Spotlight: Keia & Martyn’s Coffee
Keia & Martyn’s Coffee and Tiny Little Cuppa (TLC for short) is a Good Food Award-winning business that specializes in providing customers with accessible pricing; weekly, biweekly and monthly subscription services; tea blends and instant versions of customers’ favorite drinks such as Magic Dust instant coffee and Street Chai line of spiced teas.
You’ll find the products through their own brick-and-mortar locations, Tiny Little Cuppa and the upcoming Keia & Martyn’s Cuppa. “We are all about making products and spaces where everyone feels welcome and experiences high-quality food and beverages. We believe everyone deserves goodness.” Keia shared.
Keia & Martyn’s Cuppa, the brand’s latest addition, is a curated provisions market focused on marginalized and local brands. The market is scheduled to open this November in the Lloyd district. It is a recipient of Prosper Portland’s Lloyd-Holladay Relocation Grant, which supports ground-floor storefront tenant improvements in the Lloyd-Holladay TIF District.
The new market will be the place for anyone seeking a design-forward brand centered on delivering the goodness they deserve. “We will add to our Black woman-roasted coffee brand by uplifting BIPOC-, woman-, LGBTQ-, and disabled-owned businesses along with value-aligned local businesses.” Keia noted.
Learn more about their business journey below.
What makes Portland unique from a small business perspective?
Keia: Portland has so many creative people that carve their own paths. We have such a vibrant and dynamic community of people. There is also a strong lineage of loving nature and food in Portland, which are two things that are integral to our business and our values around justice.
I love the diversity of our neighborhoods and how they speak to all kinds of people. There is something really forward-thinking about Portlanders. We like the idea of honoring but also learning from our history and creating a city that is beyond what has been dreamed for it. That is our perspective when we decide where we want to spend our time with our business. We are always looking to be part of creating something new especially for neighborhoods that have been neglected or overlooked in recent years.
Tell us about yourself and your journey to becoming a business owner. Why did you start your business?
Keia: My husband and I have been in coffee for over 30 years collectively. Unfortunately, after working at some of the best coffee shops in Portland and New York City, I rarely saw opportunities for people like me to grow and become a leader in that space no matter how much talent and energy we were bringing. My husband proposed that we start our own coffee company in December 2019. I told him I would join him but only if he would teach me how to roast and I could use my position to highlight the need for more openness and accessibility in the beverage and food industry. I wanted to be part of the story that ends the cycle of Black people and women not represented as owners or roasters in the coffee industry.
In addition to coffee, I do people, culture and equity work for justice-focused organizations. I wanted our company to use my knowledge around sustainability and equity and align with our values. Our subscription service serves people across the country and uses my Equity Pricing Model to make our offerings more accessible to all.
We were doing all of this work to get our coffee and our approach out there, but we didn’t have a presence in our local communities. After a couple of years in business, we began going out into communities through different street fairs and markets, always sharing our pricing model so more people could access our goods. Since 2023, we have opened two cafes in Portland neighborhoods in need of some TLC: Lloyd Center Mall and downtown Portland. We stayed at Lloyd Center until the very last day, and we have chosen to stay in the Lloyd District by relocating one block away to the corner of NE 15th Ave and Weidler. We will open Keia & Martyn’s Cuppa in the new space in November.
What is your business' biggest success to date?
Keia: I won a Good Food award for coffee in the summer of 2026. I am one of the first Black women to win this prestigious award for coffee roasting and sustainability practices in a blind tasting and nationwide search for the best packaged goods. It feels extremely gratifying to receive an award that is based on the quality of our skills as a roaster and the talent of the farmers we work with along with their regenerative farming and equity practices. This is essentially the packaged-food equivalent of the James Beard awards but for brands instead of chefs and restaurants.
We have continued to build out our offerings with innovative, beautifully balanced products like our Street Chai line, tea blends, and Magic Dust instant coffee. We are one of the only house-made instant coffees in the US and we just released the new instant version of our Street Chai. They are available through our website and cafes, as well as Peoples’ Co-op, all Market of Choice stores, local curated stores, and markets across the country.
