This year we found out that anything is possible!
We are leading the fourth wave in coffee.
Over the past year, we have worked very hard to innovate—using coffee and storytelling to brew a new narrative. We’ve carved out our own niche within the coffee industry by offering exceptional coffee that serves as a vehicle for sharing inspiring stories. We don’t want to keep these stories to ourselves. We believe they are worth sharing, and that by inspiring the next generation of Bold & Gritty leaders, we might just change the world.
This year we found out that anything is possible. We’ve been overwhelmed with the love and support you’ve shown our brand! One year ago, Bold & Gritty was just a vision, and in 2021 you helped turn that vision into a reality. We feel like we’ve truly become part of the Rochester, New York food scene and the coffee world at large—and couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve accomplished. This is the beginning of the fourth wave in coffee, and we are leading the way.
Photo of David A. Paul. Credit. Lindsay Ann Photography, Rochester, New York
Here is a recap of what happened in 2021:
We shared 15 stories of success—from a young man who faced 144 rejection letters along the way to becoming an emergency physician and clinical instructor at Stanford University Hospital to a serial entrepreneur in Rochester, NY who is paving the way for access to capital in Black and Brown communities.
We partnered with NAMI Rochester on REVOLUTION—a coffee project to raise awareness around issues of mental health affecting Black and Brown men in our community. We raised $600 to support initiatives that will improve access to mental health services in our community.
Through a partnership with New City Café, we have been able to change the narrative that coffee is just for “White people.” Our partnership allows us to focus on developing the communities and neighborhoods in our backyard with the same vigor that we approach labor practices when sourcing green coffee. This year, we hosted three community pop-ups with New City, provided their staff with over 15 hours of free barista training, and collaborated on Uangaze—a limited release seasonal coffee blend.
Over the summer we were selected as one of the top 5 finalist in the UPS and Inc. Magazine Small Biz Challenge out of thousands of businesses nationwide. We placed 4th in the final live competition and won $5,000, which funded the launch of our Steeped coffee product!
We were awarded a Roc Growth Arts grant, which supported our efforts to tell more local stories with the help of local photographer Marké Anderson.
David was featured as a guest on the Refined Taste Podcast live recording at the Little Theater – where he was challenged to a game of Operation on stage!
We were blessed to provide free coffee service for several local arts and community events, including “Art Walk” hosted by Quajay Donnel and Chris Thompson, and the 100 Mentors Bike Ride hosted by the ROC Freedom Riders and Compeer Rochester.
We were awarded “Best Black Business” of 2021 by Gritty Vibes Magazine, who wrote an article about our Black-owned coffee brand earlier this year.
We joined the Rochester Commissary – a shared commercial kitchen space in Downtown Rochester, NY where we brew our seasonal Cold Brew and Nitro Cold Brew for summer pop-ups and wholesale accounts.
We increased our commitment to developing a predominately Black and Brown supply chain by partnering with Mizar Coffee to source amazing green coffees out of Ethiopia from some of the country’s top producers. Our work with Mizar also supports the East African Water Project, an initiative to build 20 water pipelines between two Ethiopian villages.
Our work in the community is reflective of our core values and commitment to defining what we believe is a “fourth wave” in coffee. It is important to understand the significance of drinking Black coffee (without cream or sugar), honoring the legacy from which that coffee came, and building up the communities that often surround urban coffee shops. While coffee happens to be the vehicle by which we share inspiring stories of Black men, it also serves as a powerful metaphor for how BIPOC individuals are treated in America.
“It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. ”
Until we can uplift and acknowledge the communities that make coffee possible – we will never realize the full advantages of a world where diversity makes us stronger together. Our goal is to challenge the current narrative that diversity is only palatable through a lens of cream and sugar. Bold & Gritty is about reclaiming our heritage and writing our own story. As we move forward, let’s continue to take ownership of our own stories—when we do, we can be free to be who we are. This is the fourth wave.
Drink Coffee. Be Free.
David A. Paul, MD and La’ren Paul, MBA
Founders of Bold & Gritty
