LONDON (AP) — It's an enormous price to pay for a little cup of coffee, but the man behind the pitch promises it won't leave a bitter taste behind as it comes with the sweetner of a share of a dairy farm.
A Scottish dairy is offering what it bills as the U.K.'s most expensive cup o' joe: 272 British pounds ($344) for a flat white — a double shot of espresso topped with a layer of steamed milk and a fleeting work of foam art.
The costly cup is actually a perk for purchasing shares in Mossgiel Organic Dairy's crowdfunding campaign to enlarge its sustainable operation and produce more milk. Investors who buy 34 shares in the farm get a certificate for a flat white that can be redeemed starting this weekend at one of 13 coffee shops in Scotland that use the dairy's milk.
“This coffee costs nearly 80 times the price of an average flat white in the U.K. — but it’s much more than just a lovely drink,” said owner Bryce Cunningham. "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?”
The price tops the eye-watering 265 pounds that Shot London, a coffee bar in the posh Mayfair and Marylebone neighborhoods, charged for a flat white made with rare beans from Okinawa, Japan. The Telegraph reported in April that it was the most expensive coffee in Britain.
Before launching the coffee promotion, Cunningham had already raised more than a third of the 300,000 pounds he is seeking from small investors as he tries to get a 900,000 pound loan that will help him double operations and expand out of Scotland and as far as coffee shops in London.
Shareholders receive other rewards, too, such farm tours, milk delivery discounts and invites to special events. But investors are also given a standard warning that they could lose some or all of the money they invest — except for the coffee.
The tenant farm in Mauchline, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Glasgow, was worked in the 18th century by poet Robert Burns, who penned “Auld Lang Syne" and many other well-known works. Burns, who is considered the national poet of Scotland, wrote while working in the fields there for two years and his face graces each glass bottle of Mossgiel milk.
Cunningham, a former service manager for Mercedes-Benz, took over the operation in 2014 after his father and grandfather died in 2014 from terminal illnesses.
The collapse of milk prices that year and other problems forced him to sell off most of the herd and reinvent the business as an organic farm. He uses a process to “brew” the milk, instead of pasteurize it, that he said gives it the creamer taste and texture of raw milk without the health risks.
Todd Whiteford, one of the owners of The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow that is serving the costly cups, said they’ve been using Mossgiel's milk for several years. Despite “outrageous offers" from competitors to switch, he said other milk producers can't match the quality and consistency that makes for “rounder, smoother and sweeter” cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites — and better coffee art.
“Theirs is the best. I’ll argue with anyone about that,” Whiteford said.
Anyone who splashes out to buy a Mossgiel coffee, though, will be getting the same cup other Coffee Cartel customers can purchase for 3.10 pounds. But Cunningham says there will be a taste of virtue with every posh cup.
“They’ll have the self-transcendence that coffee is doing greater good than just perhaps buying it otherwise,” Cunningham said.
This undated handout photo shows Bryce Cunningham, farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm near Mauchline, drinking milk in a field with some of his herd of Ayrshire cows at Mossgiel Organic Farm, Mauchline, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
NEW DELHI (AP) — Asia’s controversial richest man, Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, is again in the spotlight. His companies’ stocks plunged up to 20% on Thursday after he was indicted by U.S. prosecutors on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in India by concealing that it was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme.
In an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday, Adani, 62, was charged with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.
One result of the U.S. legal action is that the Adani group decided not to proceed with a proposed U.S. dollar-denominated bond offering. Adani Renewables announced the decision in letters to the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.
Adani is the son of a middle-class family in Ahmedabad in western India’s Gujarat state. Adani quit college to become a diamond trader in Mumbai, India’s financial capital. In the 1980s, he started importing plastics before establishing Adani Enterprises, which traded in everything from shoes to buckets and remains his flagship company.
India opened up its economy in the 1990s and a new middle class emerged as tens of millions of people escaped poverty and the economy boomed, prompting Adani to bet on infrastructure and coal.
Adani’s first big project, the Mundra port in Gujarat, opened in 1998 and is now India’s largest. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. is India’s biggest private port operator. Within a decade, Adani became India’s largest developer and operator of coal mines. According to Adani Power’s website, it has expanded to Australia and Indonesia and is on track to be “one of the largest mining groups in the world.”
Adani companies, India's second-largest conglomerate, operate airports in major cities, build roads, generate electricity, manufacture defense equipment, develop agricultural drones, sell cooking oil and run a media outlet. Despite his fossil fuel roots, the billionaire Adani Green aims to become the world’s largest renewable energy player by 2030.
Adani is considered close to the Hindu nationalist government, and the political opposition has long accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having close ties with the tycoon. They both hail from the western state of Gujarat.
The businessman's critics say much of his success stems from his close ties to the government and Modi. For example, they have accused the government of adjusting bidding rules to make it easier for Adani to win contracts to operate airports. The company denies this, saying contracts were won relatively transparently.
India’s main opposition immediately demanded a parliamentary committee probe into Adani Group dealings, which Jairam Ramesh, a leader of the Congress Party, said are causing "growing monopolization in key sectors of the Indian economy, fueling inflation, and posing huge foreign policy challenges as well.”
Ramesh said his party has been ``bringing out the various dimensions of these scams and the intimate nexus between the PM (Prime Minister Modi) and his favorite businessman. These questions have remained unanswered.”
Last year, the Adani companies lost $68 billion in market value after short-selling firm Hindenburg Research accused Adani of “pulling the largest con in corporate history,” triggering a massive sell-off of the group's stocks.
U.S.-based Hindenburg accused Adani companies of stock price manipulation and fraud just as the group began a share offering meant to raise $2.5 billion.
The Adani group dismissed Hindenburg’s allegations, saying none were “based on independent or journalistic fact finding.” Adani’s response included documents and data tables and it said the group had made all necessary regulatory disclosures and has abided by local laws.
Adani’s net worth shot up about 2,000% in recent years as share prices for his listed companies soared.
Before Modi took office, Adani was friendly with the rival Congress Party, which governed Gujarat state when many of his early projects began. Adani has been “close to every politician in power,” R N Bhaskar, a journalist who wrote a biography on Adani, told The Associated Press.
Adani’s supporters say he has cleverly aligned the group’s priorities with those of the government by investing in key industries like renewable energy, defense, and agriculture. His projects overseas, in strategically important countries like neighboring Sri Lanka, help New Delhi compete with rival Beijing in the region.
India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi addresses the media on Indian businessman Gautam Adani, after Adani was indicted by U.S. prosecutors on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in India, in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Image behind shows Adani. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, addresses the media on Indian businessman Gautam Adani, after Adani was indicted by U.S. prosecutors on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in India, in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. An image of Adani is behind. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
FILE - India's Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani addresses the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar, India, Jan.10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
FILE- A tree with dried branches stands outside Adani Corporate House in Ahmedabad, India, Jan. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, center, addresses the media on Indian businessman Gautam Adani, after Adani was indicted by U.S. prosecutors on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in India, in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Image behind shows Adani, on left with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on right. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
