Episode Notes

Around the world, coffee is part of countless cultures’ daily routine. Perhaps your day starts with brewing a cup at home or grabbing your daily fix on the way to work. In fact, coffee is a global industry worth $495 billion per year but less than 1% of this revenue returns to people of African descent, who are the originators of coffee, or to African countries, where the majority of our coffee is imported from, highlighting the ongoing inequalities in the coffee trade.

One local Memphis coffee company is on a mission to change how we understand coffee’s Black history and its Black future - Cxffeeblack. Today I am joined by Cxffeeblack co-founder, Renata Henderson.

As the lead roaster for Cxffeeblack, Renata Henderson is Memphis, TN's first Black female roaster, continuing the tradition of Black women roasters in Ethiopia, where coffee originates. In addition to creating an entirely all Black coffee supply chain from Ethiopia to Memphis, TN – the first of its kind – Cxffeeblack also hosts the Barista Exchange Program which took 4 Black American baristas from the US to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya and which will bring African baristas to Memphis, in a cultural and coffee educational exchange. Cxffeeblack was honored as the 2024 Global Notable Roaster of the Year by Sprudge Media Network, a renowned international authority on coffee and its culture.

You can learn more about cxffeeblack at cxffeeblack.com or if you're in the Memphis area, stop by the Anti-Gentrification Cxffee Club.