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F rom ski racing and paragliding unteered there would get to choose between
grants and where those money would go to.
to working on the biggest Star-
bucks Reserve in the world, she
seems to have coffee flowing As it was an NGO these money went back to
the community.
in her veins. Being so energetic and
achieving so much in a young age does And what is your favorite aspect about
not come from nowhere, Courtney working with coffee?
Dettrich, the Coffee Education and
Training Manager for Starbucks Asia My favorite aspect is definitely the
Pacific, walks us through her coffee people. In this industry you can travel all over
journey and the importance of being the world and interact with different cultures
passionate about what you do. and hear people’s fascinating stories, but cof-
fee is the one thing that ties us all together.
Where are you from and what was your Whether you are meeting with farmers in
first coffee experience? Sumatra, or working with a green coffee im-
porter in Seattle, everyone has a unique
I think in Seattle we grow up with background that you can learn from. They
much more coffee around. My parents may speak a different language, they may live
drink insane amount of coffee, they would in a world opposite to your own, but we are
do a whole pot of drip coffee when they all brought together by coffee. People are the
first woke up and then by the time we woke most exciting aspect for sure.
up there is probably a second pot of coffee
on and then maybe even third by the time When and how did you move to Asia? Was
everyone has left to work or school and it scary to move so far from home?
then probably one in the afternoon and
dinner. So I definitely come from a very I grew up working for a small family
caffeinated family. owned coffee roastery as a summer job. When
I graduated with a degree in International
What was life before coffee? What did Business and Chinese, they suggested con-
you do? necting me to one of their clients in Asia, to
see if I was interested in working in business
It is hard to say what I did before in Asia, but in the coffee industry. They were
entering coffee, as I started working in hugely supportive and were the first people
coffee very early. When I was 16 I started that introduced me to the fact that you can
working as a barista during my school make coffee your career, and the incredible
breaks. Most people still think that coffee community of people and lifestyle. They re-
is a summer job during college or some- ally exemplified what it could be to work in
thing like that, they don’t think of it as a coffee. Before moving here, I had studied
career path. In college I studied interna- abroad in northern China, in Harbin, so
tional business and Chinese. Living in Shanghai and Hong Kong were a bit easier to
China now, I feel that Chinese is very adapt to. I think it is always challenging to
challenging as a language but the people move anywhere new, but in case of big cities
here are very supportive about it. like Hong Kong it is pretty forgiving, you can
Originally from Seattle, Courtney get around with English and its very interna-
has been living and working in Coming from a very caffeinated family, tional, very welcoming. People here want to
Asia for the last 7 years how did you start taking coffee as your help you out and introduce you to places, and
profession? How did it all start? there’s a great coffee scene to build a com-
munity around.
My very first job was in this cool
little coffee shop where I grew up, North Where are you based now?
of Seattle. And you could start working
there when you are younger, like 16, it was I share my time between Hong Kong and
a non-profit organization, they trained you Shanghai. This past year supporting the
and gave you barista skills so you know Shanghai Roastery has been crazy and busy,
how to run a coffee shop and make coffee. but in the best of ways, as we have been work-
And then at the end all the kids who vol- ing on a once in a lifetime project.

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