Who Coined the Term Specialty Coffee? Meet Erna Knutsen

Every bag of coffee that says “specialty” owes the word to one person. If you have ever wondered who coined the term specialty coffee, the answer is Erna Knutsen, a Norwegian-born coffee trader in San Francisco who first used the phrase in a 1974 issue of the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal. She used it for beans with exceptional flavor grown in special microclimates, at a time when most of the trade bought coffee on price alone.

Her path there, from secretary to importer, is one of the best stories in modern coffee.

Key takeaways

• Erna Knutsen was born in Norway in 1921 and moved to the United States as a child.
• She first used the phrase specialty coffee in the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal in 1974.
• She started as a secretary, began selling small lots of high-quality green coffee to small roasters and in 1985 bought the trading house, renaming it Knutsen Coffees, Ltd.
• In 1991 she became the first recipient of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
• She died in June 2018 at age 96.

In this article

1. Who coined the term specialty coffee?
2. From secretary to importer
3. Timeline
4. Specialty coffee in 1974 vs today
5. Her legacy in your cup
6. FAQ

Who coined the term specialty coffee?

Erna Knutsen did, in 1974. Writing in the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, she described specialty coffees as beans with the best flavors, produced in special microclimates. The idea sounds obvious now. In the 1970s it was not: green coffee in the US was mostly traded as a commodity, priced and blended by grade and origin with little attention to how individual lots tasted.

Knutsen’s phrase gave a name to something small roasters were already chasing: coffee chosen for what was in the cup. Over the following decades the name became an industry, with its own association, standards and scoring system. Our guide What is specialty coffee? covers how the term is defined today.

From secretary to importer

A secretary in a man’s trade

Knutsen moved with her family from Norway to New York and began her working life as a secretary on Wall Street. She later joined a coffee, tea and spice trading house in the San Francisco Bay Area, working for Bert Fullmer at the importer B.C. Ireland.

Coffee trading at the time was overwhelmingly male. Ms. magazine recounts that when she asked to join her colleagues at the cupping table, the room where coffees are tasted and graded, she was turned away. That refusal is often described as the turning point that pushed her to find her own corner of the business.

The Sumatra moment

In the mid-1970s, according to Daily Coffee News, a young Indonesian man brought samples of Sumatra Mandheling to her office. She persuaded him to roast and cup them with her, and the experience opened her eyes to how different high-quality lots could taste. Ms. magazine describes how she then convinced her boss to let her buy a container of Mandheling and sell it in small amounts to small roasters, who could not afford or did not need full containers.

That model, small lots of distinctive coffee sold to independent roasters, became her niche and, eventually, the backbone of the specialty trade.

Knutsen Coffees and the newsletters

In 1985 she bought the trading house and renamed it Knutsen Coffees, Ltd. Her newsletters, mailed and faxed to clients long before email, were well known in the trade. The Specialty Coffee Association credits them with helping give the specialty movement its vocabulary.

Erna Knutsen timeline

Specialty coffee in 1974 vs today

Knutsen’s definition was about flavor and place. Today the industry has turned that idea into measurable criteria. The comparison shows how much grew from one phrase.

Within the specialty range, cuppers usually describe 80 to 84.99 points as very good, 85 to 89.99 as excellent and 90 and above as outstanding. If you want to try scoring at home, our coffee cupping guide walks you through it.

Her legacy in your cup

Three habits that coffee lovers take for granted come straight from the world Knutsen helped build.

• Origin on the label. Naming the country, region or farm only makes sense if place shapes flavor, which was her central idea.
• Small roasters with distinctive coffee. Selling small lots to independent roasters gave them access to coffees the big buyers ignored.
• Tasting notes. Her newsletters helped normalize describing coffee by flavor rather than grade alone.

She was also an outspoken advocate for women in coffee, a trade that once would not let her taste at its own table. The SCA remembers her as the godmother of specialty coffee.

Taste her idea at home

The simplest way to taste Knutsen’s point is to compare origins side by side. Brew our Sumatra Aceh (earthy, syrupy, dark chocolate), our Kenya Nyeri (bright orange, lemon and floral notes) and our Ethiopia Natural (milk chocolate, ripe fruit, caramel) the same way. Three countries, three completely different cups. You can browse more in our single origins collection.

Erna Knutsen FAQ

When was the term specialty coffee first used?

In 1974, when Erna Knutsen used it in the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.

Why is Erna Knutsen called the godmother of specialty coffee?

Because she named the category, built a business selling high-quality small lots to small roasters and helped shape the language the industry still uses.

What company did Erna Knutsen run?

Knutsen Coffees, Ltd., a green coffee trading company in the San Francisco Bay Area. She bought the trading house where she worked in 1985 and renamed it.

What score makes a coffee specialty?

The widely used benchmark is 80 points or more out of 100 on the Specialty Coffee Association’s cupping scale.

Sources

1. In Memoriam: Erna Knutsen, Specialty Coffee Association, 2018.
2. Remembering Specialty Coffee Legend Erna Knutsen, Daily Coffee News, 2018.
3. Meet the Woman Pioneer Who Created Craft Coffee, Ms. magazine, 2020.
4. Specialty coffee, Wikipedia.

Facts checked in October 2026.

Keep reading: What is specialty coffee? · Sumatra coffee · Single origins