Coffee with purpose
As a small business, it’s not everyday a conversation over a cup of coffee leads to packing your bags and travelling to one of the most misunderstood yet remarkable countries in the world. Rwanda is the heart of Africa and home to a coffee farm that is dedicated to going beyond the bean. It’s these Jabulani Coffee beans and the surrounding mountain communities we needed to understand and capture in order to tell a brand origin story of a lifetime. A short documentary film was collaboratively produced by Biscuiteers Tom, of Tom Carder Media, and Brand Visionary Christina Wilkins, which premiered on Friday 28th October to over 200 people in our local community.
Director of Brand Biscuit and Creative lead on the project, Christina Wilkins comments, “The support on this journey has truly been unreal and quite hard for us to put into words. To be given an opportunity to have full creative reign on a brief, that we didn’t really know what that was until we immersed ourselves into a new culture, is a rare opportunity indeed. But one we have cherished every minute and has become a true milestone in our careers”.
Where the story begins
Based on Plymouth’s Union Street, Jabulani Coffee is a Single Origin, Organic Rwandan coffee with a purpose. Created in partnership with Jabo Butera from the Diversity Business Incubator in Plymouth and Owens Coffee Roastery in Devon, Jabulani Coffee is on a mission to connect the UK and Rwanda through great tasting organic coffee and education.
Founded by husband-and-wife duo Jabo Butera and Liliane Uwimana, the couple felt a need to raise awareness of the impact and consequences surrounding the Rwandan genocide since 1994. By bringing people together through coffee sustainably supports local communities worldwide, in their Motherland Rwanda and now their Homeland in Plymouth Devon.
Christina met Jabo and Liliane at the DBI annual awards Gala earlier in January and this is how Brand Biscuit was inspired to help build the Jabulani Coffee brand.
I was incredibly moved by the local Diverse community here in Plymouth, inspired and uplifted by the passion and encouragement for support and success that filled the room. Coming from London where diversity is much more widely represented and in a way much more visible, I really wanted to meet Jabo (as founder of DBI) and see how we could work together and help champion diversity and inclusion in Plymouth.
We met for coffee. We chatted about the DBI and what they were achieving through the Jabulani food court and the Incubator programme for refugees and young people looking for financial freedom. And a brighter, self-sufficient future here in the South West. The DBI awards celebrate and inspire young people in the multi-ethnic community.
We started a conversation about rebranding the DBI, to help strengthen their identity and local presence. To build more awareness around the good they are doing here for the diverse communities in Plymouth. This project then leads to the Jabulani Food court in the Nudge community on Union Street. Which is home to African food entrepreneurs on the incubator programme, as well as the Jabulani Coffee shop.
This sparked a much longer conversation and the story slowly unravelled and went far beyond the original coffee conversation we had around the DBI. I learned of Jabo and Liliane’s ambitions with the coffee and how profits directly affected local communities in Rwanda, which is motherland to many people in Plymouth including themselves. Jabo learned of my experience working for coffee brands, such as Nude Espresso and Costa coffee, that we combined the project to include a full rebrand of Jabulani Coffee.
He showed me some images on What’s App of the Cooperative and their families. It was so moving, I couldn’t understand why this story and opportunity to connect many communities weren’t being heard. I chatted with Tom Carder, a Biscuiteer in Brand Biscuit studio, who equally wanted to support the project. We packed our bags, and with Jabo and Liz from Owens Coffee (who roast and distribute Jabulani in Ivybridge) we lived together for 10 days to fully experience Rwanda and capture the coffee story. A story I believe will capture the hearts of many.
It’s our duty as Brand creators and curators to ensure meaning and purpose leads the way in businesses today. This project not only supports our home town, it provides a fantastic opportunity to support local creatives in our collaborative studio, and the goodness this project does for people and plant just makes it all the more rewarding.
We simply had to utilise our expertise and help. It’s been an incredible journey this summer but I feel the best is yet to come when we can go back and see first hand the new centres and facilities built, doing what we set out to do.
>> You can watch the full documentary film below (warning may require tissues) and Subscribe to our new YouTube channel to follow our ongoing journey.
