María Ingrid Gasser is a financial director CoffeehouseBolivian visionary leader who worked on the entire coffee chain in Latin America – from special cafes, productive coffee farms and collector communities to steam, exporters and commercial companies, including countries such as Chile, Bolivia, Mexico and Costa Rica.
It combines financial championship with a powerful feminine perspective, consistently driving perfection and innovation. Ingrid is a respected speaker on many coffee platforms and programs, and she teaches the prestigious course of “finance and coffee economics” for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts of the coffee ecosystem. She collaborated with some of the most celebrated Costa Rica coffee farms, building bridges between profitability and target. In addition to professional achievements, Ingrid inspires as a unique mother, proving that passion, leadership and care can coexist and transform the industry.
How many years have you worked in the coffee industry?
Eleven.
What was your first coffee work?
Cafe manager.
Has he experienced the life of coffee revelation at the beginning of his career?
Yes. At the beginning of my career I experienced my life changing. I started working in coffee in a non -producing country, in which I discovered that coffee is not just a drink. For years I traveled to visit farms in many countries, but only this year I could finally enter the coffee field in my own country, Bolivia. This moment of returning to my roots changed my vision and confirmed that coffee will always be my profession, my passion and my way to create prosperity for the future.
Is there a person or a person who served as your mentor at an early stage of a coffee career? How did they affect you?
One of my most essential mentors was Jesús Salazar, the founder of Cafeología. From him I learned not only ways to work with coffee, but also ways of being, thinking and seeing the world. His perspective taught me to approach coffee and life as inseparable – understand finances, strategy and daily work as a tools in the care of the care, community and a deeper goal. This vision still shapes the way I walk for coffee.
What is your current coffee role?
Currently, I was the financial director of Cafeología. My role is to adapt the financial strategy with a wider coffee mission as a system of care, knowledge and community. In addition to leading finances, I am responsible for managing the company’s export, cooperation directly with smokers and partners around the world. I also teach the economics of the course and financing of coffee, a highly specialized and ambitious program that equips producers, professionals and students with tools for understanding and moving around the reality of coffee. In all these roles-finals, export and education-my work aims to create structures that maintain the quality, innovation and long-term prosperity.
What aspect of the coffee industry has changed the most during your career?
The aspect that changed the most during my career is the recognition of people who have always maintained coffee, especially women like Samaria. Its presence – takes into account, compelling, lively, complete – gives me that coffee applies not only to markets or categories, but also about the ways of being and seeing the world. What changed the most is the growing respect for various worldviews: understanding that they never fully understand them, and that our own perspectives are not better because of this. This change – from invisibility to recognition, from reduction to complexity – changed the way I understand coffee.
What still surprises you on coffee, does it give you joy?
Honestly? A cup of coffee. Hahaha.
What still surprises me and gives me joy is the endless ability to connect. Each mug is never the same.
What’s in the coffee industry that you would like to see most?
I would like to see the change the most, how the value is distributed in the coffee chain.
What is your most valued coffee memory?
My most valued coffee memory is the first time I was in the Harvest Center in La Hilda, in Central Valley (Costa Rica). I was struck by his special rhythm – a way of being, which seemed both unique and natural. People’s flow, cherry movement, sounds and colors carried their own term. There was so much abundance here, not only coffee, but the life itself that it was really pretty. This memory remains with me as a reminder of what coffee really is.
Do you make coffee at home? If so, tell us how you are brewing!
Yes, I do coffee at home every day, but Saturdays have their own name and rhythm. They are my ritual. I try to wake up at all others at home – my husband and our two juvenile children – prepare a manual infusion on my V60, which he has at the same age as my professional life in coffee. I drink it by the window, quietly and happily, enjoying this basic moment of room.
What is your favorite song/music for coffee brewing?
Jorge Drexler: “Everything is transformed“
What is your idea of coffee happiness?
My idea of coffee happiness is basic: a good cup divided at the time of combination. Sometimes it is with my family on a still morning, sometimes with friends at a table with bpping, and sometimes with producers in the middle of the harvest.
If you could drink coffee with anyone, living or dead who would be and why?
With my grandmother. 🥰
What is one advice that would you give someone who would start in the coffee industry today?
I advise: after entering coffee, he will stay with you forever. This industry has a way to grasp your heart and mind – it challenges you, teaches you and gives you a goal.
