How to Celebrate Pride Month
One of the best parts about working in the coffee and tea world and managing coffeeshops is working with a community, seeing and experiencing its diverse global coffee culture. There is a chain of people, from farmer to cup, who work to get the coffee to the consumer. We have a saying, “it is a grind”, and that is a truth well known in the coffee business. We do our best to support and grow with the people around us, and we invite you to do the same. It is not an easy gig, and there are many challenges, however, accepting people as they are is something we do quite well. When we hire, and after the staff interviews the new candidate, the last person they meet is Renee, and her final sentence to the potential employee helps them to understand our community and our corporate culture. “Come to work, do your job, and go home, no drama.” This is an important part of our corporate culture, because we have enough drama in our day-to-day operations; buying coffee and tea, hand-roasting coffee and hand-blending tea, packing and shipping massive amounts online coffee and tea orders and wholesale coffee and tea orders, as well as running multiple coffee shops, so we don’t need an drama in-house.
Traditionally, we think of coffeehouses as a place to work and gather as a community. Customers will google, coffee near me, and end up in either our San Francisco coffee shop or San Rafael coffee shop. Coffee shops have become safe spaces for diverse communities, and they are usually accepting places. There are coffee shops that will offer specialized events for their customers ranging from open mic nights to burlesque performances to yoga classes.
Recently, we find that “coffee culture” seems to have turned into barista competitions, where which cafe has the best interior design, or the latest cutting-edge technology. However, we believe coffee culture should be defined by how the community responds to you, and the communities you support as coffee roasters globally and locally. We know it is about the quality of the coffee and tea, and the excellent customer service that is served, as well as what the coffee company offers back.
We celebrate June and recognize it as Pride Month to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. Normally, during Pride month, you would find our owner Renee pouring our Fair Trade Certified Pride Blend coffee at San Francisco’s Pride festival while the Weaver’s Coffee & Tea Flagship would be serving the community in the Castro district.
Unfortunately, donating coffee at a large event cannot happen this year as Pride events are limited and our San Francisco Flagship remains temporarily closed due to the massive damage of a car crashing through the café on September 11, 2020 (Covid, California Wildfires and a Car Crash, (what a year, right?)
Despite the challenges the world continues to face, and just because we cannot have large groups this June, does not mean we are not having fun. Customers can still find our Pride Blend Coffee online as it is part of our Artisan Coffee for a Cause Program. We donate a percentage of sales to three organizations with the sale of the artisan coffees listed under this program.
SF AIDS Foundation and Weaver’s Pride Blend Coffee
San Francisco AIDS Foundation was founded in 1982, during the start of the HIV and AIDS epidemic when the disease was still not fully understood.
Today, San Francisco AIDS Foundation is one of the largest community-based AIDS organizations in the United States. Their mission is to promote health, wellness, and social justice for communities most impacted by HIV, through sexual health and substance use services, advocacy, and community partnerships.
San Francisco AIDS Foundation has a huge number of programs and resources that they offer to support the community.
Our Weaver’s Coffee & Tea Flagship is located in the heart of the Castro District, which is famous for being the center of gay, lesbian, and transgender rights. When June rolls around, our store is packed, and we serve people who are in search of some really good coffee and tea. During the month of June, we exclusively pour our Pride Blend Coffee both on tap as a hot drip coffee, as an espresso drink and a cold brew. This coffee is unique because every time someone buys a pound of Pride Blend Coffee, we donate a percentage of sales to San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Our Pride Blend Coffee is diverse, complex and truly addictive. Comprised of multiple coffees sourced along the equatorial belt which carefully hand-roasted in separate temperature roasts and then hand-blended to create a coffee that has a smooth, rich, mouth feel, light floral and berry overtones, with a blissful nutmeg-like earthiness finish.
You can learn more about SF AIDs Foundation on their website -
