We had the good fortune of connecting with Kami Kenna and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kami, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Taking risks has played a massive role in my life and my career. From a young age, I learned that taking big risks leads to exponentially larger rewards, maybe not tangible material ones per se but personal ones without a doubt. In 2014, I won a bartending competition in Portland, Oregon and my prize was a one-week trip to Peru courtesy of a pisco brand. In the months leading up to the competition, I had been contemplating a move to South America to get a certificate in Spanish translation in Ecuador. I have a Spanish degree and while working behind many Portland bars for over a decade offered some practice I knew I wanted to continue to develop my speaking skills and work in my field of study. I decided to stay in Peru to fine-tune my speaking and translation skills and explore the region. Once there, I met my now business partners, Meg McFarland and Nati Gordillo together we make and commercialize a Peruvian pisco, PiscoLogía. Meg felt that I could help the brand in marketing as an ambassador of sorts and I was excited to officially join the brand in 2016. Since then, we have all learned so much, our brand has expanded distribution in the US with our partnership with Craft Distillers and we have exported two shipments to Europe. I would have never met my partners in Peru had I not taken the risk to turn my one-week paid vacation into a never-ending journey through Latin America and myself. I now live in Oaxaca, Mexico, and work as the Senior Tour Coordinator for the preeminent boutique Tequila and Mezcal tour company, Experience Agave. A position that I obtained one year after moving to Peru – it has been a snowball effect based on that one massive leap of leaving my position as bar manager in Portland, selling all of my things, and setting out on the open road.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My work in bars started when I was thirteen, my uncle opened the Brazen Bean which over fifteen years established itself as one of Portland’s pioneering craft cocktail bars. I was there for the inauguration and nine years later I was there working as a bartender, learning from some of Portland’s best bar talent. In addition to learning from the best at the start of my career, I am determined (stubborn?), a perfectionist, adventurous, and seek to find meaning (el porque) in everything I have carved out a unique niche for myself within this vast drinks industry. For more than a decade, I fought my way to the top as a female bartender and then in the move to Latin America I struggled to gain respect as an outsider (and woman). To contend with those feelings, I turned inward and to academia (again) where I studied for a master’s in Food Studies at New York University where my work within the food industry focused on the heritage beverages of Latin America. I am still trying to sort through my feelings about higher education in the US and why I have felt the need for external validation… None of this has been easy, but I persist.

Our Pisco brand is 100% self-funded (looking for investors) we grow the grapes in Peru, produce them into award-winning pisco, and export it across the world. We strive to establish a category for pisco and share our knowledge through education and mentorship while establishing visibility for women in our industry. Lady power – because none of this has been easy, but we keep going so that there are more of us in these positions in the drinks industry, in the entrepreneurial space, and as executives and leaders.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Yea!

Clayton Szczech, founder of Experience Agave and author of A Field Guide to Tequila
Meg McFarland, founder of Piscología and Apu Winery
Haresh Bohjwani, co-founder of Destilería Andina

Website: piscologia.com, drinkaseat.com

Instagram: @kami_kenna_

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamikenna/

Other: tiki tok: @kamkamgram

Image Credits
Liz Devine Cristina Hara

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