#HowDoUDuo: Keith Hawkins of The Color of Coffee Collective

Photos c/o Keith Hawkins.

Over the years, we've loved seeing all the creative ways you brew coffee with the award-winning Tornado Duo Glass Dripper. As a result, we decided to ask those in our community to share their favorite coffee recipe using the Tornado Duo, in a series called #HowDoUDuo. In the first of our #HowDoUDuo series, Keith Hawkins, founder and CEO of the Color of Coffee Collective, shares how he likes to brew his coffee using the Tornado Duo.

But first, a little bit about Keith and the organization that is challenging the specialty coffee industry.

Brewista: Tell us a little bit about how Color of Coffee Collective started and what was the inspiration behind it?

Hawkins: The Color of Coffee Collective is a group of individuals from different cultural, religious, and racial backgrounds. It was created to challenge the specialty coffee industry to make equitable changes at every facet of the coffee supply chain. They believe change is achieved through listening, educating, and implementing a plan of action based on community needs. Their educational structure serves as a guide and call to accountability in the specialty coffee industry. Their constant efforts to empower marginalized communities take them all over the United States from shop to shop and roastery to roastery teaching about diversity, equity, and inclusion through the vehicle of coffee.

Brewista: What is the impact you want to have on the coffee community?

Hawkins: For the coffee community at large, I would like for there to be attention and awareness brought to the glaring disparities both educationally and economically in specialty coffee when it involves communities of color and disenfranchised communities. As an organization, we strive daily to bridge the gap of disinformation and the lack of resources for specialty coffee professionals and the industry through listening, conversations and education. 

For the specialty coffee industry specifically, I would really like to see financial resources for coffee education directed into communities of color to assist in creating job training skills in a clear and tangible way that results in more representation within the industry. And those changes should not only be at a retail or barista level, but also within the executive leadership levels of some of these specialty coffee companies. These small but significant changes will require some difficult conversations and changes that are not always welcomed in spaces that have been operating in the same antiquated leadership model for many years, but diversity is critical to the sustainability of the industry. 

Brewista: You also have a nonprofit component called Koffee with Keith, where you educate youth in disenfranchised communities on the specialty coffee industry. Can you tell us more about this amazing initiative and how it came to be? 

Hawkins: Koffee with Keith is a non-profit 501c3 organization that has established workshops where we introduce disenfranchised young adults to the specialty coffee industry and educate them on the benefits of entrepreneurship and the history of coffee. We instruct on basic barista training, incorporating knowledge and skills that they can apply immediately in life and a career, as we pair them with other coffee professionals for employment within the coffee industry. 

Brewista: What projects are you currently working on?

Hawkins: We’re currently working with Rising Tide Roast Collab in Austin, Texas, to make the secrets of coffee common knowledge with consistent courses happening the 4th Saturday of every month taught by coffee professionals from around the nation. It is our hope that making these classes available to marginalized communities free of cost will create a more diverse workforce.

Additionally, we’ve partnered with Cafe Ca Phe in Kansas City, MO, for a brew up event there on November 5th! Our brew ups are intentional meet ups around coffee and conversations where we discuss Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a group setting allowing folks from all walks to share their experiences and more importantly create solutions.

Keith's #HowDoUDuo Coffee Recipe

"My recipe for the Tornado Duo is simple but exciting. I love to drink my coffee black so that I may savor all the tasting notes and experience the different nuances that the coffee presents itself. The coffee I used was the impeccable Ethiopian Coffee from the incredible team at Eight50 Coffee. The notes of strawberries, sugar cane and blueberries are just some of the incredible notes that the Tornado Duo helps to extract of this wonderful cup of coffee."

15/1 ratio:

• 300 g of water
• 20 g of coffee