The Story Behind Our Black Santa Roast—And What You Support When You Buy It

If you’ve tried our Black Santa roast, you might recognize it. That’s because it’s our Mean Street roast—dark-roasted Honduran beans featuring a rich, bold taste with notes of chocolate—in a new package.

But what’s DIFFERENT is that for every 12oz bag of Black Santa purchased, we donate $3.60 to The Voices Project, an organization doing great work assembling leaders of color and empowering them to better influence their communities. Check out their website to learn more and sign up for their newsletter.

Last year, we launched a fundraiser with our friend Leroy Barber, Portland’s own Black Santa and co-founder of The Voices Project. In his blog post, Leroy talks about why he donned the festive red hat and coat:

“I originally started doing it because I wanted to further the idea of representation. Although Santa is a mythical figure, it is important that black children and children of color can see themselves in that figure… Everything in this country whether mythical or real is usually portrayed as white, if the person that comes bringing joy, presents, and laughter, and engages imagination is only a white figure that is a problem. For these reasons, Black Santa began to take shape in my heart.”

Leroy is so passionate about this he even found a way to continue doing Black Santa during the pandemic in December of 2020 by meeting families and taking pictures while in a life-size snow globe.

If you want to support the work Leroy and The Voices Project does, you can purchase a bag (or two! Or MORE!) from Rocky Butte Coffee’s website to help support The Voices Project.