At Kinship Cafe in Independence, coffee and community go hand and hand | Opinion
TJ Roberts is passionate about coffee — spend any amount of time with the Kansas City man and that much is evident. Roberts, 33, can break down the origin of a coffee bean in a nanosecond. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but he definitely knows his stuff.
Roberts is owner of Kinship Cafe at 10725 East U.S. Highway 24, the former Blendwell Cafe in Independence. For him, it’s the community aspect of the beverage that brings him the most joy though, he said.
“Coffee is a universal language,” Roberts said. Indeed it is.
At Kinship, the cafe sources local ingredients, supports minority-owned businesses by providing a fee-free platform for BIPOC, women and LGBTQ+ creators to sell their goods inside the space, according to Roberts. He plans to use the new location as a hub for collaboration, creativity and connection.
“A safe and welcoming space for all to claim as their third space,” he said.
I met with Roberts during a recent coffee cupping event — more on that later — to celebrate Kinship’s new location in Independence. It wasn’t my first time holding court with the coffee enthusiast and small business owner. For years, Roberts operated Kinship Cafe in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas. As a coffee lover myself, I’ve always enjoyed my visits there and other locally-owned spots that serve some of my favorite beans.
But after Roberts failed to secure a long-term lease agreement with the property owner there, he closed up shop earlier this year. Kinship officially shuttered its KCK location on Feb. 27. Boy, was I bummed.
I’ve always rooted for Roberts to succeed. Kinship Cafe is a Black-owned business in an industry that doesn’t see too many people who look like Roberts actually thrive. He is a rare breed and his cafe serves up a mighty fine cup of coffee. The espressos, lattes and food options are on point too.
At that invite-only event I mentioned above, Roberts previewed some of the items on the menu. Social media influencers from throughout the metropolitan area — I was there as an independent observer but I did order two cups of drip coffee — sampled a coconut-flavored cold brew, a housemade chai, and a cinnamon espresso with honey and vanilla.
Some even participated in the cupping thing I’d never heard of before. I’d soon find out much more about this strange term.
“It’s like a wine tasting, but for coffee,” Roberts said.
What is coffee cupping?
Roberts stood in front of a counter filled with freshly roasted and brewed coffee beans. He’s a roaster, too, and uses those skills to supply other coffee brands including Pitchside Coffee, a mobile business owned by six current and former Kansas City Current women’s soccer players: Elizabeth Ball, Kristen Hamilton, Vanessa DiBernardo, Mallory Weber, Desiree Scott and Hailie Mace.
On the counter near him on this day are beans he roasted from Brazil and Columbia and Kinship’s house blend.
Roberts walked participants through the steps — I thought I knew how to detect good coffee beans until this little experiment.
“What we want to do first before we get into the coffee, is actually go up and smell it,” he said. “And when you smell, there’s an actual process. You have to have your mouth open. When you smell and you are breathing, you’re breathing in through your mouth and your nose at the same time.You’re smelling the notes but you also want to taste them.”
Later, he showed the influencers on how to proceed to the tasting part of the exercise.
“You have to slurp,” Roberts said. And he did. Loudly. And some folks in the room cackled. “It’s normal,” he said. “You have to push the liquid around all of your tongue. Make a divot with your tongue and let the liquid sit there. And see if you can taste the different notes.”
Again, I abstained from this particular activity but Nia Manning of Kansas City didn’t pass on the opportunity to learn a new skill. Manning runs an Instagram account called Date Ideas & Things To Do KC. She told me the cupping event was her first.
“I had to Google what a cupping event was,” she said. But, “it was fun,” Manning continued. “It was a cool tasting,” she said. “I was trying something different and I learned a lot about coffee.”
Kinship partners with nonprofit
Kinship’s new cafe is in a building operated by Community Services League, a social services nonprofit in Independence. Roberts’ business essentially replaced the organization’s in-house coffee shop, Blendwell Cafe.
I spoke to Doug Cowan, CSL president and chief executive officer, about the partnership and Cowan said Roberts and Kinship will be a welcome addition to the community there.
“We opened Blendwell in July 2018 with a different coffee provider, and during our celebration of Black History Month in February 2023, we served Kinship Café coffee, and we made the move permanent the next month,” Cowan wrote in an email.
“Kinship Café and TJ Roberts have been good friends of CSL since then and we both operate through the lens of building a stronger community.”
I spent the better part of two hours at Kinship Cafe two days before its grand opening in Independence. I watched as Roberts did what he does best: Make everyone feel at home.
“I want people to be able to feel a sense of community when they walk through the door,” he said.
I’m hopeful that a successful small business like Kinship Cafe will be in Independence for a very long time.
