Loom’s website at loom.coffee.
Join the First Amendment Society, a membership that goes directly to funding TCB‘s newsroom.
We believe that reporting can save the world.
The TCB First Amendment Society recognizes the vital role of a free, unfettered press with a bundling of local experiences designed to build community, and unique engagements with our newsroom that will help you understand, and shape, local journalism’s critical role in uplifting the people in our cities.
All revenue goes directly into the newsroom as reporters’ salaries and freelance commissions.
