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In February 1985, the National Basketball Association sent written correspondence to Nike confirming the prohibition of the black and red Air Ship PE shoe worn by Chicago Bulls rookie, Michael Jordan. The letter asserted that the shoe’s colorway broke the league’s team uniformity rule, requiring a player’s shoe to be at least 51% white. That moment of disruption in sports and sneaker culture serves as a fitting prelude to the ethos of tāst coffee.
Founded by three visionary Black artists—Reggie Black, a multimedia artist and designer; Obiekwe Okolo, a photographer and creative director; and Jason Reynolds, a New York Times bestselling author—tāst is a specialty coffee brand built on disruption, irreverence, and cultural inclusion. According to Reynolds, the brand’s lead narrator, tāst is working “to put some paint where it ain’t.” Just like the original Air Jordan would use design to catapult sneaker culture beyond the courts, tāst coffee has chosen to approach specialty coffee as a design challenge: How can creative expression and novel narratives break down barriers in specialty coffee culture? How can accessibility and belonging be expanded to center those traditionally left out of the frame?
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Obiekwe Okolo (left), Jason Reynolds, and Reggie Black
Launched on January 31, 2025, on the eve of Black History Month, tāst is an online, direct-to-consumer specialty coffee brand offering single-origin coffees chosen to attract all palettes and profile preferences. Black, who leads coffee sourcing, describes tāst’s mission as “taking people on a journey around the world through a bag of the best coffee in the world.” The Volume 1 menu features four offerings: a dark roast, washed coffee from Cajamarca, Peru; a medium roast, washed coffee from Huehuetenango, Guatemala; a light roast, natural-process coffee from Sidama, Ethiopia; and an Ethyl Acetate decaffeinated light roast, washed coffee from Huila, Colombia. Available as one-time purchases or subscriptions, the 250g bags range from $20 to $26, with subscription discounts keeping prices both equitable for coffee producers and accessible for end consumers.
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Okolo, the brand’s architect, refers to the coffee bags as “translucent sculptures intended to adorn kitchen countertops.” He explains, “We want to invite coffee lovers to return to ritual, consume slowly, and savor everything.” He continues, “We chose to launch with a smaller bag because we trust the trade-off of limited consumption for higher quality.” This philosophy is reflected in the brand statement, “tāst more, drink less,” which is printed on the boxes in which the coffees arrive—a reminder that what’s inside is something different.
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“You can find a lot of high-quality coffee,” offers Black, “but its presentation—cafe interiors, menus, tasting notes—can be so far over some people’s heads that they don’t feel welcome or want to try.” He goes on, “We want to acknowledge coffee as the nucleus of community and the common denominator of its connection.”
tāst’s goal is to usher in a new demographic of coffee lovers whom they describe as the “Live Ones—misfits, the unfit, and the outfit.” “We believe that coffee is for everybody,” remarks Reynolds, “but we’re presenting it, unapologetically, through a Black lens.”
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Co-founder Jason Reynolds.
That lens—the brand’s textual language and visual look and feel—is informed by the abilities, experiences, instincts, and tastes of this trio of self-proclaimed Black coffee nerds based in Washington, DC. The tāst team refers to their home base as “DC, DC” to reflect their proximity to the Black cultural community they represent. By publicly validating their ideas and opinions about specialty coffee, they aim to attract consumers who look like them and have historically been overlooked.
Powering that consumer attraction will be care, tāst’s core value. According to the founders, coffee’s ubiquity makes it the perfect vessel for cultivating care. “We start from a place of believing that coffee exists on every corner of the planet and in every room where care is provided. That’s amazing to consider!” reflects Reynolds. “For us, coffee isn’t just a noun, it’s a verb. ‘Coffeeing’ means to care honestly, loudly, and openly. When you see two Black men on the street giving each other dap, that’s ‘coffeeing’. When you tell your daughter you love her, that’s ‘coffeeing’. We have to figure out how to actively care for our customers.” For this team, care is not simply about achieving product perfection, but about attending to the processes that empower and engage the full spectrum of coffee drinkers: the casual, the curious, the connoisseur, and the companion who joined the coffee run just for the company. tāst expresses care first for one another, as brothers and cofounders, then extends it to their value chain partners and consumers. By their admission, if the stress of the business ever created so much friction that it disrupted the love they have for one another, it would be a sign to exit.
That duty of care is woven into every tāst making decision, including the selection of a primary brand color, pink, which, according to colorpsychology.org, evokes feelings of tenderness, love, and compassion. Love for one another, for their communities, and for coffee, is what fuels tāst.
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Co-founder Obiekwe Okolo.
Looking ahead, the founders have clear ambitions. They hope that within a year, tāst will be recognized as a fresh and vital voice in specialty coffee coming out of “DC, DC”. They seek wholesale, retail, and cafe partnerships where people can experience tāst in a communal setting. They also plan to introduce a limited number of blends that will bring the brand’s personality to life in the cup.
As for a physical cafe? It’s on the roadmap, but only when they can fully activate the level of care and hospitality they envision. “I would love to [open a cafe],” Black muses, “and actualize Jay’s love for furniture, Obi’s love for design, and my desire to rewrite the narrative of a Black-owned coffee shop. It would be an honor to open a space where we could pour all of our love into our guests.”
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Co-founder Reggie Black.
Until then, the webshop is open, offering incredible coffees and a growing collection of digital content. Welcome to their first tāst!
Visit the official tāst coffee website and follow them on Instagram.
Brian Gaffney (@coffee_aligned) is a coffee professional and founding board member at the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity. This is Brian Gaffney’s first feature for Sprudge.
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