Interview with Danú Coffee

Gordon D’Arcy, Brand Ambassador with Brightwater is in conversation with Peter Cooke, co-founder of Danú Coffee, an indigenous Irish coffee company.

GD: So Peter, first of all welcome to the Brightwater offices, socially distanced of course. We’re here today to talk about Danú Coffee and we’re going to get to that in a second but one of the things that Brightwater prides itself on, in fact a pillar that it prides itself on that they always like to help SMEs. Now Danú Coffee is not quite ready for recruitment yet but Brightwater is very interested in what you’re doing here so we wanted to support you as best we could. We’re giving you this platform to talk about Danú Coffee so please give us the highline on Danu.  Can you tell us a little about Danú Coffee?

PC: Thanks very much, Gordon, we appreciate it, I’m delighted to be here today. So Danú Coffee is a start up company obviously in the hot beverage industry, specialising in coffee but not just regular coffee. We’re going along the lines of a product line called coffee bags. Coffee bags are basically like tea bags as the name suggests but they have high- end luxury coffee in them so they’re really convenient, they save a lot of time, a lot of mess and a lot of effort for consumers. It’s very similar and noticeably comparable to a French press or a cafetiere style coffee without any of the mess or the grinds or the coffee beans that are needed so very quick on convenience and very quick in terms of sustainability so just an easy way to enjoy a nice cup of coffee. All you have to do is pop a coffee bag into a cup, use hot water, wait a couple of minutes and you have a great cup of coffee.

How did Danú Coffee come up with the idea of a “coffeebag”?

GD: So a coffee “teabag” – surely that’s been done before?

PC: It has and it hasn’t. It was around about 20- 30 years ago. There was a couple of big brands then.

GD: Twenty or 30 years, I probably should be able to remember that.

PC: Not necessarily in Ireland. There were a couple of small companies doing it in the UK. It never really took off. Coffee wasn’t as prevalent in the market as it is today. It’s just a different way of enjoying a nice cup of coffee. It’s kind of on a rising trend in the UK so we wanted to see if there was a possibility of doing that in the Irish market.

GD: That’s very forward thinking because a lot of companies would wait for it to be established in the UK before they try to sell their presence here. Going back to the start, where did this idea for this come from?

PC: It started throughout the pandemic. Like many people, I was forced to work from home. I was lucky enough to work from home and was very privileged to do so but we were reduced to a four-day week.  So not only did I have an extra day in the week but I also was without the commute of the M50 twice a day. So I had lots of extra time. I don’t like to be too idle with my time where possible. I’d just come off the back of a college course and was looking for something new to get involved in. I went on a little bit of a research trend. Because I was working from home, I couldn’t get a decent cup of coffee near me. I’d missed out on the lovely office coffee machine. The cafes that were around the area where the office was based, I wasn’t near them. I sort of just went on a rabbit hole of a coffee journey making it quick and easy. I’m not overly fond of big machines, these complicated machines. The coffee grinds I was using were getting all over the sink, all over the countertop, I was getting in a lot of trouble with the wife so I just wanted to see was there an easier and neater way to get a good cup of coffee.

GD: That’s fantastic. I suppose, personally what I love about that is that it’s been an incredibly tough year for an awful lot of people but you’ve found something incredibly positive to come out of this. And not just personally but you’ve built a business and hopefully going to grow a business off the back of that so I think that is absolutely inspiring. Hopefully there will be lots more examples of this coming in the weeks and months ahead.

GD: Ok, Peter, so it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. You’ve said this is simple, you’ve said this is easy so let’s make a cup of coffee. I’ve got the boiling water, let’s go. How do you make a perfect cup of Danú coffee?

PC: Let’s do it. It’s simple as opening the pouch and it’s nice to get a good smell of the coffee, there’s quite a nice aroma off it. So this is our original blend. It’s a dark chocolate, blackcurrant and citrus peel. That’s what the coffee bag looks like, again it’s nice to get a good smell. All you do, I’ll let you do it yourself, it’s that easy. Pop it in your mug, add hot water,

GD: This is bordering on Blue Peteresque thing, this is one I made earlier.

PC: Exactly, it’s as simple as that. So let it sit for a couple of minutes, about three minutes is probably….

GD: Three minutes?

PC: Give it time, depending on how you like it, between 2 and 5 minutes. Just let it sit there.

GD: We’re not going to be sitting here for 2- 5 minutes. This is the beauty of editing. 

GD: Ok, so that is about 3 minutes Peter, so let’s give the coffee bag a bit of a squeeze. I like a bit of milk in mine so I’m going to put a little drop in mine.

PC: I take mine as is.

GD: Good man. Right, cheers!  

PC: Cheers!

GD: That is a good cup of coffee.

PC: Nice isn’t it?

GD: That is very very good!

PC: Smooth and easy

GD:  Yes, well done, congratulations.

 

GD; So you’ve kind of mentioned where you’re pitching this which is I suppose just below that cafetiere. If you’re trying to visualise it, instant on the spectrum of coffee, where do you see Danú in six months, twelve months. Where are you hoping to go?

PC: In terms of, I suppose, householder consumer, we’d love to be able to replace the jars of instant coffee lying around the house, it’s that convenient, it’s that easy. You can enjoy it quick and easy on the go, Monday to Friday. At the weekend, there’s definitely time to go into your cafetieres and spend that time when you have that time on a Sunday. But for the quick, busy household, these are perfect for your Monday to Friday nice cups of coffee. After that then, the bags themselves are individually wrapped so there is the potential to go into hotel bedrooms, they can go into airplanes.

GD: You keep talking, I’m going to keep drinking here.

PC: Great, there’s the opportunity for them to go into hospitals, there’s very little touchpoints on them. The bags themselves are compostable so they can be just thrown into your food waste bin at home. The pouches are recyclable so just pop them into your green bin. There’s very little trace, there’s very little mess so there’s a lot of opportunities for the market from household to corporate offices, to hospitals and everything in between.

Video 5 

GD: So Peter, all the people in Brightwater are literally buzzing about Danu Coffee and they’ve been using it in Coffee Roulette. Eventually when they get back to the office, this will be available for the staff. So for anyone else out there that is interested in this, how do they get in contact with you? How do people get in touch with you to purchase this coffee?

PC: Well, we have a website, it’s www.danucoffee.ie . We’re on Instagram @danucoffee and on Twitter @danucoffeeco We’re also available through a number of retailers throughout Dublin and Kildare at the moment so quite a select number of Supervalu’s, a couple of Londis’, Spar’s and a Centra at the moment. Word is spreading fast so we’re hoping to get into as many as we can in the future.

GD: Brilliant and hopefully you’ll be needing Brightwater’s services in a few years as well.

PC: Absolutely, you’ll be the first port of call for recruitment.

GD: Listen, I wish you continued success and well done on Danú Coffee.

PC: Cheers, I appreciate it.

Gordon D’Arcy, Brand Ambassador with Brightwater was having a cup of coffee and a chat with Peter Cooke, co-founder of Danú Coffee, an indigenous Irish coffee company.