Most people spend years trying to build a stable life. A good job, a respected career, and something their parents can proudly tell their friends about. Ellen Fan had already found that life. Before becoming known as a coffee hunter, before founding Grand Cru Coffee, before traveling across coffee-producing countries and introducing countless coffees to the Chinese market, she was a university lecturer teaching public relations and marketing. It was a respected profession. Her future was predictable. Her parents were proud. By most standards, everything was going exactly as planned.
Then she walked away from it. Not because she hated teaching. Not because she was unhappy. Not because she had some grand business plan waiting in the background. She simply became curious about coffee. Looking back, that might sound like a small reason to leave a stable career, but curiosity has a strange way of changing the direction of a life. It begins with questions that seem harmless. Why does one coffee taste different from another? Why are people willing to travel across the world to find certain coffees? What happens before coffee reaches the cup? The deeper she looked, the more she realized how little she knew, and the more she wanted to learn.
“My parents were quite proud that I was a lecturer… when I started the coffee business, they told me, don’t quit first.”
At first, coffee was something she explored while continuing to teach. When she decided to start her business, her parents asked her not to resign immediately. They understood the risks. Being a university lecturer was secure. Starting a coffee business was not. For nearly half a year, Ellen balanced both worlds. She taught classes during the week while building her coffee business whenever she could. Eventually, however, coffee demanded more of her time. Origin trips became longer. Responsibilities grew. The balance became impossible to maintain. She had to choose.
Many people around her didn’t understand that decision. When she told friends she was working in coffee, they immediately asked where her café was. She didn’t have one. Trying to explain that she sourced green coffee and worked directly with producers often created more confusion than clarity. “Coffee hunter” was not exactly a common job description. Some friends assumed it was a temporary hobby. Others thought she would eventually return to teaching. Even two years later, they were still surprised.
“Wow, you’re still doing this?”
Ellen laughs when she tells the story, but the question reveals something many people experience. Society understands familiar paths. It understands teachers, doctors, lawyers, and engineers. It struggles to understand journeys that don’t fit neatly into a category. The truth is, Ellen wasn’t trying to become a coffee celebrity or build a trendy business. What fascinated her was the search itself.
In 2017, Mr. Wilford, then President of the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama, presented Fan Dian with a judges’ kit.
Today she describes herself as a coffee hunter, but not simply because she travels to origin and buys coffee. To her, coffee hunting is about building bridges between two worlds that rarely meet. On one side are farmers, producers, and communities at origin. On the other are roasters, cafés, and consumers. Her role sits somewhere in between. Every year she cups hundreds, sometimes thousands, of coffees. She visits farms, washing stations, auctions, and producing regions. She studies harvests, processing methods, and market trends. She listens. She learns. And through all of that, she tries to connect people with coffees they might never have discovered on their own.
One experience early in her coffee career shaped the way she thinks about coffee to this day. She once brought a Geisha sample to a client. Before brewing it, before smelling it, before tasting it, the client looked at the beans and immediately announced,
“This is not Geisha.”
The judgment came entirely from appearance. The beans looked too small, so the coffee was dismissed before it was ever given a chance. Ellen remembers feeling frustrated, but she also learned something important. People often make decisions before they have enough information. They judge coffee the same way they sometimes judge people, careers, cultures, and places—through assumptions rather than understanding. That moment became one of the reasons she started writing, educating, and sharing more information about coffee. If people could better understand what happened behind the cup, perhaps they could appreciate coffee differently.
Ellen visiting ALO’s Chilaka Processing Station in Ethiopia, where coffee connects farming families, workers, and the wider community.
The deeper Ellen traveled into coffee, the more she realized that coffee itself was only part of the story. One of the biggest lessons came from visiting producing countries. Many people talk about coffee farms in terms of flavor notes, scores, and varieties. Ellen talks about schools, roads, jobs, and communities. She remembers visiting Ethiopia and traveling far beyond the capital into remote coffee-producing regions. Long flights were followed by rough roads and long drives to reach farms and villages. What she found there changed the way she viewed coffee forever.
In some communities, coffee had created opportunities that barely existed before. Families who once depended on a few trees in their backyard could now participate in a larger economy. Women found employment. Infrastructure improved. Children gained access to education. Entire villages slowly transformed through the value coffee created.
“People often ask me why I travel so much to origin. Of course I’m looking for coffee, but I’m also looking at the people. I’m looking at how coffee affects their lives. When you see a village change because of coffee, when you see children going to school because of coffee, it gives a different meaning to what we do.”
For Ellen, coffee stopped being simply a beverage a long time ago. It became a connection between people who may never meet each other. A farmer in Ethiopia, a roaster in China, a café owner in Europe, and a customer enjoying a cup on a quiet morning are all connected through the same chain. Understanding that connection became one of the most meaningful parts of her work.
During her visit to Ethiopia, Ellen saw schools, markets, and gathering places that exist because coffee created opportunities for the people living there. Behind every cup is a story much bigger than flavor.
Of course, even after years of travel, there are still moments that remind her why she fell in love with coffee in the first place. When asked about the most memorable coffee she has ever tasted, she doesn’t mention a competition stage or a famous auction lot. Instead, she remembers a washed Geisha from Finca Sofia. The coffee arrived in a simple plastic cup, but before the cup even reached her hands, the aroma was already filling the air. Jasmine. Ginger flower. Bright grapefruit acidity.
“I could smell the florals before the cup even reached me… It was like a bomb.”
Years later, she still remembers that cup vividly. Not because it was expensive. Not because it was rare. But because it reminded her that coffee still has the power to surprise. For Ellen, that feeling of discovery is what keeps the journey exciting. There is always another producer to meet, another harvest to taste, another story to uncover, and another cup capable of changing the way you think.
Over the years, Ellen has built close relationships with some of the world’s most respected coffee producers, including Hacienda La Esmeralda and Finca Sophia. Beyond sourcing exceptional coffees, these partnerships reflect a shared journey of trust, learning, and growth.
Ellen visiting Elto Coffee and Finca Deborah, two producer partners she has worked closely with over the years
Outside of coffee, Ellen is also a mother of three children. Like many people in the industry, she constantly balances work, travel, and family life. Yet even at home, coffee somehow finds its way into daily conversations. Her son once tasted several coffees and pointed to one particular cup.
“I like that one. It’s the lemon coffee.”
It happened to be a Geisha. Ellen laughed when she told the story, but perhaps she recognized something familiar in that moment. Not expertise. Not technical knowledge. Just curiosity. The same curiosity that led her away from a comfortable career. The same curiosity that took her to coffee farms around the world. The same curiosity that still drives her today.
“I never planned to become a coffee hunter.”
Many years ago, the safe decision would have been to remain a lecturer. Nobody would have questioned it. Her future would have been clear. Instead, she chose uncertainty. She chose coffee. And through coffee, she discovered something much larger than a business. She discovered people. She discovered stories. She discovered that the most meaningful journeys often begin when we leave the paths that already make sense.
Today, that same belief continues through projects that connect coffee communities around the world. This year, Ellen Fan joined our Global Charity Cupping project and generously offered to share exceptional coffees she discovered through her travels, including Geishas that many coffee lovers would otherwise never have the chance to experience. Together with coffee shops, roasters, and cupping participants around the world, these coffees help support a larger purpose: creating opportunities for coffee-producing communities and helping more people understand the stories behind the cup.
From beans to cups. From cups back to the origin.
Perhaps that is the role of a coffee hunter after all. Not simply finding great coffees, but helping people understand where they came from, why they matter, and how every cup connects us to something much bigger than ourselves. It is the same circle she described standing in that Ethiopian village, watching a washing station change the shape of a place that had nothing. She said she didn’t want to claim that coffee contributes to anything — she just felt connected, somehow. At that cupping table, the connection will be in the room, in the cup, and in the direction the proceeds travel.
