Interview with Elizabeth Kelly, Head Roaster & Co-Founder at Za & Klo Torréfactrices
Founded by Elizabeth Kelly and Chloe Charlebois, Za & Klo Torréfactrices is on a mission to not only source delicious and traceable coffees, but to uplift women and queer people in the coffee industry.
If you had three words to describe Za & Klo, what three words would you pick?
Holistic, feminist, and playful.
Can you tell us more about the name Za & Klo Torréfatrices
The company is called Za & Klo Torréfactrices, with "Za" representing me and "Klo" for Chloe—two women! "Torréfactrices" is the feminine form of "roaster" in French (the masculine form is "torréfacteurs"). While it’s grammatically correct in French, it isn’t officially recognized in the dictionary. For us, that meant everything!
How did you get into coffee; what is your coffee origin story?
My family owned a commercial coffee facility, and I worked there since I was seventeen. I did everything from production work, administration, accounting, and roasting until I eventually moved to green-buying. I loved it, but I soon realized I wasn’t able to find the traceability I wanted, which was breaking my heart. To me, traceability in coffee is not just about being fancy and knowing which renowned region our coffee is coming from; traceability is about being able to establish a relationship with farmers, and making sure they know where their coffee is going and the value of the coffee they produce.
While I was green-buying for my family’s company, I started to try specialty coffee out of curiosity, and I couldn’t believe what I was tasting. I started to experiment with my own roasts at the Canadian Roasting Society, and slowly but surely, I realized I could roast coffee like this too–it was just a matter of learning a new way of doing it.
How has your journey been running a woman-owned coffee business?
There are not a lot of women in positions of power in coffee. In my family business, I was surrounded by a lot of men, and there were many moments where I was dismissed by clients. Even though I was green-buying for the whole company, clients would still turn to my brother and father to communicate. My father would graciously stand up for me, but I disliked that I had to deal with these people just for the benefit of the company. It made business sense, but it didn’t align with my values. This motivated me to try and make a change.
At Za & Klo, not being taken seriously is something I frequently deal with even though I’ve been in coffee for twelve years. I felt a lot of pressure, and it took me a while to get comfortable in the space but eventually, I thought to myself: Challenge accepted. I’ll do this and I’ll do it better! Now, it’s become a source of motivation for me. The journey as a woman in coffee can be very discouraging, and I feel privileged to be where I am now.
Karen Duong
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