Dave’s Coffee in Providence, R.I., has launched the Big & Fruity blend to celebrate Pride, with a portion of the proceeds from sales of the coffee benefiting the Rhode Island nonprofit Youth Pride Inc.
BY CHRIS RYAN
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photos courtesy of Dave’s Coffee
This article is part of a series highlighting coffee shops across the country celebrating Pride Month. If you have any stories or coffee shops you’d like to highlight, drop us a line.
Earlier this year, Adam Bonaccorsi, head of the coffee program at Providence, R.I.-based roaster Dave’s Coffee, had an idea. With Pride Month approaching in June, Adam wanted to create a special blend to honor the occasion and use some of the proceeds to give back to the local LGBTQ community in Rhode Island.
The result is Big & Fruity, a new blend from Dave’s—available only in June—that showcases Ethiopian beans for a fruit-forward coffee befitting the name. Adam says Dave’s Coffee got involved in Pride last year when they had a booth at the Rhode Island Pride festival in Providence, and this year they wanted to increase their Pride footprint.
“I had the idea for the Big & Fruity floating around in my head for a while, so while we were planning for this year’s festival, I asked how everyone felt about doing a limited-edition Pride blend for the month of June, and everyone was on board,” Adam says.
Dave’s Coffee will donate 10 percent of the sales from the Big & Fruity blend, as well as proceeds from other Pride-themed merchandize designed and worked on by the Dave’s Coffee staff, to local nonprofit Youth Pride Inc. The organization services the youth and young adults of Rhode Island impacted by sexual orientation and gender identity/expression, and reinforces the values of leadership, affirmation, and community.
Adam says Dave’s Coffee chose Youth Pride Inc. because they’re a local organization providing an important service. “Rhode Island is a small state, and I think we are incredibly lucky to have an organization like Youth Pride to be there providing physical and emotional support as well as creating a safe space for the LGBTQ youth of Rhode Island,” Adam says. “We’ve actually had employees who have used their services in the past. Adolescence can be a really difficult time for LGBTQ individuals, and we are more than happy to support an organization that does so much wonderful work providing the resources and tools to help them succeed.”
In addition to Dave’s contributions to Youth Pride Inc., InterAmerican Inc.—the importer supplying the green coffee for the blend—will also make a dollar-to-dollar match of up to $500 in donations.
The additional merchandise designed by the Dave’s Coffee staff includes a limited (100 prints) Big & Fruity poster designed by the company’s head trainer, Cassandra Arruda, and screen-printed in Providence. The poster features a Chemex and a gooseneck kettle decked out in hot pink and black. All proceeds from sales of the poster will go to Youth Pride Inc.
Adam says Dave’s Coffee is excited to have stepped up its game for Pride 2018 and to be more involved with the community. “As our director of coffee, it was really important for me to come up with a project that would support a community that not only myself, but many members of our staff, identify with, as well as the larger coffee community as a whole,” Adam says. “So far it’s been a really fun project to work on, and it’s exciting to see it all come together thanks to the help of some really wonderful people.”
The Big & Fruity is available throughout June at Dave’s Coffee’s two retail locations and its online store. Dave’s will also be selling the blend and the associated poster at this year’s Rhode Island Pride event in Providence on June 16.
