Spinach is not a vegetable. It’s an album — written and produced by Dope founders Creative Mike and Stace Loyd — and it’s the name on a bag of Ethiopian single-origin coffee. The bag says it plainly: the fourth wave of coffee is culture.
On the counter in the photo: a Chemex wearing a Harriet Tubman label, a jar of beans, a Spinach tasting cup, and a pair of headphones. That isn’t a set we built for the shot — that’s how the coffee gets made around here. Beans and a beat, at the same time.
Why we drink it black
Here’s the thesis Chel built the whole menu on. Ethiopia invented coffee — thousands of years before it was anybody’s commodity. An Ethiopian natural is bright and fruit-forward all on its own. So we brew it black. Pour milk and sugar into a coffee like this and you’re covering up the best part of it — the part your people grew first.
The build
The method is simple and it doesn’t change: a 1:16 ratio, a real bloom, water at 200 degrees poured in slow spirals, drawn down in about three and a half minutes. No tricks.
The Dope Ethiopian Pour-Over
1 cup (12 oz)Active
5 minRatio
1:16Brew temp
200°F / 93°C
You’ll need
- 27 g Dope Coffee “Spinach” Ethiopian, medium roast, ground medium-coarse (about 4 tbsp)
- 430 g filtered water (about 14.5 oz), heated to 200°F / 93°C
- 1 pour-over dripper (Chemex or V60) + paper filter
- A gooseneck kettle and a kitchen scale (a timer helps)
The build
- Rinse the paper filter with hot water and discard the rinse — it warms the brewer and kills the papery taste.
- Add the 27 g of grounds, level the bed, and zero your scale.
- Bloom: pour 55 g of water in slow circles to wet all the grounds. Wait 30–40 seconds while it degasses and rises.
- Pour in two or three slow spirals, keeping the water level steady, until the scale reads 430 g total.
- Let it draw down. Total brew time should land around 3:30. Give it a gentle swirl and serve it black.
A note from Chel: grind a touch coarser than you think for a Chemex, and resist the urge to sweeten it. If you want body, our café build steams the same coffee with oat milk — but the first cup, brew it black and meet the bean.
Press play while it draws down
The bean is named for the record, so brew it to the record. Here’s $pinach, live:
Want the story behind the album that named the bag? Read Spinach — The Album That Named a Coffee.
Brew It to the Record
Put it on while the water draws down — Spinach, the record this bean is named for:
Listen & Shop
Put on the record, then pull the bag it’s named for. The Spinach Ethiopian Dripp is the same single-origin in the recipe above — brew it black and meet the bean.
Coffee, culture, hip-hop — if you’re in it, we want your story. Tell us, and we’ll put you on.
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