[5] Rowland then announced new music was arriving in 2020; in the days and weeks preceding the song's release, she had been hosting "Coffee with Kelly" chats everynight at 7 pm with social guests on Instagram Live.

[7] During an Instagram live interview on April 20, 2020, Rowland announced that "Coffee" was the first single from her forthcoming album, and was being released independently.

[10] Idolator's Wass said that although "Coffee" was not as "radio-friendly" as he hoped, it "never wears out its welcome — the track runs for just over two minutes — and bounces around your head long after the final beat".

[11] Will Lavin of NME wrote: "On the seductively alluring 'Coffee', Rowland sings: 'Coffee and sex in the mornin'/ Breakfast in bed, got me moanin'/ Before you go to work/ I need you to go to work/ Pardon my sincerity/ You know I'm a rarity/ My love be your therapy/ All around remedy/ Baby who instead of me?/ These bitches will never be/ Put it down like it's heavy, baby/ Honeymoon that, wedding day that'.

"[12] Editors of Billboard, Gab Ginsberg and Jason Lipshutz, described the song as a "pop-leaning morning-sex jam" accompanied by a "crackling beat" to match every innuendo.

[14] Set on a beach, the video features scenes of Rowland "posing in a swimsuit, riding a horse and slowly rolling her hips with her crew of bikini-clad dancers.

My intention I set for the video was to take the light in yourself and your sexuality [and put it in] a God perspective, in a way where you don’t have to get any approval from anybody else.

Sometimes when women stand in our own sexuality, without approval from any external source, I think that there comes a different perspective, a different outlook, a different feeling, and usually we don’t even realize we’re doing it, but I think society has kind of made it that way, especially with the Black woman.