Coffee Real has developed a Born Free espresso blend to help protect wildlife
Independent coffee roaster, Coffee Real, is to help raise money to protect wildlife in Africa through an exciting new initiative with international wildlife charity the Born Free Foundation. Coffee Real has created a new Born Free espresso blend*, which will be available to its foodservice customers in cases of 9x1kg bags and to retail and online customers in individual 250g bags. Fifteen per cent of sales revenue from foodservice sales and 10 per cent of sales revenue from retail sales will go directly to Born Free.
The new blend was launched at an Open Day at Coffee Real’s roastery, the Elephant House, in Horsham, West Sussex. To celebrate the initiative, Virginia McKenna OBE, founder and trustee of the Born Free Foundation, roasted the first batch of the carefully selected green beans.
Virginia McKenna established the Born Free Foundation with her late husband Bill Travers following their starring roles in the classic film ‘Born Free,’ which told the real-life story of Joy Adamson’s efforts to return Elsa the lioness to the wild in Kenya. It is a story that is loved by millions around the world and inspired the charity’s belief to ‘Keep Wildlife in the Wild’. Today, the Horsham-based charity works around the globe to protect threatened species and stop individual animal suffering.
Coffee Real’s new Born Free espresso blend uses coffees sourced from countries in which the Born Free Foundation is actively involved in projects. This includes India, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
This is a wonderful espresso, not just because it supports a good cause but because it tastes delicious, both straight and with milk. It produces a very rich, buttery espresso with some sweet pleasing acidity, notes of cocoa and a juicy berry finish.
The blend uses four beautiful coffees, all having very different roast profiles to bring out the very best of each for espresso:
- India, Sethuraman Estate Plantation A provides a base to the blend.
- Kenya, Kithunururu Estate AA adds some pleasing acidity.
- Ethiopia, Teppi area adds some cocoa notes.
- Tanzania, Machare Estate adds some berry notes.
In India, the Born Free Foundation, in conjunction with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University, has developed the Satpuda Landscape Tiger Programme (SLTP) to fund vital work in the field to protect tiger habitats, monitor tiger populations, tackle wildlife crime and help humans and tigers to live alongside each other without conflict.
The charity also manages a sanctuary for rescued tigers in the Bannerghatta National Park in Southern India. The tigers have been rescued from appalling conditions that mean they can sadly never be returned to the wild, so the sanctuary offers them naturalistic enclosures in which to live for the rest of their lives.
In Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, the Born Free Foundation constructs lion-proof ‘bomas’, a special kind of fencing, to prevent the lions preying on livestock and becoming targets for the local community. They also carry out community outreach campaigns.
In Ethiopia, the rarest canine in the world, the Ethiopian wolf, is entirely reliant on the work of the Born Free Foundation-funded Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme for its survival. The Programme vaccinates local dogs to prevent disease, runs education programmes and monitors the wolves.
Ethiopia has also seen the Born Free Foundation establish the very first Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre, ‘Ensessakotteh’, near Addis Ababa, which aims to provide lifetime care to rescued animals found in terrible conditions, undertake conservation initiatives in the wild and also to raise awareness of wildlife and environmental issues within local communities.
In Tanzania, a team of conservationists is working to protect some of East Africa’s most endangered wildlife. The Born Free Foundation supports the West Kilimanjaro Conservation Project and has trained 12 local Maasai pastoralists who patrol the area and are proving to be a deterrent against poachers, who pose one of the biggest threats to wild animals.
The new Born Free espresso blend will be available from Coffee Real: www.coffeereal.co.uk as well as via the Born Free website.
