New research shows Gen Z is the key to success for specialty cxffee, and we cannot shy away from that truth anymore. The studies show that those born after 1997 are a crucial part in growing the specialty cxffee industry. The key piece to this, of course, is dependent upon a brand’s ability to keep youth excited and interested in the industry. In the last few years this has been done through the introduction of RTD, or ready to drink canned coffee, specialty instant coffee, and DIY barista videos from social media influencers. 

Cxffeeblack, a coffee company founded by a collective of rappers and educators in Memphis, TN, has found a unique connection to the coffee curious in Gen Z.  They’re cultivating a unique market share, not just by making good cxffee (recently awarded 2024 Most Notable Roasters), but by intentionally cultivating spaces where self is celebrated as a form of reclaiming the indigenous coffee perspectives found in east and central Africa. Through a coffee inspired music catalog boasting over 1,000,000 streams, an in house designed line of streetwear and coffee gear with Miir, and a line of award winning independent film projects, Cxffeeblack is disrupting the status quo of coffee industry with what they call a “consumable curriculum”. 

Most recently, they connected with Chicago artists, Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa, in Ghana for the Black Star Line Festival in January 2023. Cxffeeblack was the only African-American coffee company present, and collaborated with a Ghana based coffee company, Kawa Moka, to bring their own unique line of hip-hop based coffee experiences to the festival. Hosting over 55,000 people of African descent from around the world, they were able to share their research about coffee’s history as an indigenous African medicine and its potential for self imposed reparations for the diaspora.  Chance would later shout out the cxffeeblack curriculum in a recent freestyle and on social media.   

This April, the Cxffeeblack team will be debuting their latest short film, soundtrack, and coffee capsule collection, “Cxffee Makes You Black”, at Chance the Rapper's newest venue in Chicago, the Ramova Theatre, Sunday April 14th from 3-6pm. The event is sponsored by Miir and Vanderbilt University. The release highlights the journey of 8 Black American coffee creatives who went to Africa this November for phase 1 of the Cxffeeblack Barista Exchange with Cxffeeblack to learn pre colonial coffee culture from indigenous communities in Ethiopia and Rwanda. The program is the first of its kind and proceeds from the debut will go to support phase 2 of the exchange. Cxffeeblack is currently raising capital on Wefunder to ensure their work continues to create the next wave in coffee and culture.