It’s been established that Black Lives Matter is a movement, not just a moment on your social media feed. The revolution needs all kind of action, from protesting directly in the streets to signing petitions to calling representatives, educating friends and relatives about anti-racism, donating, and also buying from Black-owned brands because supporting Black lives means supporting every facet of Black life (culture! books! art!), especially economically.
There are literally hundreds of Black-owned beauty and fashion brands out there to choose from, and there’s a wide variety of Black-owned brands in the food space too—we rounded up coffee subscription services, gourmet jam companies, restaurant groups, tequila producers, and cookbooks by Black authors (basically, anything you could imagine to create an incredible meal). Make a habit of supporting these Black-owned businesses always, not just when they’re all over your Insta suggestions.
A Dozen Cousins
These “soulfully seasoned” beans combine Southern, Latin American, and Caribbean flavors, inspired by founder and CEO Ibraheem Basir’s family recipes. He named the brand A Dozen Cousins after his daughter and her eleven cousins to honor their fun and lively family meals.
Dope Coffee
CEO Michael Lloyd, an Afghanistan veteran, created Dope Coffee to celebrate Black culture and eliminate the stigma of pretentiousness around coffee blends. The brand makes everything from organic Guatemalan roasts to body scrubs.
McBride Sisters Collection
Half sisters Robin and Andréa McBride actually didn’t grow up together and couldn’t have been farther apart (Andréa grew up in New Zealand, while Robin grew up in California). Both sisters had a dream of becoming vintners and eventually joined forces with the McBride Sisters Collection, the largest Black-owned wine company in the U.S., with multiple collections including their Black Girl Magic label.
Blondery
Three words: Brooklyn. Blackout. Blondies. Pastry chef Auzerais Bellamy was famous for her pecan and salted caramel blondies, among others, and decided to start Blondery, shipping her chicly packaged blondie bars nationwide.
Jenny Dawn Cellars
Founder Jennifer McDonald started running Jenny Dawn Cellars out of her home and partnered with a Napa Valley wine facilitator in 2016 to produce a pinot noir and a chardonnay. In late 2019, she opened her winery in Wichita, Kansas, and now ships her wine to 27 states.
Vicky Cakes
The pancake and waffle mix brand Vicky Cakes, which offers many gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan options, was named after founder Christian Sargent’s mother, Vicky, who had been flipping pancakes for her family for decades before the brand officially launched in 2019.
Pipcorn
Brother and sister Jeff and Jen Martin debuted their flavored heirloom popcorn, Pipcorn, at Smorgasburg in Brooklyn in 2012. They later turned Pipsnacks into a company with Jeff’s wife, Teresa, and now sell gluten-free corn chips, snack crackers, and more.
Shades of Color Gifts
Shades of Color Gifts started in 1995 (by founders Adrian Woods and Courtney Hines) as a way to incorporate more Black art into calendars, aprons, mugs, bowls, and more. You can even buy a stainless steel water bottle with an artist’s work on it.
Lomar Farms Honey
Brett and Yvonna Wright left New York City and purchased a farmhouse in nearby Palisades, New York. Their first project was starting an apiary, a collection of beehives, in 2014 to make raw honey and beeswax candles under the name Lomar Farms, a hybrid of their daughters’ names, Lola and Marley.
xN Studio
You can outfit your entire kitchen with glassware and accessories from xN Studio, the home brand founded in 2011 by Nasozi Kakembo. There are locally made products from New York and Washington, D.C. and even a collection of products from Uganda.
BasBaas Foods
Hawa Hassan’s, founder of BasBaas Foods, story begins in Somalia, where she escaped civil war to a refugee camp in Kenya and eventually moved to Seattle. She took her mother’s Somali recipes with her, including her coconut chutney and tamarind date sauce.
Jones Bar-B-Q
You’re probably familiar with the Jones sisters’, Mary (“Shorty”) and Deborah (“Little”), BBQ business from their episode of Queer Eye, but they’ve been marketing their tangy secret sauce in Kansas City for more than 30 years—and it’s now online.
Partake Foods
Partake’s array of crunchy and soft-baked cookies are free from gluten, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, and soy. Founder Denise Woodard has a young daughter, Vivienne, with multiple food allergies, which prompted her to start the brand.
Iya Foods
Toyin Kolawole founded Iya Foods in 2015 in celebration of African cuisine. She offers alternative flours like cassava and plantain, spices, seasonings, and whole food powders for healthier cooking and baking.
Cooking Solo, by Klancy Miller
Calling all single chefs who are about to prep their solo dinners right now: You need this cookbook by Klancy Miller, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and founder of For the Culture, an online mag that celebrates the contributions of Black women in food and wine.
Fatburger
Craving a vegan milkshake right now? Support Fatburger, the chain that actually started back in 1947. Founder Lovie Yancey originally titled it Mr. Fatburger when she opened the hamburger stand with her partner but dropped the “Mr.” and kept the business once they split up (we stan). There are locations all over the west coast and some on the east coast too.
Black Girl Baking, by Jerelle Guy
Jerelle Guy, creator of the blog and Instagram Chocolate for Basil, is also the author of the James Beard Award–nominated Black Girl Baking, which features delights like oatmeal cheddar cheese moon pies and cake doughnuts with coffee hazelnut glaze.
Love Cork Screw
Chrishon Lampley was an art gallery owner in Chicago and an art, wine, and culture blogger before launching the lifestyle brand Love Cork Screw in 2013. She now sells seven varietals online, including a rosé called We Go High (which is absolutely an homage to Chicago’s own Michelle Obama). *adding to cart now*
Brooklyn Tea
Alfonso Wright, a certified tea sommelier, founded Brooklyn Tea out of an appreciation for loose-leaf tea and slow-sip culture, which came from his Jamaican mother. You can visit the tea room in Brooklyn or order one of the 60 varietals of tea online.
Sanaia
Applesauce is not just for kids and is an actual gourmet treat—that’s the idea behind Keisha Smith-Jeremie’s brand, Sanaia. You can find the flavors, including guava, hibiscus, and blackberry, inspired by her favorite fruits from her childhood in the Bahamas, in major grocery stores nationwide.
Golde
You can buy anything from a cacao turmeric latte blend to a superfood face mask from Golde, Trinity Mouzon Wofford’s Brooklyn-based wellness brand she launched in 2017 with her partner, Issey Kobori.
Karibe
Your kitchen is going to need heavy-duty cast-iron skillets, stainless steel pots, and utensils from Karibe, founded in 2018 by Vernon Williams.
Chicago French Press
A coffee subscription service? Sign us up. Kris Christian once worked on Wall Street and, naturally, became a coffee aficionado (although she’s been coffee-obsessed since childhood) when she created the perfect cup with her French press. Now, she sells her Chicago French Press blends, which include maple pecan and peach nectar, online, both in single packages and as a monthly subscription.
B Cake NY
Cake designer Miriam Milord opened her Brooklyn bakery, B Cake NY, which has become well known for its Biggie Smalls cookies and rainbow cake jars, all of which you can order online for out-of-state shipping.
Anteel Tequila
Cofounders Nayana and Don Ferguson originally launched Anteel Tequila under a different name but changed it after a special trip to the Dominican Republic in 2016, where they got engaged, decided to start a tequila brand, and saw the Antillean mango hummingbird multiple times. They took the beautiful bird as a positive sign, and it’s now the brand’s logo and namesake.
International Smoke
International Smoke, which you can visit in San Francisco, Del Mar, or Las Vegas, is a collab between celebrity entrepreneur and cookbook author Ayesha Curry and chef Michael Mina—the menu features a variety of global flavors in their steak, seafood, and vegetarian dishes.
Loft & Bear
Paul Ryan (whose nickname had always been Bear) wanted a challenge after college. He started creating an artisanal vodka out of an L.A. loft in 2014. And Loft & Bear, which you can get delivered to certain areas via Drizly, was born.
Red Rooster
Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, originally from Ethiopia, has 12 restaurants all over the world. One of the most notable is Red Rooster in the heart of Harlem, but there are other Red Rooster locations, including London and Miami.
Koia
The inspo behind cofounder Maya French’s company Koia is the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, a place where people statistically live longer because of their healthy, plant-based eating habits. The plant-based protein shakes and coffee drinks range in flavor from mocha latte to cinnamon horchata.
Trade Street Jam Co.
Founder and CEO Ashley Rouse started Trade Street Jam Co. from her apartment on Trade Street in Charlotte, North Carolina. She later established the business in Brooklyn; she sells the artisan vegan small-batch jams (like strawberry chipotle and fig) online, along with her cookbook Jam Sessions.
Callaloo Box
This is the ideal subscription box to incorporate the flavors of Trinidad and Tobago into your kitchen. Sisters Malika and Jamila Augustin started the Callaloo Box company in 2017 to ship their native Caribbean snacks, spices, and sauces right to your door.
Southern Culture Foods
Atlanta-based chef Erica Barrett founded Southern Culture Foods with her mom out of a need to create Southern-inspired recipes that weren’t too expensive. You can order her bacon rub and flavored grits for an amazing, flavor-packed brunch.
Me & the Bees Lemonade
Me & the Bees started with a bee sting (and a resulting fear of bees) and a small lemonade stand when the founder, Mikaila Ulmer, was just 4 years old. Mikaila, now 15, decided to learn more about bees and used her Granny’s recipe for honey flaxseed lemonade. A portion of all proceeds also goes to honeybee conservation.
Project Pop
Founder Chauniqua Major-Louis started Project Pop when she was looking for a snack that was organic, non-GMO, and vegan with ingredients people will recognize. This popcorn is exactly that.
Sankofa Beer Company
Cofounders Kofi Meroe and Amado Carsky started Sankofa Beer Company in Washington, D.C., which pays tribute to their West African roots (“sankofa” translates to “go back and get” in the native language of the Ashanti/Akan people of Ghana). The craft beers include fun pale ales like Hypebiscus and a new cocoa stout they’re developing.
