Tag Archives: Tebabu Assefa

Featured, Interviews

Brewing Change: Maryland’s Blessed Coffee Eyes Retail Market

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Monday, November 11th, 2013

New York (TADIAS) — If everything goes as planned the husband and wife team of Tebabu Assefa and Sara Mussie, co-founders of Blessed Coffee established three years ago in Silver Spring, Maryland under the state’s Benefit Corporation law, may soon open a new cottage cafe that offers not only premium Ethiopian coffee roasted on site, but also a community space where you can hold meetings, cooking classes, book reading clubs and other activities.

At a dinner last month celebrating the venture’s third anniversary at Addis Ababa restaurant in Silver Spring the couple announced their plans to expand the venture unveiling their “Brewing Change” crowdsourcing campaign for funds to build a prototype facility in Maryland that they hope to duplicate across the country. The gathering was attended by a diverse group of elected officials, business leaders, social entrepreneurs and activists — among them state Senator Jamie B. Raskin who authored Maryland’s Benefit Corporation law.

In an interview with Tadias Magazine Tebabu said that for the past three years they have been introducing their Blessed Coffee brand at coffee shops, farmers markets and festivals around Maryland. “We are now moving to the second phase, from wholesale to opening our own retail shop,” Tebabu added. The “Brewing Change” campaign was conceived in his living room by a group of 16 volunteers from various professions and cultural backgrounds that had met at his home every other week for nearly six months. “They are made up of men, women, young, old, Latinos, Black, White, you name it,” he said. “They are business experts, freelance writers, IT professionals, and community organizers.”

The driving factor behind the operation is neither charity nor profits exclusively, but a combination of both. As Tebabu puts it: “to create wealth while making a difference on both sides of the Atlantic.” He pointed out that coffee is the second most traded commodity next to oil, and that the market share is large enough to go around.

“We call our business model a ‘Virtues Exchange,’ he explained. The idea is to go beyond foreign aid and fair-trade through public-private partnerships that create jobs in America while empowering coffee farmers in Ethiopia as stakeholders in the transaction. In the process, he said, they also aim to educate the U.S market about the Ethiopian traditions of consuming coffee.

“My wife Sara reminded the gathering at Addis Ababa restaurant that in Ethiopia we drink coffee with a social purpose, in a relaxed fashion, with neighbors, friends and family to catch up with the latest news, gossip, and other happenings,” Tebabu told Tadias. “Here in America, on the other hand, people grab a cup to run.”

Tebabu said they plan to present their “grassroots social change model” at a local symposium in Silver Spring tentatively scheduled for January 2014 called “The African Diaspora Business Community Conference,” that they will host. “We are assembling local organizational partners that reflect the shifting paradigm in the Diaspora especially among the young generation,” he said. “We have already enlisted, for example, the dynamic organization, Young Ethiopian Professionals (YEP) and Qmem, a new business started by two Ethiopian American youth who were inspired by their trip to Ethiopia to do the same thing with spices as what we are trying to do with coffee.”

For now Blessed Coffee is enjoying invitations from Ethiopian and other organizations to present their coffee and ceremony at various cultural and religious events. Their latest was in New York when they were invited by the Ethiopian Israeli group Chassida Shmella to take part at last week’s Sigd service at Bnai Jeshurun Synagogue in Manhattan.

“It was magical,” said Tebabu of the ceremony marking the ancient Ethiopian Jewish festival (now a national holiday in Israel). “I was struck by how similar it was to Sigdet in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.”

Below is a video narrated by co-founder Sara Mussie explaining their mission.

Watch:

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You can learn more at www.blessedcoffee.us. Click here to meet the Brewing Change Team. See the Brewing Change Campaign at www.indiegogo.com.

Related:
Blessed Coffee company uses crowdfunding to raise money for Takoma Park cafe (The Gazette)
Brewing Change: Blessed Coffee’s Third Anniversary Celebration (Silver Spring Patch)

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Featured, News

Maryland Spotlights Blessed Coffee – The State’s Newest Benefit Corporation

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Monday, September 26, 2011

New York (TADIAS) – Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland seemed in a jovial mood at the inauguration of Blessed Coffee in Takoma Park last week, sipping a cup of Ethiopian coffee, schmoozing with attendees, and surprising organizers by hanging out 45 minutes longer than expected. The Governor was spotlighting a local business established under the state’s Benefit Corporations law. The event was held at the Takoma Park Old Town Gazebo on Friday September 16th, 2011 and included traditional Ethiopian music and coffee ceremony, during which Mr. O’Malley was served a cup of joe brewed from Yergacheffe beans grown in Ethiopia.

“The Governer was supposed to stay for only 30 minutes, but he was having so much fun they had to drag him out after one hour and 15 minutes.” said Tebabu Assefa, the co-founder of Blessed Coffee.

“How did it go?”, a man was heard asking on the background during our phone interview with Mr. Assefa. “Wonderful, wonderful, oh man, it was a hit,” the affable Mr. Assefa replied, after aplogizing to us for the interuption. “Did you see the Washington Post article? I am elated.”

“It’s like hitting the jackpot,” Mr. Assefa said turning his attention back to our interview. “It’s like winning it all when elected officials, the community and the press show up to celebrate what I have been urging for a long time.”

Blessed Coffee, which promises to split its profits between community projects in Maryland and supporting the coffee growing region in Ethiopia, is the second organization created under Maryland’s new law. It was founded earlier this year by Mr. Assefa and his wife Sara Mussie. “I have worked very hard for the last 7 seven years to see this day,” Mr. Assefa said. “I have walked from the halls of Congress to the hills of Yirgatchefe to make this happen.” He added: There was a time when people thought I was a fool, but I stuck with it because as an activist, I believed in development and cultural promotion. And in the grander scheme of things, it contributes to the international business discourse of how to connect the farmer directly to the global market.”

Speaking of the international business discourse, we asked Mr. Assefa about recent news reports on how Ethiopian coffee beans are being pass up by boutique U.S. roasters and retailers because the rules of the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange make it impossible to know where most of the country’s beans are grown. Mr. Assefa noted that he is aware of the report, saying there is a loophole called a “relationship market” that allows outside buyers to develop direct link with the farmers. “Right now, we are buying it from the wholesaler Royal coffee, which has contact with the farmers in Ethiopia,” he said. ” They know where the beans are coming from and as demand increases, we also plan to do the same.”

The Washington Post reported that Governor O’Malley and state Senator Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), “who sponsored the legislation last year, offered words of encouragement during the ceremony. A ‘benefit corporation’ isn’t all about social responsibility, officials said. Companies that use the law need to make money, to thrive. The new law is as much about social responsibility as it is about job creation, O’Malley said. ‘It all comes back to jobs,’ he said.”

“The law allows community-minded companies to take the high road rather than the high bid,” Raskin said.

Among those who spoke at the event included Tadesse Meskela, Founder and Manager of the 200,000-member Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative, which produced the coffee served at the event. “Tadesse is my hero,” said Mr. Assefa. “He has been the voice of the Ethiopian coffee farmer on the international stage for many years.”

Mr. Assefa said: “The governer was so fascinated by his speech, he asked for a copy and posted it on his blog.”

Take a look at photos from the celebration below:


Popcorn being served at the opening ceremony of Blessed Coffee – one of Maryland’s first ventures to be formed under the state’s “benefit corporation” law. (Photo by Matt Andrea)


State Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) at the inauguration of Blessed Coffee on Friday September 16th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)


Governor O’Malley speaking at the event. (Photo by Tamirat Mekonen)


Children at the inauguration. (Photo by Matt Andrea)


Tebabu Assefa, the co-founder of Blessed Coffee, at the opening ceremony of his company at the Takoma Park Old Town Gazebo on Friday September 16th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)


State Senator Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), who sponsored the “benefit corporation legislation last year, speaking at a ceremony in downtown Takoma Park marking the launch of Blessed Coffee on Friday September 16th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)
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Related:
Takoma Park coffee company is among first ‘benefit corporations’ in state (Washington Post)