A SUSTAINABLE coffee company has started shipping beans to Scotland from Colombia by sailboat.
Glen Lyon Coffee Roasters is in collaboration with New Dawn Traders for its new Colombia Las Brisas, crossing the Atlantic carried only by windpower aboard the schooner De Gallant, and arriving at the firm’s Aberfeldy roastery offering “a taste of a possible future less reliant on carbon-intensive cargo shipping”.
The firm said cargo ships are the backbone of global trade, transporting 90% of the goods we consume, but they are also heavily polluting, making finding an alternate means of shipping coffee across the world becomes more important.
While sailboats might never replace cargo ships as the primary means of transporting coffee, forward-looking experiments like the one Glen Lyon Coffee and New Dawn Traders are embarking on aim to show that another way is possible.
Las Brisas means “the breezes” in English, and is "named for the winds that blow up from the Rio Blanco river and waft the fragrance of coffee blossom through the fields".
Produced by a cooperative of 15 farmers who are paid significantly above the market rate for this coffee, 50% of Las Brisas is grown under shade which increases biodiversity and reduces the need for fertilisation.
“Cutting our carbon footprint is a big focus of the team here at Glen Lyon, from packaging to solar panels to our recent B Corp certification,” Fiona Grant, founder and owner of Glen Lyon Coffee said.
“We were thrilled to discover New Dawn Traders and their sailboat-shipped Colombia Las Brisas, and we can’t wait for our customers and community to try this exceptional and forward-looking coffee.”
Colombia Las Brisas is available in 250g bags for £12.50 or 1kg bags for £42 and can be purchased though the Glen Lyon Coffee Roasters website.
Energy giant chief defends dividends
SCOTTISH Gas owner Centrica’s chief executive has defended bringing back dividends for shareholders amid the spiralling energy crisis.
Chris O'Shea was speaking to reporters after the company's half-year profit soared five-fold to £1.3 billion when it was stoked by rocketing energy prices.
Scotch whisky giant hails ‘star’ brand
DIAGEO has toasted a “star” showing by Scotch whisky brand Johnnie Walker as it declared sales have been boosted by the recovery of the on-trade from the pandemic.
The spirits giant declared that it sold more than 21 million cases of its flagship blended Scotch globally in the year to June 30, as the brand saw a 34 per cent rise in sales.
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