It’s a pretty steep price to pay for a small cup of coffee, but the man behind the pitch promises it won’t leave a bitter taste as it comes with the sweetness of a dairy farm portion.
A Scottish dairy is footing the bill for Britain’s most expensive cup o’ joe: $344 for a flat white – a double shot of espresso topped with a layer of steamed milk and a fleeting work of foam art.
This expensive cup is actually a benefit from Mossgill Organic Dairy’s crowdfunding campaign to buy shares to expand its sustainable operation and produce more milk.
Investors who buy 34 shares in the farm get a certificate for a Flat White which can be redeemed this weekend at one of 13 coffee shops across Scotland that use the dairy’s milk.
Owner Bryce Cunningham said, “This coffee costs about 80 times the price of the average flat white in the UK – but it’s much more than just a pretty drink.” “We know it sounds crazy, but when you break it down, it’s a pretty good deal. How much is the future of farming worth?”
That price is more than the eye-watering $335 that Schott London, a coffee bar in the posh Mayfair and Marylebone neighbourhood, charged for a flat white made from rare beans from Okinawa, Japan.
The Telegraph reported in April that it was Britain’s most expensive coffee.
Before launching the coffee promotion, Cunningham had already raised more than a third of the $379,355 from small investors as he sought to obtain a $1,138,066 loan, allowing him to double his operations and expand out of Scotland and into London. This will help in expanding to coffee shops in India. ,
Shareholders also receive other rewards, such as farm tours, milk delivery discounts and invitations to special events. But investors are also given a standard warning that they could lose some or all of their invested money – except for the coffee.
The tenant farm at Mauchline, about 25 miles south of Glasgow, was occupied in the 18th century by the poet Robert Burns, who wrote “Auld Lang Syne” and many other famous works.
Burns, considered Scotland’s national poet, wrote while working on the farms there for two years and his face graces every glass bottle of Mossgiel milk.
Cunningham, a former service manager at Mercedes-Benz, took charge of the operation in 2014 after his father and grandfather died from terminal illnesses.
That year falling milk prices and other problems forced him to sell most of the herd and relaunch the business as an organic farm.
He uses a process of “aging” the milk rather than pasteurizing it, which he said gives the creamy taste and texture of raw milk without the health risks.
Todd Whiteford, one of the owners of The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, which serves upscale cups, said he has been using Mosgiel milk for several years.
Despite “outrageous offers” to switch from competitors, he said other milk producers can’t match the quality and consistency that makes for “rounder, smoother and sweeter” cappucinos, lattes and flat whites – and better coffee art. .
“His is the best. I would argue with anybody about that,” Whiteford said.
However, anyone who rushes out to buy Mosgiel coffee will get the same cup that other Coffee Cartel customers can buy for $3.98. But Cunningham says there will be a taste of virtue with every expensive cup.
“They’ll be self-conscious that the coffee is probably doing them more good than buying it otherwise,” Cunningham said.
