Skylark pride themselves on being the only 100% non-profit and 100% transparent speciality coffee brand, period. You can read more about their transparency here
They’re based near Brighton, where they’re roasting on a trusty Probat, right across the road from a nature reserve, on the edge of the South Downs, it probably couldn't get more picturesque.
We met with Will Davies, their account manager to talk about the prospect of having them come on board to bring you fine folk some of their delicious coffee. Will gave us some great insight into Skylark and some of the great things they’re doing
First and foremost, they’re set on doing good. And not just talking a good game, they’re committed to paying what some would see as beyond a fair price for their coffee at source. They will pay at least, twice the Fair Trade rate for green, but why stop there? They’re also donating £1 per kilo towards conservation and empowerment.
This takes shape in various ways, rewilding here in the UK, but also in coffee-producing countries. The profits from their roasted coffee go towards The Stumping Project in Ethiopia, which helps farmers to regenerate their coffee trees.
So that’s the conservation part, what about empowerment? They have a sister project, Pro Baristas, responsible for getting people into coffee jobs, focusing on the reduction of unemployment in Sussex, particularly with young people. They’ve trained and mentored over a thousand people into jobs! Then, In Her Hands, is a company set up to empower women, through woodworking, teaching women the fundamentals of building. So as you can see, they’re doing some real good all over.
But doing good aside, we’re also interested in how the coffee tastes right? We were fortunate enough to make our way through a host of samples, cupping them here in the LC test kitchen and boy, was it a ride! These guys really are masters of their craft, don’t snooze on this one ✌🏼
