Cuppa Connections

Cuppa Connections Ep. 26: Exquisite Brazilian Coffee Has Hit Tampa, FL; Emmanuel Dunbar's Story

Portia White Season 1 Episode 26

Today's episode is with Emmanuel Dunbar, owner of Royal Diaspora Coffee in Tampa, Florida. Emmanuel has brought exquisite Brazilian coffee to Tampa, FL. 

Coffee is a bridge to learn about other cultures and to experience the different ways of life, and Emmanuel wants to incorporate that by bringing coffee to his neighborhood and teach young black people what the coffee culture is all about. 

His journey started way back from his childhood when his mother brewed her morning coffee. Coffee just stuck in his mind. Now as an adult, he has become an entrepreneur within the industry that he has loved so much, the coffee industry.

I loved this conversation because Emmanuel is a fascinating person. He is candid about traveling, coffee, and his journey through life.

We hope you enjoy our conversation.

Support the show

https://www.instagram.com/betterwithacupofcoffee/
https://betterwithacupofcoffee.com/

Portia:

Hey guys. Welcome to Cuppa Connections. I'm Portia, and we're here coming to you from our virtual cafe, Better with a Cup of Coffee. We are savoring relationships with coffee lovers around the world and sharing their experiences that have been better with a cup of coffee. We have another special guest and this brother is doing it. He is in Tampa, Florida. Uh, his name is Emmanuel Dunbar. He owns the Royal Diaspora Coffee Company. And welcome, I'm so excited to have you.

Emmanuel:

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Portia:

Yeah, no problem. I have to first of all start with the name Royal, the diaspora. Mm-hmm. Where does that come from?

Emmanuel:

The name diaspora just means scattered. So, coffee is originally from Africa. They came and took it outta Africa and start planting it different places and that's how it got, uh, to like where different regions that it's in now. So that's just a play on words for, uh, the coffee. What we are doing at, at Royal Diaspora. We we're just like taking people, trying to take people from everywhere and put'em all together, you know, and try to try to make something special. So,

Portia:

Wonderful.

Emmanuel:

The, the word just means scattered. Scattered like the coffee.

Portia:

Got you. I'm sorry. I mispronounced it. Here I am putting my own spin to it. Diaspora. But it's diaspora, diaspora.

Emmanuel:

Diaspora. Hm-hmm.

Portia:

Say that one more time. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Emmanuel:

Diaspora.

Portia:

Are you roasting On site, on property.

Emmanuel:

No. So, we don't roast. We import. Mm-hmm. We get our coffee roasted at, uh, a local roaster, Hog Batch. Two twin brothers. Really good guys. But, we import our own coffee from Brazil.

Portia:

Oh yeah. You gotta tell that story. Tell that story.

Emmanuel:

Yeah. So in 2017, I was with one of my friends, who I went to high school with, like a childhood friend. He lived near me. It was him and he had four brothers. They were from Brazil. Um, they was going back to Brazil. So I was like, let me go. Um, we had already been talking about coffee and he was like, Hey, if you want to get coffee, this is the number one place in the world for exporting coffee. Come over here, look at what they got. We'll come back and we'll make some plans. I was already in love with coffee, but this just took it to another level to see like the amount of work that the people are putting into it and the effort and the people who are at the farms, how much they actually love the coffee. it was just life changing for me. We got the coffee from Brazil in 2017. We started working with importers and we've been getting our coffee from Brazil ever since.

Portia:

Did coffee choose you, or do you choose coffee?

Emmanuel:

I think coffee chose me. So, uh, a little bit about my coffee history. You know, when I was younger, we never had anything consistent. We moved like almost every year. I wouldn't say we was the poorest, but we didn't have a lot of money by any means. My mom worked three jobs, but everything, the only thing that was consistent is every morning my mom got up and she made coffee. So whenever I was in bed, or if I didn't wake up, I always smelled that coffee smell. And I used to hate it when I was younger, but now, um, when I got older, it just, and I started brewing my own coffee when I was going to work. It just like took me back to a place that, uh, you know, they say music and sound, music and smell is like the, the number one thing that's tied to memory. So, ever since I, maybe when I graduated college, I, I've been saying that I wanted to do a coffee shop. It was just talk. But now this year we actually gonna start a coffee shop. So.

Portia:

Nice. Who's we? Do you have business partners or you, your spouse or?

Emmanuel:

It's my, me, um, my wife, uh, my mother, my cousin, and his wife.

Portia:

Oh, wow.

Emmanuel:

We all make up the Royal Diaspora team.

Portia:

That is wonderful. See your mom. You're bringing it back full circle. Your mom's put it in, planted the seed with the coffee every morning. I get you, brother. I, that's the same thing with me, with my mom. She planted that seed long, long, long time ago. So that's pretty awesome. When you say you got your, your coffee from Brazil. Your, uh, childhood friends hooked you up to the thought of Brazilian coffee. What are the coffee farm? Is it one particular coffee farm that you get your beans from?

Emmanuel:

So when we went to Brazil, we visited multiple, uh, farms. Two other farms we get our beans from we actually visited the other one was added on by the importer who we used. The Brazilian importer exporter. The Brazilian exporter, I'm sorry. Because you have to pay exporting fees and then you have to pay importing fees. So it's a difference, um, in the, the job titles. So the, the Brazilian exporter would just asked us if we wanted a couple more stacks and we got like two more stacks from a farm that we didn't visit. But for the most part, 90% of the coffee that we are getting is coming from one farm.

Portia:

Do you have the name of that farm?

Emmanuel:

It's two. So a husband and a wife who runs the farm and they have a son too. I bet his son. Their son is pretty big now, but it's Marcos and Carlizane, C A R L I Z A N E. The farm is Daserra, D A S E R R A.

Portia:

Okay. I'm gonna look that up. And I know you're gonna give me all wonderful links and so forth so that we can share with the people. But when you went to Brazil, I'm curious cuz I've always loved Brazil. Everything about Brazil. The livelihood. Everything. The culture. Where is the farm located actually? Like if you're looking at the map, and you're seeing Brazil cause brazil is huge.

Emmanuel:

So it would be from Rio. I think it would be, it would be southwest of Rio. I've been to a lot of different places, man. I'm a traveler. I've traveled to London, I've been to Brazil, I've been to Columbia. I've been like to a whole lot of different places all over the globe, and nothing is like Brazil. Nothing. Brazil was the first stop in the, uh, slave trade. It is a very high percent of people who look like us.

Portia:

Hmm. Interesting. And, what are their personalities like? Are they warm and welcoming and, and just inviting to you? And.

Emmanuel:

So when I went, I went with my friends, But it was amazing, man. Just like every house was like the Brazilian Steakhouse. They all came out with all this meat, and just kept, kept trying to feed you. So the Brazilian Steakhouse is a realistic view of how they eat.

Portia:

Oh, man. I love to do what the locals do and, and live where the locals live. Right? Like when I go to Aruba, I don't go to the tourist locations. I will stay in an Airbnb, which is our homes, and I get connected to the people. Sounds like you got connected to the people.

Emmanuel:

Right. And that's the, and, and every time I've traveled, uh, if I don't know anybody there, or, or if I'm, if we can't make connection with somebody, because like you said, I like to feel the authentic feeling of the country. I don't like to be a tourist, and it's cheaper. If you go and you do the, it's so much cheaper, man.

Portia:

It's so much cheaper.

Emmanuel:

It's so much cheaper. And you, I feel like you can go to a resort or you can go to a hotel anywhere. Like especially if you going into a resort and you going all the way out to Jamaica to go to a resort for, for a whole week. Now you just stay in the resort the whole time. You could have did that in any city in the world. It doesn't really make a difference.

Portia:

Speak it. Speak it.

Emmanuel:

That's just my opinion.

Portia:

I'm with you, my wife and I, we definitely love to get connected to people within the community at all times. Uh mm-hmm. No matter where we go, we try to at least. And it sounds like you, as you said, you are a world traveler, so is that what you normally do?

Emmanuel:

Yeah. I, I really do, um, like being connected when I go to a place. I really do. And like, some places are a little bit scarier than others, and some places are a little bit scarier for us, uh, than others. But overall, it's still pretty cool, man. And I, I really, I really like. Man I was like, I can be an importer so I can go to all these coffee farms and visit them. That's a bet. I do that all day. I do that for free.

Portia:

It's such a bet. Oh, you have such a wonderful spirit, and I bet your mom is just proud, man. I mean, she's, she's the one that's, planted the seed, but seeing her young man grow into this wonderful being. I bet she is super proud.

Emmanuel:

I mean, my mom, that's like one of my favorite people, man. And she honestly, you know, have taught me a lot. Uh, like I was telling you earlier about the inconsistency of moving around a lot, and not really having any help and just figuring it out. And just worried about feeding us, was like, um, the number one thing for, for her and to, to see where I'm at with my family and how we can actually, now try to make su sure my son is thriving, not surviving, because what she did and we are like standing on her back. You know what I'm saying? And, and, and.

Portia:

Yes.

Emmanuel:

Like, I see my mom get up every morning at four o'clock. And be the first one at Publix to bust her butt to work there for 25 years for them to force her out the door, and it's like I, at that point I was like, I would never in my life dedicate my whole life to a place that's not my own. I think what the next chapter of the coffee Shop is gonna be is just making sure that we are really taking care of people in the community and we are really being a resource for the kids and the families in the community that we're gonna be in. Bringing all of the, the coffee professionals here in Tampa together, who wants to be a part of us who's not trying to force anybody to be a part, but. We have some game changers, man. Who we have here in Tampa and what they're doing is different from, um, a lot of different places, man, like Hog Batch. We got, we got a, two twin black brothers here, who roast their coffee. It's like they infuse it with, uh, the liquor, but you can't taste it. And it's, it's a small amount. And they like barrel it for a long time and you got to come back and get it. It's really cool. Then we got another dude, Bright Lamb, who's here. This man's a freaking genius man. This man does everything he knows. He does bottling, he does. He makes cold cava. He cans the cold brew. He comes up with the recipes for the cold brew. He has all the machines, and he imports. This man knows how to do everything. And then we have King's Coffee and we have more coffee that shops, uh, that's opening up. And I'm just trying to bring everybody together. so we can, um, Four slices of a watermelon is more than a grape. Trying to get everybody together, man. And I think we could do something big here.

Portia:

I'm so happy that you're talking about the community and how tight-knit you guys are. There's a book called The Tipping Point, and you know how one person, they, they know other people and they kind of connect these people together. I see you doing that. So, You guys are all in Tampa. How did you guys get connected to each other? How did you, did you find them? I mean, first of all, you found the two, two twins to two brothers because they're your roasters. How did you find the rest of the people?

Emmanuel:

So we, when I went to Brazil, we didn't really intend on starting a coffee shop. I was just supposed to be going there to look at the coffee. But when I came back, man, I just, I couldn't help it. I brung back a sack with me and I've had everybody start tasting the coffee and the quality of the coffee. Uh, so they do the coffee on the ranking system. Uh, it is a 89% coffee. So it ranks, If you look at the coffee, like the processing that it take. If you look at the coffee, like the percentage of the coffee, that it's all like totally whole bean. There's no, no cracks or nothing like that. So when they, before they roast it, somebody goes to the coffee seed and they handpick all the bad seeds out. When you're drinking the coffee, you could like you could taste the notes. And coffee is more like a tea or a wine than people really think. It's really different levels to coffee. Like this coffee that I'm drinking right now, this is Bright Lands Coffee. This is a, Jamaican Blue Mountain.

Portia:

Mm-hmm.

Emmanuel:

If you know about coffee a little bit, you know that that's like the cream de creme, like that's all the way at the top of the list.

Portia:

It's very, very expensive.

Emmanuel:

$65 a pound.

Portia:

If you get true Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, it is very, very expensive. And I understand about the scoring too. 89? That's impressive.

Emmanuel:

Pretty good, man. And, you'll see when you drink it. Our coffee tastes more like a tea, so it has like the, you can taste the hazelnut, um, you can taste the hints of chocolate in it. And we roast it light so you can actually taste the coffee bean. And it's not just like burnt coffee. So, okay. It's really, really good coffee. I kind of veered off from the question that you asked..

Portia:

No, that, that's fine. I just, about the community and how you met. Now you met the twins. Yes. Mm-hmm. But you met the other coffee, business owners. Mm-hmm. And now you're trying to, you're bringing them together. Are you guys gonna do some type of coffee fest in Tampa? What are you trying to accomplish with that?

Emmanuel:

My, my long-term goal with that is for us to have our own space, for us to educate people on coffee. Being able to, uh, pitch our ideas to people who own, um, restaurants and people who, who own bigger level. I want Wendy's. I want carnival Cruise Line. I want something that's gonna change the game. And like I am, so, I have so many different, people who, who are in the coffee community because we're with the, uh, the Color of Coffee. You, you go to the symposium, you're talking to the farmers, you're talking to people who make coffee products. You're talking to people who got shops. You're talking to people who are making their own, um, um, creamers. You're talking to people who thinking about making different machines and different items to use. Your ta baristas like everybody's there. And, they're all like black and brown people. It's white people too, and it really is the color of coffee.

Portia:

Oh, lovely. Now where, where was this that you went to again?

Emmanuel:

This is in Houston. Uh, it's every year in Houston.

Portia:

It's in Houston, but what is it?.

Emmanuel:

The colors of coffee.

Portia:

Collective?

Emmanuel:

Collective. Mm-hmm. So it started, um, with, this guy, Keith. When I first got the coffee back here, uh, I met Keith. I did his podcast. What caught my attention with him is, he was going to the inner city parts of Houston and teaching black poor kids about coffee and giving them coffee. Giving them the material that it, it's showing them how it works. And, he was paying for it all out of his pocket. So I was like, I just went to Brazil. We got 20 sacks of coffee. I can't help you financially, but I can send you coffee to help you with this. So I started sending him coffee and I, that's how our relationship started. But now, he is over the Color of Coffee. He is killing it, man. He's an amazing guy. Sweet, really nice guy, man. And really likes to give information to people and he's really about like knocking down the, the door bringing everybody together. We all sharing our resources. And, I see how it's working. That's why I'm like, I can bringing this back to Tampa, and we could do the same thing. Because I see people always say, oh, black people won't, can't, won't work together. They can't work together. I, I don't necessarily think that's true. I haven't had any bad, um, experiences with any other people, the black people who I'm working with. And like you, like you were just saying, I try to connect every single person who I meet.

Portia:

Right.

Emmanuel:

Like I'm trying to bring everybody together.

Portia:

Mm-hmm. Oh, that's a blessing. And you know, I think it's something about traveling. When you go out of your comfort zone and you meet other cultures and you, you are more equipped to handle yourself in various situations. Even if they are brown people, black people, white people, you still can have, there's a common denominator of respect of love and you're just trying to, to handle your business, trying to connect with people. And I think that that traveling has a lot to do with it, in my opinion.

Emmanuel:

Right. And it's so true, man. It's true.

Portia:

You feel like that's brought so much to. to your business, to the people that you have met? Because I want you know this and the reason why I'm asking you this, it's because I love traveling so much, but I love meeting other, other people, other cultures. It doesn't, I don't care what race you are, it doesn't even matter. I Now, for you, I'm asking this question because I love to give people, whether it is it's our black people in our community, or whether it's brown people or whomever, talk to people about your traveling because that's so important here in our society, in our country. It helps you to grow.

Emmanuel:

Right.

Portia:

It can open up so many avenues in different, professions and so forth.

Emmanuel:

I think the biggest thing about traveling is that people can't lie to you anymore. Once you start traveling, it's like, for instance, I went to uh, Columbia and it was a lady in from Venezuela. So we are all like on vacation, we're sitting on the stairs of the hotel.

Portia:

It's in Medellin, so it's like the south beach mode. Everybody's walking by, and it's a lady over there with her two kids. And, we're sitting down there with our drinks. So she sent her son in with two, two liter water bottles into our hotel. So he comes into the hotel room and they, they send him to like the back. He goes, he fills up the two, two liter water bottles. Kid, couldn't be no older than three years old. So he comes back out and when he comes back out, it's like his, his diaper's almost about to fall off of him. So he keeps like pulling up his diaper while he's walking with the two liter things. He goes all the way back to the sidewalk. He gives the two liters, uh, the two, two liters to his mom. She takes off his diaper, pours the water on his butt as she's, she's rubbing the doodoo off his butt. Totally gets him clean with that water in her hand. And then I'm looking at, at that second, I'm thinking to myself, cuz this is one of the places that first places that I went, I'm thinking to myself, they are lying to us and they telling us these people are coming over here to take our jobs and steal and, and to commit crimes. This lady just wants to feed her family and get diapers. So like little things like that, you see that it, that's not true. Like, you be like, oh, everything I learned that's not true and you can't. And, and like being in Brazil and, and I didn't speak the language and how they, everybody was so nice. And then you see how everybody treats everybody here when they come over and they can't speak the language. It's just like, if they would've treated me like that over there, I would've been totally lost in a place that I didn't know. So it gives you a whole different perspective on life and what you think is important too, because. Like, when I went to Brazil, I seen a whole lot of people in really nice clothes in probably the poorest place in the world, but they had their really nice clothes. Everybody got really dressed up for everything. That's different now. I remember my dad, my dad would have press closed to go to work just to step to the, go to the grocery store. Nowadays that is not happening, so that is quite interesting. You said that.

Emmanuel:

Them older men, man, back in our generation, they used to, they used to have to be fresh to get out, to step out the house. They definitely had them creasing them and them, dockers and them creasing them, uh, them jeans, man, they was ready to go with they church shoes on.

Portia:

You know, that was my dad, man. He couldn't go anywhere without a pressed, pressed anything. Oh, it's so good. Speaking to you about life, about what you're doing. Now, when can we expect the coffee shop to be launched?

Emmanuel:

So we are, we are working on it right now. We are at like a crossroads between like, making a coffee shop for profit and nonprofit. It's benefits for both. So, a little bit about me. I worked for, uh, juvenile detention. I did it for like six years, and then I worked for, uh, D C F, so children and family. I did that for, with that in my case management, I did it for about six or seven years. So, it's benefits to having a nonprofit, and it's, not benefits to having a nonprofit. And I see how the system works, and I don't really wanna be a part of the system because I really want the people to get help and I don't want it to be a numbers game or about money for the people who are actually helping. We're trying to get it opened. Um, by the end of the year. We're looking at a couple of locations. Two of the locations I, I really like because it's like right in the middle of the hood and that's where I want to be so we can start teaching these kids different man.

Portia:

Mm-hmm. I think that's fantastic because coffee connects us all. Coffee is this wonderful elixir for us all.

Emmanuel:

You know, the whole time I was thinking, I couldn't do it in a hood. I need to do it in like a nicer neighborhood. And then I went to Houston for the, um, Colors of Coffee symposium, and there was a coffee shop there, Doja Coffee, and it's in the third ward of Houston. We're sitting in there and, uh, the people in the in in the neighborhood are walking in. I grabbed the owner and I'm like, they always come in? He was like, I wouldn't be able to survive without him. And I'm like, mm. Change everything that I thought about it. So now I'm like, that's what I wanna do.

Portia:

Mm mm That's nice. That's powerful. I like that a lot too. I can't wait. We are of course gonna keep in touch because I have to take a trip down to Florida to see a girlfriend of mine anyway. But you, especially your wife and the, the two brothers, the twins. Oh yeah.

Emmanuel:

By the time you get ready to come man, I should have, it should be a little bit more organized what we're doing. But I'm telling you, if it works out, like, I think it is, my goal is to make Tampa like the hub for black coffee. It's three of us here who import coffee. It's three of us here who have coffee shops. It's two girls who have food trucks who are doing really good work. There's no reason why everybody shouldn't be selling everybody's product. Don't go out and get five different things. We got five different people. Everybody select the product. Everybody sell those products. I'm telling you stuff that I haven't even really told them yet, so.

Portia:

Oops. Well listen, Emmanuel, it has been such a treat. A couple of things I like to leave my audience with is one, you as a young black man who has had a vision, a dream, and you went after it. No matter how you got there, you went after it. How, what would you tell our, tell our youth? Like you, you want a coffee shop in, in our communities to help our youth. What would you tell the youth about choices about. Just taking the leap of faith in doing what you love to do, and what you wanna do?

Emmanuel:

I'll say, the biggest thing in life is decisions, like the choices that you make. I think wanting to know more about, um, financing, um, where we come from is not really, they don't teach that in the house. They don't, you don't really know.

Portia:

Right.

Emmanuel:

And, I think learning that, and having a dream, if you have a vision that's, that's really chasing after it. One of the most important things I would say though, is who you choose to be your Beyonce.

Portia:

Oh.

Emmanuel:

Your wife or yours, significant other is yes, one of the most important decisions that you're making your life. And I think I chose a really good one.

Portia:

Aw, profound advice. And that's very, very important.

Emmanuel:

Because you can, you can have yourself set up the right way, man. You can have all the money, you choose the wrong person. You can have all your businesses and all your everything in order, you choose the wrong person. You can have all your finances, you can have the biggest house that you want. You choose the wrong person. Like they, they're taking half of it, or that's the best case scenario, you know, so. Mm-hmm. I think like having someone who was there who pushed me man, and didn't let me settle, I think she's the real mvp.

Portia:

What's her name?

Emmanuel:

Lakeisha.

Portia:

Lakeisha. Oh, blessings to her And, and to you. And you have a son you said, right? Yes, ma'am. What's his name?

Emmanuel:

His name is Blue.

Portia:

Blue?

Emmanuel:

Mm-hmm.

Portia:

Oh, that's gonna be classic. Oh, that's classic. I like that. Well, Emmanuel, tell us where we all can find you. Are you on social media, websites?

Emmanuel:

Everything. Social media, all all social media. We are Royal Diaspora. If you wanna look us up, we are royaldiaspora.com. We import our own coffee. We have coffee, we also have K- cups. Little story on the cake cups. So in the, the special coffee industry, like everything is about science. Everything, everybody wants everything to be precise. And the K-cups are really frowned upon, um, because the, they say that it, it's not the same quality and people are, and I understand it because you are, if you're paying$25 for coffee, you want it to be the best quality possible. But, I was listening to, uh, Mama Brew. She's a, a black lady who sells K-cups and sells coffee. She's really cool too. And she was saying that the, the specialty cake cups that she make is the way that she introduced the coffee to people who wouldn't usually, who are not gonna drink single origin coffee. Mm-hmm. Who's not gonna do the, the pour over. Who's not gonna even do the coffee machine. Who's not, who don't even want to grind the coffee. This is a, a good way to introduce the coffee to our grandmothers, and it worked. So, well that's what my grand, my, um, my wife's grandmother drinks. Every time we come on Sunday, we bring her a couple of K-cups. That's what she's drinking. And she was drinking instant coffee. So this is like a, a step up for her. It's people out there who really don't drink Single Origin Coffee or, or, or don't know what it is, I think the best first step would be finding you a company that has K-cups. And that'll be like a easy way for you to just put it out and throw it in a, the Kuriq, and get introduced to the different notes and different flavors and note and start learning a little bit about real coffee.

Portia:

Nice. That's great advice. That's a good spin on it. Mm-hmm. Mama Brew.

Emmanuel:

Mama Brew.

Portia:

Good advice from Mama Brew, and I'm glad you listened to her.

Emmanuel:

Right, right.

Portia:

Emmanuel, once again, I am in awe, and I am so grateful. You are a guest that has brought a different spin to the show, and I am appreciative of that. Most definitely. And, we'll keep you posted on when he is, his shop is launched.

Emmanuel:

We'll make sure we keep you posted too so you can, can have you come out here and we can show you a good time from Florida with love.

Portia:

Absolutely. Thank you my brother. I appreciate it and I appreciate you having me on. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thanks. Give love to your wife and your son for me.

Emmanuel:

All right. Will do. Give love to your wife.

Portia:

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Emmanuel:

I'm Portia White, and I hope you've enjoyed today's conversation. I'd like to give a special thanks to our sponsor betterwithacupofcoffee.com. If you want to be our guest on our show, email me at cuppaconnections@gmail.com. And if you liked what you heard, please rate and review our podcast. And, join us again soon on Cuppa Connections.