Welcome to Like A Boss Girls’ 2018 Holiday Gift Guide: Food & Drink Category! Below, you’ll find the best gifts you can buy this holiday season to support small businesses founded by women.
Join us in putting your holiday shopping dollars toward a good cause. Many companies are offering our community an exclusive discount code, so don’t miss this great opportunity to shop, save, AND make a positive impact.
Category: Food & Drink
Caffè Unimatic
Founder: Elisabeth Cardiello (don’t miss our conversation with her on episode 10 of our podcast, Mind of a Mentor!)
Company Description:
Caffè Unimatic is a woman-owned coffee company with a family legacy. They offer “The Unimatic”, the last original drip-percolator coffee pots in the world, as well as a line of sustainable coffee.
What inspired you to start your company?
“After losing my Dad, I had to figure out life for my Mom and myself…I was cleaning out my Dad’s office space in Brooklyn when I happened upon […] an entire warehouse filled with the last models of a coffee pot that my Dad helped to create in the late 1950s and had never licensed.
“I knew in that moment that this was a starting point for me; an opportunity to have a business ‘with’ my Dad like we’d always talked about and a place for me to really start creating and doing things on my own.”
How is your company generating positive change?
Caffè Unimatic empowers youth through their Unimatic University Ambassador Program, a program that teaches communication skills to kids by combining the principles of psychology, brain science and leadership development.
Caffè Unimatic also runs Legacy Out Loud, a program designed to close the confidence gap in young women.
Featured Product: San Pietro Brunetta Coffee, $15.99
Product Description: Inspired by a certain kind of Brunetta (n., female – “brunette”) and named after the town our family is from, San Pietro, Brunetta has a rich, nutty flavor with a silky finish. For more about the individual flavor archetypes, check out this blog post. Tasting notes: dark chocolate, hazelnut, spices. Roast: medium, smooth. Size: 12 oz. / 340 g
Special Offer: Enter promo code LIKEABOSS to get 15% off, , or use this link
Website: http://www.caffeunimatic.com
Category: Food + Drink
Unicreamer
Founder(s): Lori & Elise Lefcourt (Plus: Listen to our conversation with Lori & Elise on our Mind of a Mentor podcast, and check out our full article about Lori & Unicreamer on the site here!)
Company Description: Unicreamer is a portable vegan coffee creamer that contains 3g of plant protein per serving to keep you full & focused.
What inspired you to start your company?
During the six years that Lori spent working on Wall Street, she noticed that the fast-paced lifestyle was causing her health to decline. She began adding protein powder to her coffee every day as a strategy to get her focus and energy back. Although the texture of the protein powder + coffee was less than ideal, she realized that she was onto something. From that point forward, Lori and her sister Elise made it their shared mission to help others get healthy and fit while living a busy lifestyle.
Unicreamer has another meaningful mission: animal welfare. Their company never uses animal products and they give back to animal welfare charities that help to strengthen the bonds between humans and animals.
How is your company generating positive change?
Unicreamer is dairy-free, vegan, soy-free, and gluten-free, so it’s a product that helps people of all ages eat clean, live a healthy lifestyle, and stay full and focused in their everyday lives.
Unicreamer also makes a positive impact by giving back to meaningful causes. They donated proceeds from their launch party ticket sales to a charity that helps Honduran women, and they also give to the Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago.
Featured Product: Holiday Unicorn Bundle, $25.99
Product Description: Unicreamer Mixed 12-Pack (Original, Mocha, Hazelnut) + a Unicreamer coffee mug
Special Offer: Use promo code Bossgirls15 for 15% off your order
Website: http://www.unicreamer.com
Category: Food + Drink, Subscriptions + Services
Vega Coffee
Founder(s): Noushin Ketabi
Company Description: Vega Coffee is a social enterprise that partners with communities in Nicaragua and Colombia to grow, roast, package, and ship their own coffee directly to consumers, universities, and businesses worldwide. Vega is Fair Trade Certified, with a pioneering model that allows growers to earn up to 4x more than they would from conventional export channels. Vega also focuses on integrating women into the coffee supply chain, leading to increased empowerment and more stable communities.
What inspired you to start your company?
“I started Vega along with my two co-founders, my husband Rob Terenzi and our friend, Will DeLuca. The roots of Vega stretch back to 2006 when Rob began working with a women-run coffee cooperative in Miraflor [Nicaragua] to roast their coffee as a means to supplement the income the farmers received from selling their crop to exporters.
“As coffee lovers, Rob, Will and I bought a lot of coffee. We were used to paying $3+ for Fair Trade, organic specialty grade coffee at our favorite coffee shops, thinking that we were supporting sustainable farmer livelihoods. Yet, when we got to know farmers in Nicaragua who dedicated their lives to growing Fair Trade, organic specialty coffee, we were stunned to learn that they could barely afford basic needs, like healthcare and education.
“Something was broken. The coffee supply chain was built on a fundamental separation between coffee farmers and the people who enjoy their product. We started Vega Coffee to fix this.”
How is your company generating positive change?
“At Vega, we are creating a whole new coffee experience by distilling the supply chain to three essential parts: the producer, the consumer and the marketplace. We equip farmers with the tools and training to roast and package their coffee into a high end product. As a result, they earn 4-5 times more money than they would from selling an unprocessed commodity to a middleman. The additional income earned by coffee farmers has a tangible impact, funding community initiatives like better education for children and greater access to healthcare.
Instead of exporting an unroasted crop, coffee farmers in Nicaragua, and as of October 2018, Colombia, now create quality, handcrafted roasted coffee that rivals the premium brands in the U.S. Not only does that mean that Vega farmer-roasters earn four times more income per pound of coffee, but in our roastery and training center, farmers are trained in all aspects of coffee production, including quality control and bean selection, cupping, roasting, grinding, packaging, and order fulfillment — skills that can pay dividends for the rest of their lives.
“We are committed to promoting gender equity throughout our supply chain, and over 90 percent of our farmer roasters are women. This is something that’s very important to us.”
Featured Product: Vega Coffee Subscription, $16.20 and up
Product Description: Each bag is 12 oz. Free shipping included.
Roast Options: Light / Medium / Dark / Espresso.
Subscription Options: 1 Month (1 Bag): $16.20 / 3 Months (3 Bags): $48.60 / 6 Months (6 Bags): $86.40 / 12 Months (12 Bags): $151.20
Grind Options: Whole bean (grind on your own) / Fine grind (espresso, aeropress) / Medium grind (pour over, auto-drip) / Coarse grind (french press, chemex)
Special Offer: Give more, save more. Spend $20, get 10% off. Spend $60, get 15% off. Spend $90, get 20% off. Spend $120, get 25% off. Promo automatically applied at checkout. (No code needed!)
Spend $75 with Vega, and you’ll get a Vega Coffee tote, pin and sticker, illustrated by our friends at Sauce Chalice, a Seattle artist collective.
Website: https://www.vegacoffee.com/
