A Cup of Joe With Invito Coffee – A Zero-Waste Coffee Company
We are Yaro & Heather, the owners of Invito Coffee, and are adventurous coffee lovers and innovative thinkers who live by the philosophy that everyone deserves to experience a great cup of coffee—often. Bringing you the freshest coffee beans from our family farm in Costa Rica, to your doorstep in Canada. Roasted fresh to order locally in Vancouver, BC. We are one of Canada’s first and leading plastic-free and zero-waste coffee companies.
We started Invito Coffee with the initial purpose of featuring coffee from our family’s coffee plantation in Costa Rica, but as we started researching packaging and the plastic waste it creates, it quickly evolved into something more! One of the things that makes us a zero-waste coffee company, is utilizing 100% compostable packaging. The compounds and films used to produce the bags comply with both American and European compost standards (EU 13432 and ASTM D6400) and are certified for both home and industrial composting. Being avid sailors and loving the ocean, we didn’t want to continue contributing to the plastic pollution that goes into our oceans & landfills. We decided to use 100% compostable packaging and get away from traditional plastic bags. They are 3x the cost, but as a company, we feel it’s our responsibility to make these decisions for the health of our planet, without passing down the costs to the consumer. The bag, sticker, and valve are fully compostable, and we are super excited about this! As a consumer, the purchase you make is a moral act—an opportunity to vote with your dollar for the world you want to see!
What does Invito Coffee mean? Translated from Spanish, Invito means “Invitation” or to “Invite”, and being a family-owned coffee plantation, nothing brings us more joy than to invite friends and family to enjoy our coffee. Coffee is far more than a beverage. It is an invitation to life, disguised as a cup of warm liquid. It’s a trumpet wake up call or a gentle rousing hand on your shoulder. Coffee is an experience, an offer, a rite of passage, a good excuse to get together. Burnaby is our home, and we couldn’t be more proud to be part of this amazing community, and share our amazing coffee with everyone here.
Our labels are watercolour designs, featuring the flora and animals from Costa Rica. We wanted to bring the natural beauty of the country into our packaging so that with every sip of our coffee, you are transported into paradise. Picture the tropical rainforest with its warm air, the parrots and birds singing in the background, and the sweet coffee with its delectable citrus finish. It’s simply “Pura Vida”, meaning “Pure life” and is the favorite phrase in Costa Rica.
Our Socio-Economic Impact. We have developed our own ecosystem that has a positive social impact on everyone that comes in contact with our company. From the coffee plantation, where our workers are treated fairly, paid a good wage, and send their kids to school. This creates a happy workforce, which results in a healthy and well-maintained coffee plantation. Our coffee is then imported into Canada, using no middlemen, resulting in cost savings that we pass down to our coffee lovers. In Canada our coffee is locally roasted in Vancouver BC, supporting local businesses and retailers. Our zero-waste compostable packaging is sourced from sustainable companies, helping support plastic free initiatives. The consumer then receives an ethically sourced, direct trade and traceable, highly delicious specialty coffee, and their purchase allows us to put money back into our plantation, closing the loop.
Having launched only 2 months ago, right in the middle of the COVID pandemic, wasn’t the best timing, but despite that, we are finding our community of coffee lovers and environmentally conscious consumers. We offer 3 roasts: Medium, Espresso, and Decaf. Our medium roast is very floral and sweet with a balanced citrus finish. The espresso roast is for the dark lovers, who prefer a more chocolate and nutty flavour in their coffee, with a slight hint of a citrus finish. Our Decaf is a Costa Rican SwissWater process decaf, and we are getting raving reviews from our customers.
Thank you, Burnaby, for being such an amazing and welcoming community, and we hope to be your coffee supplier for years to come.
This article was contributed by – Yaro & Heather – Owners of Invito Coffee a zero-waste company. You can find their coffee on their website, or at one of their local retailers like “Muckabout Gift Gallery” on Hastings. If you would like to feature their coffee in your retail space, cafe, or office, get in touch with them through email [email protected]. You can also find them on social media @invitocoffee
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