CEO Jessica Taylor’s Ezra Coffee Blends Black History

Jessica Taylor’s interest in coffee began as a young girl when she and her sister realized that their grandfather received a special drink that “smelled so good” during their summer visits to Arkansas. Today, she is among the few Black women who own and operate a coffee business.

After her grandfather allowed Taylor and her sister to sip some of the coffee, the rest was history because it planted a seed that would lead to a life of them being coffee aficionados long before she created and launched Ezra Coffee.

Long before it was Ezra Coffee, Taylor was simply being a good sister, roasting coffee at home in a cast-iron skillet after it was discovered that her sister had food allergies and lactose intolerance. During one of Taylor’s “Woke Parties,” where she served guests coffee with a cause, this happened on a Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. A guest tried one of Taylor’s coffee concoctions, which included bourbon, and suggested that she quickly turn it into a business. Although hesitant at first, she answered the call. 

Jessica Taylor. Source: Rachel Bell and Stephanie Steinhaus

“I put it out there just to see what would happen, and a lot did,” Taylor told MadameNoire in an exclusive interview in honor of International Coffee Day. “We started in February [2021]. We were in Target’s Accelerator Program that June. We went to shelf in H-E-B that next October. So we’ve been moving, and that’s kind of where it took off. I just really wanted to start a brand that was specific to Black people and highlighted our stories.” 

At the same time, the culture was facing direct attacks on Black history, with various Critical Race Theory courses being barred from school. So Taylor wanted the coffee to be an extension of her desire to uplift and amplify Black culture, especially if it was not going to be done within the classroom.

“All of our blend names are named after significant events and individuals within our collective American history, I don’t call it Black history, it’s our collective American History,” Taylor explained. “So, our Lorde Baldwin blend is named after Audrey Lorde and James Baldwin, both writers, both activists, both really out to eradicate any of the isms – racism, homophobia, feminism, all of these things. That blend bag is orange, and we think about orange as really the focus of unity. Then, the blend notes for that when there is a Kenyan double blend, which is the strongest coffee. I picked that one for them because I feel like they told America how they felt about her, straight up, no chaser.”

“They didn’t mince their words,” she continued. “So that one is for the writers, those who are really trying to get it done.”

Other Ezra Coffee blends include the 64th and Tulsa, named after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and what took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District in 1901. Taylor considers this to represent  “progression over darkness.” This medium dark roast is featured in a green bag to symbolize the generational wealth that was taken from Black people as a result of the Tulsa Race Riots.

“On the back of all of the bags, they have different Ghanian symbology, so on that bag we have the Sankofa bird, which means ‘Go back and get what’s yours.’ We have Duafe, which means femininity on the Lorde Baldwin bag. We also have a king Malcolm, smooth like Martin, with a little kick,” said Taylor. “Then, we have a candy yams blend that tells the story of how the yam came from West Africa with the slaves to Tuskegee, Alabama, and how the yam is not only a part of our culture, but how it’s been used for over 500 different uses, including the stickiness on the back of out envelope. It really tells the story about how George Washington Carver used the yam for these different things.”

Jessica Taylor. Source: Rachel Bell and Stephanie Steinhaus

Moreover, the name Ezra means “He who helps in Hebrew,” which is another testament to Taylor’s vision for her coffee company also being an organization that gives back to the community in a significant way. A portion of all proceeds received by Ezra Coffee is used to pay off holds placed on college students’ accounts, often preventing them from continuing their studies.

“We’ve done Howard University, Southern University, and Alabama State University,” said Taylor. “This year we’re doing Spelman, University of Georgia and East Baptist State University in Texas.”

She added, “We’re not just a coffee brand, we’re an impact brand. We provide impact for students. We provide impact for and within resources for the universities we partner with. We’ve partnered with SMU and Baylor to provide their students with hands on internships opportunities and Case Study projects for them to develop throughout the course of the year.”

With Ezra Coffee, Taylor aims to leave behind a legacy of impact, knowing that they made the world a better place, one cup of Joe at a time.

“Also, for people to be able to say when they leave from drinking out coffee, reading our bags, I want them to say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that,’” said Taylor. “I want us to continuously be able to tell the stories of amazing people that are not rooted in adversity and slavery, but the beauty of who we are as a people and the amount of things that we have accomplished and just allowing people to continue to see us live out best life.”

“If you notice, all of the stories within Ezra are celebratory stories,” Taylor concluded. “The blend stories are celebratory stories. Nothing is rooted in, you know, we’re just trying to make it out or how I got over. I don’t enjoy trauma reporting.”

Celebrate International Coffee Day on Oct. 1 by clicking here to support Ezra Coffee.

RELATED CONTENT: 5 Days Of Coffee To Get You Through The Week