Article by Felicity Harding. Photo by Felicity Harding.
Located in Sartell, Minn. is Korppi Coffeehouse, a local woman-owned coffee shop with Finnish ties.
“Korppi actually means raven in Finnish. My great-great-great-grandpa moved to Maple, Wis. from Finland. So, it’s just kind of an ode to my extended family and whatnot,” said Korppi co-owner Kayla. “I feel like a lot of people kind of think of this brooding bird when they think of a raven, but Korppi kind of captures that playful spirit of the bird.”
While Laura and Kayla’s passion commitment help drive their love for their business, there are some parts of having a women-owned business that may not always be fun to deal with.
“There are some difficulties for sure being a woman-owned business. It feels like you have to be a little bit more cognizant of the way that you say things. You have to try to be a little bit kinder because you’re interpreted not quite as positively if you’re not kind, or if you’re more brusque or direct. It has kind of some difficulties there,” said Kayla. “Talking to other people in positions of authority, like landlords, sometimes it’s difficult to be taken seriously. Or health inspectors and whatnot when we were first opening was a little bit condescending. But, you know, you just keep on keeping on, being direct, doing what you got to do.”
Not only are they woman-owned, but they also have ties to St. Cloud State as Kayla is a graduate of St. Cloud State University and uses her degree to help elevate the quality of Korppi Coffeehouse.
“I went to St. Cloud State University and I’m a graduate of the Environmental Studies program. After I graduated, then I joined the Conservation Corps and I learned a lot about just that community piece in terms of my degree, kind of connecting people to what environmental stewardship means. So, I feel like my degree really helped build up this idea of what it means to be a leader in the community in terms of what I learned there,” said Kayla. “You know, we try to be super intentional about the things that we do here.”
When it comes to Korppi’s menu, their intentionality in ingredients is what makes it unique from other coffee shops.
“When Laura and I opened up Korppi, we kind of felt like there was a hole for the type of like baking and craft food and craft drinks that we were providing,” said Kayla. “We source a lot of our ingredients locally. We try to be as intentional as possible as we can be about where we’re getting our ingredients, the type of ingredients we’re using. We bake things from scratch using whole food ingredients. The vast majority of our syrups are made in-house.
From their ingredients to their final product, they try to keep it all local and sourced from inside their business to elevate the quality and flavor of their products.
“We really place an emphasis on what goes into it, not using like prepackaged ingredients, you know, that are filled with preservatives and whatnot. By using high quality ingredients, we feel like the flavor of the food and the drinks comes out a lot. It does the ingredients integrity, you know. We don’t have to like cover it up with a bunch of sugar and stuff. So, our food tends to be a lot healthier. We try to just nourish like the body as well as, you know, the soul in terms of the community,” said Kayla.
If you’re looking for a healthier option in drinks or baked goods you can visit Korppi Coffeehouse in Sartell.
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