In this great interview with Women of Influence, our president and founder, Diana Olsen, speaks about how she got started in the coffee industry, her best advice from a mentor, and the future of Balzac’s!

My first job ever was… when I was 15 working in the kitchen at IL Giardino, an Italian restaurant in Vancouver. The chef taught me how to dry a full day’s worth of bibb lettuce by becoming a Human Salad Spinner…the washed lettuce would go into a huge table cloth and I would stand in the back alley spinning it with both arms while the water flew out…It worked!  One of my tasks there was making espresso and cappuccino, which I took a particular interest in and thus began my love for coffee. Click here to continue reading >