If you have a hankering for donating some money to a worthy cause, but also like getting beautiful illy collector cups, this is the item for you, or even better, as a Christmas Gift you can give to two - one to the foundation, the other to your gift recipient.
These are the Ernesto Illy Foundation espresso cups. The idea for these cups came from Ernesto Illy himself, who said that coffee should never be drunk alone, always in company. Coffee is a beverage that encourages conviviality and conversation: enjoyed in the company of others it can lead to the kind of encounters and discussions from which great ideas are born.
This is why the Ernesto Illy Foundation has used the metaphor of a bird’s eye view of two coffee cups with a logo created by a Dutch designer for illycaffè during the1960s. The limited-edition, numbered pack contains two espresso cups and a single saucer. You get the cups by making a minimum 100 Euro donation to the Ernest Illy Foundation, donations that go to:
Research, preservation and development project of the native coffee plant in Ethiopia;
Pilot project in Colombia, dedicated to adverse communities, to introduce beekeeping and honey production in coffee plantations, as a new source of income and environmental sustainability;
Scholarships for the Masters degree in Coffee Economics and Science, that will give qualified students coming from coffee producing countries the opportunity to study in Italy, to improve their knowledge and to transfer this experience to their families and community of origin.
Column Description Whether it's up to the minute, happening this day, this week, or in the recent past, this column's goal is to present coffee and attempts to make the experience truly culinary. You'll find short reviews about past events, interesting coffees coming on the market, new and different ways to enjoy espresso and other brewing methods, and give an insight into efforts around the globe to make coffee a truly culinary thing. Column written by Mark Prince.
