The Story Behind GWGC

We are here to do two things. Create insanely tasty coffee and represent women. And have fun. That’s three things. Deal with it.

Deal With It.

We are an independent, female-founded specialty coffee roastery and rebellion movement. The truth is, women are underrepresented and undervalued throughout the coffee industry. To drive towards a more equal industry, we source 100% of our coffees from women producers with the focus on visibility and representation.  

Women of the Coffee Revolution

We celebrate their work and share their stories, and of course, roast their crazy delicious coffee!

How Did We Get Here?

Our lives were saved by coffee and rebellion, but the rebellion doesn't end with coffee, that’s just the beginning. We are a community of rebels making positive changes in other areas that the patriarchy would love to see us shut out of. Nice try.

We seek out fellow anarchists who do their own thing and dismantle misogyny along the way. Skaters, bikers, writers, riders, punks and producers, engineers and entrepreneurs, join the rebellion. Through collaborative events, sponsorship, ambassadorship and more; we are here to support you, to be seen and heard, and stay strong AF doing it.

Girls Who Grind Coffee is an all-female specialty coffee roastery owned and run by Fi O'Brien and Casey LaLonde.

Casey, originally from Upstate New York, and Fi, originally from Melbourne Australia, met and became friends in our now hometown of Frome, Somerset.

While our kids played, we often got chatting about our love of coffee and our various experiences within the industry, discovering that we both felt as though there was definitely room for change and improvement, in short - we wanted to see more equality!

As women, we had felt a little pushed out of an industry that we had loved so much and had so much to give to. Rather than simply complain about it, we thought we would make the change we wanted to see! We wanted to create an industry where women felt seen and celebrated for everything they bring to the table and have their voices heard. Hence why we made the conscious decision to focus solely on buying coffee from female producers, sharing their stories to the world, giving them the recognition they rightly deserve for the incredible work that they do.

Founders

Fi
Co-Founder / Head of Brand + Creative Director

Fi started her career in Advertising as a Creative/Brand Strategist before leaving to open her own Cafe in support of street art culture in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Opening a cafe was the ultimate way for her to combine her interest in creative design and brand strategy with her love of coffee and cafe culture/community.

At GWGC, Fi works to develop the most captivating ways to celebrate and empower women in the industry and share our wonderful producers stories with our customers. She looks after everything brand, design and retail-related; from designing and producing our packaging and merchandise to running our social media platforms and managing brand collaborations and partnerships.

Email Fi

Casey
Co-Founder / Head of Coffee + Licensed Q Grader

Casey has wanted to work in coffee since she was a teenager growing up in Upstate New York. She has happy childhood memories of her house filling up with the smell of coffee brewing in the mornings. In her 20’s when she landed her first job at a roastery/coffee lab in Vermont she knew she’d never look back.

Casey started off in a cupping lab where she learned how to cup and roast. She also assisted on Q-Grader courses. She enjoyed the experience of working in a lab but learned two things. 1.She wanted to work for herself. 2. She wanted to be involved in green buying and producer relationships.

As Head of Coffee and Head Roaster at GWGC, Casey is responsible for sourcing beans from all of the incredible women we work with as well as roasting them and making them taste great. Casey is always on the search for incredible female producers to work with, building those important relationships and selecting incredible coffees not only for their taste but for the stories behind them.

Email Casey

Cheek to CHeek

To give back to the producers in exchange for everything they give, above and beyond the beans themselves, we run the Cheek to Cheek initiative, putting 10% of the sale price of all our retail coffees back into their pockets. They are part of our team, part of the rebellion.