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The Breakfast Club Radio Host Angela Yee is shaking up the coffee industry with the release of her Coffee Uplifts People (CUP) brand.
CUP isn’t just about java though. According to Yee, the brand is all about pushing for inclusivity and diversity in the coffee business and supply chain. The 42-year-old media maven said that her idea for CUP sparked upon researching about the discrimination that marginalized people of color often face in countries where coffee beans are harvested and manufactured.
“Coffee beans come from all these different places [like] Ethiopia, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Guyana, Jamaica,” Yee shared with BLACK ENTERPRISE. “I do feel like it’s something that is really ours, but we don’t get to partake in the fruits of that labor as much.”
The Lip Service podcast host is on a mission to change this.
CUP will outsource beans from Black farmers and Yee along with her business partners Tony Forte and LaRon Batchelor are also contracting Black-owned and local minority businesses to help construct CUP’s first brick-and-mortar shop that’s set to open in Bedstuy Brooklyn come August.
The sustainable coffee brand boasts some yummy flavors too including their Honey Mocha Berry Java, Peruvian Decaf, and Cocoa Espresso medium-dark roast among others.
CUP is currently sold in 10 different Rouses supermarkets and the bubbling brand is on track to hit 11 Wholefoods in NYC and 16 Stop & Shop stores next month. You can also purchase CUP’s full flavor line at Brooklyn Fare and Union Market.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for the former Shade 45 radio show host.
Angela owns a juice bar in Brooklyn called Drink Fresh Juice in addition to a hair store in Detroit. The music exec has ventured into the real estate investment world as of recently too.
Congrats to Angela Yee on launching CUP!
