BIPOC Tea & Coffee Businesses
Hello there!
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Tea and Coffee industry and the part I play in it. While specifically, I work for a company selling these things, I more broadly am in the business of education (thus, why Kill Green *exists*). It has always been my goal to bring more thought and light to topics in Food & Beverage that I think, overall, will better people’s experience with them and in turn, improve their lives.
After the last many months of protests, attacks, and general civil unrest, I wanted to take a moment to reflect that I am a white dude, selling products that come from places where BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) produce those products. It is extraordinarily rare for white people to be tea or coffee farmers. In every way, this is the byproduct of colonialism and white supremacy, from the intertwined history of coffee and slavery to the British occupation of India and Hong Kong for the tea trade.
I always try to come from a place of love and respect for people, no matter who they are. While there are some truly great tea and coffee companies out there, doing great work and trying to honor the origins, traditions, and value inherent in these products (and I talk about them frequently), I have not personally devoted enough time or energy to the BIPOC businesses in these spaces – they are under-represented in general and as a result, can benefit less economically because of our divided attention. I want to remedy that and publish a central place for some of these businesses to be seen.
I’m not claiming you need to buy anything – but the tea and coffee community are intensely collaborative and sharing, so at least check them out and see what they’re up to! From big to small, they have taken the plunge and invested in the system that helps expand our love of tea and coffee – just from a slightly different perspective :)
This list is far from complete and necessarily leaves some out. It only deals with businesses I have some familiarity with and are all based in the USA (my home economy), more specifically from LA or NYC.
Tea
Aesthete Tea
Aesthete Tea looks and feels very much like its namesake – its minimalist tones and craftsman vibes are fitting. Founder Briana Thornton and her mother, Maggie Cassidy, source some single-origin Organic teas in addition to blending a wide range of herbal tonics; all Organic and free of any flavorants, just pure herbs and spices with tea. They have a sister home goods store in Portland, where they’re based, called Thornton’s Supply, and also provide workshops and classes via a branch called The Collective.
Website | InstagramBoba Guys / Tea People
If you haven’t heard of Boba Guys, then listen up: Owners Andrew Chau and Bin Chen have been at the forefront of creatively crafting, concocting, and combining traditional Asian drinks and desserts with the modern American cafe landscape and have since expanded their bustling shops to 18 locations in the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York City. To fuel the gallons of milk tea being made every day, they also created a tea sourcing company, Tea People. Just grab a drink, any drink, from one of their locations and you’ll see why one of their mottos is “Next Level Quality”. Oh, and if you want to make any of these incredibly clever drinks at home, they wrote a fantastic book on it, called The Boba Book.
Boba Guys Website, Tea People Website | Boba Guys Instagram, Tea People InstagramInternational Tea Importers
If you’ve ever looked into sourcing tea in the USA, you’ve likely come across ITI. Founded by the late Devan Shah, someone who nurtured the American specialty movement in so many ways over the years, it’s now headed by his daughter, Bianca Shah. They have a huge catalog of orthodox and Organic teas, dozens of blends, herbs, direct imports from Assam and Darjeeling, plus they’re one of the only US vendors importing and selling our old pals at Bitaco!
Website | InstagramStandstill Tea
I had the pleasure of getting fairly tea drunk with the folks behind Standstill right before the pandemic hit – and I wish I could go back for more. Hyper-focused on just a select few excellent Chinese and Taiwanese teas, they might best be described as “chill-wave” in a cup. They might also have something else a bit trippy up their sleeve for the future….
Website | InstagramSteepLA
SteepLA really is the premier place for tea service in LA. I interviewed owners Samuel Wang and Lydia Lin for the article I wrote for Eighty Degrees Magazine, and have since visited again, not only for their tea, but for their clever drinks and pretty bomb food menu. Very active in their Chinatown and Los Angeles communities, they just ran a charity sale with a jaw-dropping alliance of other LA-based businesses to fundraise for an organization dedicated to stopping Asian hate.
Website | InstagramTé Company
Té Company, planted in New York City’s Greenwich Village, is owned by Elena Liao and is almost as famous for their cookies (the pineaple Linzer cookie….) and snacks as they are for their exclusively Taiwanese teas. The shop is charming, warm, and a welcome reprieve from the bustling streets.
Website | InstagramTea Drunk
Shunan Teng, owner of Tea Drunk, has become a veritable authority on the education of Chinese teas in America. Her New York City-based tea shop opened in 2013 and ever since has been a destination for tea lovers in the city, if only to revel in her encyclopedic knowledge of Chinese teas and their origins, which she travels to every year to source.
Website | InstagramThree Gems Tea
Three Gems Tea is a super approachable, colorful, and simple approach to traditional teas from China and Taiwan. Owned by Ayumi Takahashi and Diana Zheng, both with an exceptional flair for design, they source oolong exclusively, including Dancong oolong.
Website | InstagramUs Two Tea
Ranmu Xue wanted to make tea more easily understandable to a Western audience and decided to select a signature line of Taiwanese teas for everyday occasions, packed in simple, neat tea sachets. The pastel warm-toned packages are genuinely pleasing and, of course, the tea is excellent and simple.
Website | InstagramWest China Tea
So Han Fan, owner of West China Tea, has been selling, serving, and instructing on tea in the Austin area for many years now. Recently, West China Tea has really made a name for themselves, not only with their exceptional quality tea and diverse range of Pu’er, but for So Han’s instructional videos demoing gong fu cha, and other aspects of traditional Chinese tea making.
Website | InstagramCoffee
Black & White Coffee Roasters
If you’ve never tried their coffee, you’re going to be impressed, especially if you can make it to one of their stores. They are typically on my shortlist of Roasters to really get people into Specialty Coffee and I’ve always been blown away by the nuance of flavor. Owned by U.S. Barista Champions Lem Butler and Kyle Ramage, their motto is “Exceptional coffee kept simple.”
Website | InstagramCute Coffee
Oakland-based Bianka Alloyn & Sabreen Naimah run this cute coffee roasting company, with an emphasis on women-led coffee farms and direct sourcing. They love their coffee, are unabashed about it, and focus on a fresh, fun, funky aesthetic to promote their coffees.
Website | InstagramDon Carvajal Café
Hector Castillo Carvajal started this coffee company in the South Bronx when he was just 22 and has since grown it to be a reputable and tasty coffee company, serving the New York area. It’s a straightforward design, reminiscent of old-school coffee companies, and sources from predominantly Latin American farms.
Website | InstagramHogg Batch Coffee
Considering the delightful results I’ve tasted with barrel-aging tea, I’m pretty surprised I don’t see more barrel-aged coffee!! But Hogg Batch, based in Tampa and owned by brothers Duane and David Hogg, does the trick with single-origin green coffee, aged in various spirit barrels, and then roasted – the results are delightful.
Website | InstagramHilltop Coffee + Kitchen
Started by LA-natives Yonnie Hagos and Ajay Relan, and expanded with Issa Rae, writer and actress of the HBO show Insecure, Hilltop has become a destination for their respective communities. The coffee is good, of course it is, but you really come for the whole package. The food is fantastic, the drink menu is creative, and the space is open, airy, and a delight.
Website | InstagramNguyen Coffee Supply
Making Vietnamese Coffee specialty! Owned by Sahra Nguyen, they are focused on promoting social, cultural, and economic sustainability with their farmers, and using robusta beans… it’s a pretty stellar concept and opens up new ways to think about your coffee. As a result, there have been a couple Vietnamese-inspired coffee shops opening around the country, using Nguyen Coffee as their main staple.
Website | InstagramPatria Coffee
I had the pleasure of working with Patria for a limited collab during Black History Month – and their coffee is stellar. Owner Geoffrey Martinez roasts in the cafe and makes quality drinks for his community, based in Compton, the first specialty coffee shop to do so.
Website | InstagramSouth LA Cafe
I was first introduced to South LA Cafe and their owner Joe Ward-Wallace (like a cup of Joe, he told me, along with owner Celia) toward the beginning of the pandemic and have since grown fond of their concept/model. They're on a mission to fight racial, social, economic, and food inequity through coffee, community, and connection in their home in South Central LA. And a portion of their sales goes to their non-profit, which supports their mission with grocery boxes for the community and events. They don’t roast their own coffee, but do a world of good for their community.
Website | InstagramWoodcat Coffee / Dinosaur Coffee
Dinosaur Coffee had been a favorite spot of mine in LA ever since they opened back in 2014 – knew some good people who worked there (and I secretly always wanted to work there as well). Woodcat was a local favorite further down Sunset Blvd, owned by Saadat and Janine Awan, who have since bought Dinosaur from Michelle and Ben Hantoot late last year.
Dinosaur Website, Woodcat Website | Dinosaur Instagram, Woodcat InstagramWrecking Ball Coffee Roasters
A familiar roaster to the San Francisco area, Wrecking Ball was founded by Nicholas Cho, a former barista champion and former member of numerous boards for the coffee industry, and Trish Rothgeb, a 30-year veteran of coffee roasting, sourcing, Q-grading, etc.
Website | Instagram