Continuum - What does it Mean?
We are: Continuum. Coffee with a purpose.
For us, it's not just about serving coffee. It's about giving back to the land, and to the farmers that cultivate that land. Continuum means something that gradually and continually changes over time, constantly evolving and growing and improving. We don't want to just stop at your cup. We want to follow the circle of life and the cycle of the earth. We want to empower the farmers to expand their businesses and reap the fruit of their labor. And take those coffee grounds back to the land to be used as compost or get recycled to be repurposed into something new altogether.
So that all sounds great in theory, but how exactly do we make this happen? There are two main aspects we focus on; Community and Environment.
Environmentally, our business is 100% sustainability-focused. And here's how we make it happen: Firstly, packaging. All of our packaging is made of compostable materials including our cups (for hot and iced drinks both), lids, and straws (which are made of sugarcane pulp). You can just toss them into your council provided green bin and sent them on their way! Secondly, used coffee grounds. After every shot is pulled, the used coffee grounds are collected in a knock box. After every event, we either work with local community gardens and distribute the used coffee and chai so that they can add it to their soil, or we incorporate all the grounds into our worm cafe to be broken down into rich compost. Third, food waste. We aim to run a zero-waste business. this means that no extra milk, extra shots, or extra grounds get tossed out. Extra grounds get used in our spiced cold brew mix which we sell in the summer, extra shots get used in our delicious zero-waste tiramisu, and extra milk gets used up at the end of the day when we reward ourselves with a much needed iced chocolate at the end of a long shift ><
Community is everything to us. We work with organizations like Al-Mashtal al-Burhani (Mashtal literally means nursery) to support the hardworking Yemeni farmers providing us with our delicious morning ritual. Al-Mashtal al-Burhani falls under The Social Upliftment Department of The Dawoodi Bohra community.
Al-Mashtal al-Burhani is involved in supporting farmers in the following ways:
•They have established a school by the name of al-Madrasa tul-Bunn (The school of coffee), where farmers are educated on better farming practices.
•They grow coffee saplings with great care and observation. These saplings are then sold to farmers wanting to start growing coffee. This helps speed up the process for farmers, and ensures that they are growing high quality coffee. Saplings are also provided free for farmers who cannot afford to pay for them.
•By providing and/or assisting with free water supply during months of dryness.
•They have also established a lab where coffees coming from each farm are assessed and feedback is given to the farmers on how to improve their crop
•Most importantly al-Mashtal al-Burhani is a non-profit organisation, any and all profits that are made on coffee sales go back to the farmers.
We are just getting started as a business and a brand. We hope to do business not only to support ourselves, but in a way where we can leave our mark on the world and make a difference to others. We're so excited to have you join us as we embark on this journey. Here’s to making Yemeni coffee mainstream in Australia!
