Issa Fruit (Arabica) — Tee

A tee that names what the industry won't say plainly: Arabica — the coffee species in two of every three cups poured worldwide — is an African fruit.

Coffea arabica originates in the highlands of southwestern Ethiopia — the Kaffa, Sidamo, and Oromo regions, where the plant grew wild and was used as food, fuel, and ceremony long before anybody called it a commodity. From Ethiopia it crossed to Yemen in the 15th century, then traveled the rest of the world. Every Arabica plant in Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Vietnam, and Hawaii today is a descendant of seeds that left African soil.

Two-thirds of the world's cups are an African fruit nobody calls African.

"African fruit" is a precise correction. The specialty industry treats origin as a flavor note — Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Kenyan AA — and treats credit as something that happens elsewhere. This tee puts the whole species, not just a few celebrated lots, on the African ledger. Not "global." Not "tropical." African.

The grammar does the rest. "Issa ___" is contemporary Black English — issa knife, issa vibe, issa fruit. It's not a debate. It's a declaration.

"Cxffee. Issa African Fruit" is one of the longest-running arguments in the brand — it anchored a 2023 Black Barista Exchange fundraising dinner and threads through the Cxffeeblack Library curriculum. This is the wearable version of an argument we've been making for years. Worn at the cafe, the cookout, the classroom, the bandstand, the farm. Pairs with any Cxffeeblack cup.

Buna fi nagaaya hin dhabina.

THE DETAILS

• $35 flat
• One-side front print
• Friday Drops 2026 — Week 3
• New design
• 72-hour preorder — closes Sunday, May 24, 11:59pm CT
• Ships the following week