It is our belief that staff are fundamental to any business yet in today’s world many businesses appear to have leaned into the theory of more profits for the least amount of pay possible. We wish to be the opposite of this and so:

• All of our staff are paid well above industry rates
• All of our part timers are paid above the living wage
• All of our full time staff are part of a company pension scheme
• All of our full time staff receive full sick pay
• 1% of all our annual revenue is shared with staff on top of their salary/bonus

Many organisations in Ireland are doing incredible work for the most vulnerable in society. Since the day we first started to roast coffee we decided to give our support to Women’s Aid. We have done this by giving them a minimum of 1% of all the revenue we earn every year.

A year after we began roasting we looked to see what we could do in addition to the 1% of all revenue we donate to Women’s Aid. We had a meeting at the roastery with Howard Barwick of Covoya. Covoya act as an exporter for our biggest supplier of coffee at the roastery which is the ASOPEP co-op in Colombia.

I’ve known Howard for a long time. He was a former competition barista, coffee roaster and all round very very decent human being. I asked him if there was anything we could do for the people of ASOPEP and he said yes there was. This is how our bridge building started and we’ve now completed four of them.

Monika, our Head of Quality took the opportunity to visit ASOPEP where she met with some amazing people and saw first hand some of the bridges we’ve funded. She came back with stories of the tangible benefits these structures have helped to bring such as making journeys to school for the children of the co-op safer along with easing the burden of coffee transportation. Below are some photos of before where one of our bridges was built and a video after its completion.

In 2024 in addition to the 2% of all revenue we give to good causes and the 1% to staff, we decided to add an additional .5%. We did this through a series of 4 local and international grants of €2,500 each. We've supported organisations such as The Solas Project, The Dublin Inquirer and our neigbours "Capital Strength" to help their athletes compete at international weight lifting competitions. In 2026, we have increased the value of these grants to €4,000 and they will be focused on organisations within Dublin 8.

We’re based in Dublin 8 and St. James’s is our local hospital within a short walk of the roastery. A number of staff at James’s have supported us since we began through buying our coffee. When Covid hit we decided to donate coffee to them on a weekly basis. It was a very small way to say thank you for all they do and we’ve done it every week since. In 2022 we added Crumlin Children’s Hospital to our weekly drop and now in 2023 we’ve also added The Coombe. This year we will donate three quarters of a tonne in total between the three.

As participants in the WCR Checkoff Program, we at Imbibe are proud that a portion of every green coffee purchase we make goes towards supporting advanced science for the future of coffee.

We pay above commodity and even fair trade pricing for all our coffees. In many instances many multiples above this. 

Our Organic certified house blend is Kaleidoscope, the marriage of Colombia ASOPEP (El Puente), and Peru Aprysa. We pay a soical premium on every pound of coffee we buy and this year we paid $8,500 between both co-ops. In addition to this we also pay both quality and organic premiums for these coffee.

We aim to build relationships with our producers and have been buying coffee from Asopep in Colombia since we first started roasting in 2018. Years ago we were made aware of infrastructure issues at the co-op at the beginning of our working relationship. After seeing images of the local children's dangerous river crossings to school each day we decided to donate 1% of every cent you spend with us in order to embark on a bridge building program. We have now funded four bridges at the co-op and have sent funding for a fifth. Our Q Grader, Monika has visited the co-op and saw first hand the tangible benefits these bridges have provided.

Throughout the years we have focused on building direct trade relationships with producers. We now source directly from several producers, including Pedro Moss from La Huella in Panama, Ashenafi Argaw of Ardent in Ethiopia, Paul Doyle of Mikava in Colombia, 90 Plus Estates in Panama and El Placer farms in Colombia.

We've always been keen on genuine sustainability. Be it in the communities we've supported at origin or in Ireland. We're also very much aware of keeping waste to a minimum. For this reason the vast bulk of our coffee (90%), for wholesale partners is packed in zero waste cans. These cans are sent to customers, collected, cleaned and then sent back out. We've been doing this for many years now.

Our retail coffee for those buying for their homes is packed in recyclable packaging which we source from our carbon neutral packaging supplier.

We use electric vehicles for all deliveries we do ourselves and use An Post as our transport partner for any coffee that is couriered as they too use electric vehicles. 

Our coffee roaster is fitted with an afterburner, which breaks down volatile organic compounds and other pollutants released during roasting. This results in a dramatic decrease in visible smoke and odors and emissions.

We are one of the few certified organic coffee roasteries in Ireland. We are certified by The Organic Trust. Organic coffees are produced without synthetic herbicides or pesticides which benefits not only consumers but also those working closely in organic coffee production.

Our certified organic coffees can be found here.

All organic coffee imports into the EU must fully comply with EU Organic Regulations, which includes the prohibition of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers. Organic coffees must display an organic logo to comply with regulations.

Quality control is an important aspect of our work at Imbibe. This ensures consistency in your cup and that we do justice to the world class coffees we buy.We constantly cup our coffees and update roast profiles to get the most out of each batch. We also measure roast level with a colour tracker ensuring every batch of each coffee brews consistently.

Una Mullaly of The Irish Times asked Gary to join her on The United Ireland podcast to talk about how you can run a coffee company ethically. This interview gives insight into how and why Imbibe is run the way it is.

Listen here>