Who doesn’t love a good blend, especially when it’s for a good cause, made by those with good taste? And that is exactly what the Bay Area’s Equator Coffees has on offer. Continuing with their Chefs Collection limited release coffee, Equator has teamed up with award-winning chef, author, and restauranteur Tanya Holland for the new blend California Soul, with proceeds going to benefit Mandela Partners.
Equator has a long history of working with influential chefs to create special-release coffees for a cause. In the past they have collaborated with the likes of Thomas Keller, Dominique Crenn, Tyler Florence, Brandon Jew, and Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, each of which helped design their featured coffee as well as select the charity it would benefit.
For this most recent blend, the brand tapped Chef Tanya Holland, whose accolades in the culinary world are frankly too many to list. She is the chef/owner of Oakland’s Brown Sugar Kitchen, competed on Bravo’s Top Chef, hosts her own show Tanya’s Kitchen Table on the OWN Network, has written multiple books, and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the James Beard Foundation, just to name a few.
For her California Soul Blend, Chef Holland selected three coffee: a washed processed and a natural processed both from the Kayon Mountain Estates in Southern Guji, Ethiopia and a washed coffee from the Ketiara Cooperative in the Gayo Mountain region of Sumatra. Medium roasted, the coffee is fruit-forward, with notes of blackberry, pecan, and bittersweet chocolate.
For the beneficiary, Chef Holland tapped West Oakland’s Mandela Partners, a non-profit that “works in partnership with local residents, family farmers, and community-based businesses to improve health, create wealth, and build assets through local food enterprises in limited-resource communities,” per the press release. $1 of each 12oz bag of California Soul—and $2 from every 2lb bag—will go to benefit Mandela Partners.
“Partnering with Equator is an opportunity to work with a like-minded women-led company with integrity that represents excellence in the industry; these things have always been important to me,” said Chef Tanya Holland. “Supporting the work of Mandela Partners with this coffee is an exciting chance to support the community where my first restaurant (Brown Sugar Kitchen) got its start.”
Chef Tanya Holland’s California Soul Blend is available for purchase at Equator cafes and online for $19 for a 12oz bag and $43 for a 2lb. For more information or to purchase a bag, visit Equator Coffees’ official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
All images courtesy of Equator Coffees
