Cxffeeblack’s Barista Exchange Program Brings Conversations About Pre-Colonial Coffee Culture – CoffeeTalk

Four African baristas to share their perspectives from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and elsewhere.

Coffee, a $465 billion industry, is the most traded good for third-world countries after oil and the most drunk liquid on the planet after water. However, the people who discovered coffee, who are Africans, receive less than 1% of that revenue. To address this gap, Cxffeeblack co-owner Bartholomew Jones and his wife Renata Henderson decided to go back to the “root” of coffee. They learned about the history of coffee that was different from their experiences growing up and what they had been told about it. This allowed them to see coffee as a tool to build communities together, not just for productivity but also as a tool to become more connected and curious as people.

In 2023, Cxffeeblack embarked on the Cxffeeblack Barista Exchange Program, which brought four African-American aspiring “coffee nerds” on a two-week origin trip to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya to learn about pre-colonial Black coffee culture. Now, the program is in phase two, bringing four African baristas to the States to share about their respective coffee cultures. This phase includes brew ups and collaborative coffee conversations in Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, and Raleigh-Durham. This week, Memphis will host a screening of Part 1 of the Cxffeeblack docuseries “Cxffee Makes You Black,” a coffee brewing demonstration, and Q&A about the indigenous history and science of coffee at the Museum of Science & History.

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