Features / coffee
Day one of Boston Tea Party’s bold new reusable cup scheme
As a barista pours a flower as latte art on top of a customer’s takeaway flat white within a blue and white patterned cup, a man walks into the cafe from his white van on Park Street pushing half a dozen boxes.
It’s just before 10am on Thursday, May 31 – the final day that Boston Tea Party cafes will serve takeaway coffee in single-use cups – and inside the boxes are hundreds of reusable bamboo cups that herald a bold new beginning for the Bristol-born chain.
On Thursday morning, the next order is another takeaway coffee but this customer is ahead of the curve, bringing her own Keep Cup.
is needed now More than ever
The reusable cups arrive on Thursday morning
Fast forward to 7.30am on Friday and the scheme is a few minutes old, with the colourful reusable cups on display and for sale along one wall and one of the BTP staff sticking postcard-size signs to inform customers what they are about.
“How’s it going today so far?” asks one regular customer, knowing that this is a day that the team here have been working towards for months.
She leaves with a grey cup wrapped in an orange band. One of the unexpected new joys of the scheme is the ability to mix and match the colours of your new cup, band and lid.
The new reusable cups come in a variety of colours
The reusable cups, made by ecoffee with naturally organic bamboo fibre, cost £4.25 for an 8oz, £4.50 for 12oz or £4.75 for 16oz.
If you forget your cup, you can buy one and get refunded when you bring it back. Returned cups are then washed and ready to be reused.
The money that is saved from not giving out single-use cups will see 10p donated to local community causes.
Boston Tea Party brand director Anita is in the store on Friday morning ensuring that everything is running smoothly, keeping an eye on proceedings with PR lady Polly.
She explains that every cafe has a different flow, with the Park Street store usually quieter from 7am to 8am, when the takeaway trade kicks up a gear.
Sure enough, the pace increases as the clock strikes eight with a few reusable cups in a myriad of different colour combinations being sold to brighten up the Park Street commute.
“Have you given up all single-use cups completely?” one customer asks. “Oh wow!”
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
