California Soul Blend was crafted in partnership with award-winning Chef, Author, and Restaurateur Tanya Holland and features component coffees from Ethiopia & Sumatra.
Each bag sold of California Soul benefits Mandela Partners: an Oakland-based organization funding programs that build community power through food.
Tanya Holland’s California Soul Blend is built around a pair of coffees from the Kayon Mountain Estate in Southern Guji, Ethiopia. The first is a natural-process coffee that brings a fruit-forward character to the cup. The second, a vibrant fully-washed coffee, adds brightness and delicate
floral notes.
To complete the blend, we include a coffee from the Ketiara Cooperative in the Gayo Mountain region of Sumatra’s Aceh Province. Affectionately known as Queen Ketiara, this coffee is grown by the cooperative’s women producers. Its full-bodied, earthy profile brings depth and structure to the
blend, and together, these components create a complex and versatile blend with just the right amount of fruit presence.
Altitude
4,000 - 7,380 feet
Variety
Various
Processing
Washed, Natural, Wet-Hulled
Why We Love This Coffee
Tanya Holland is an award-winning Chef, Author, and Restaurateur. Acclaimed for her inventive take on modern soul food, as well as comfort classics, she is the Executive Chef/Owner of the internationally renowned and beloved Brown Sugar Kitchen restaurant, in Oakland, California. Holland is the host of “Tanya’s Kitchen Table” on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, served as the president of the prestigious Les Dames d’Escoffier San Francisco chapter, and authored three award-winning cookbooks, most recently Tanya Holland's California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West. We have partnered with Tanya Holland to offer this Blend to support Mandela Partners.
Sustainably Sourced
Good Coffee, Better Planet
$1 from every 12oz bag of California Soul Blend sold($2 from every 2lb bag; $3 for every 5lb bag) is donated directly to Mandela Partners to fund programs that build community power through food.
Founded in West Oakland in 2004, Mandela Partners was established to fill a gap that was created by deeply rooted inequities – a challenging local food environment, a legacy of redlining and economic disinvestment, and barriers to good jobs and economic opportunities.
Today Mandela Partners approaches these challenges with creativity, joy, and innovation, and uses food as a tool for Black communities and communities of color to build their own wealth, well-being, and opportunities. Their programs include: distributing sustainably grown fruits and vegetables for families facing food insecurity; culinary training for community members facing barriers to employment – with a focus on those returning home after incarceration; wellness education rooted in empowering individuals to redefine their health and celebrate food; and support for small farms and small food businesses owned by people of color.