LONDON, 2016-Jun-27 — /EPR Retail News/ — Costa, the nation’s favorite coffee shop, has flown world-class barista and Instagram star, Mason Salisbury 5,000 miles across the world to train their baristas to make Rainbow Flat Whites in selected stores in time for this summer’s Pride celebrations.
Five Costa baristas from across the UK, especially selected for their latte art skills, spent a day learning Mason’s technique of creating rainbow art in the milk poured into a Flat White, ahead of London kicking off their Pride celebrations on 25th June.
The Rainbow Flat Whites will be served in four cities this summer to show Costa’s support for Pride and the LGBT+ community, including London on 25th June, Bristol on 9th July, Brighton on 6th August and Manchester on 27th August.
The Las Vegas barista has become a hit on his social media channel with 25,500 followers thanks to his visually stunning coffees and mesmerising pouring technique.
As an equal opportunities employer, Costa is a founding partner in GLOW (Gay Lesbian Out at Whitbread), which provides a network for the companies’ LGBT+ community as well as straight allies. People from across the whole Costa business – and the parent company Whitbread – from graduates, store teams to senior Directors meet regularly for networking sessions.
John Kerslake, Costa’s UK & Ireland Operations Director and co-founder of Costa GLOW commented: “We’re delighted to have Mason fly over from Las Vegas to train our baristas to make Rainbow Flat Whites. We believe that it’s not just our coffee but the people that make Costa so great and Mason definitely shares that mentality. He pours his bright and colorful personality into every cup and we’re so pleased he could share this skill with our baristas.
“Being an open and fair employer is extremely important to Costa: we’re proud to champion equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We hope to demonstrate our forward-thinking ethos with our Rainbow Flat Whites and will continue to show our support for Pride and the LGBT+ community.”
Mason Salisbury added: “Coffee is my biggest passion, so I was really excited when Costa invited me to come to the UK to show their baristas how to make rainbow coffees. The baristas were all fast learners, highly skilled and fun to work with, so we had a great time. Pride is such an incredible event and I’m thrilled that my rainbow coffees get to be a part of it.”
The Costa Rainbow Flat Whites will be available from the following participating stores on 25th June during London Pride at the normal RRP of £2.50:
- •4 Great Portland St, London W1W 8QJ
- •11 Argyll St, London W1F 7TH
- •200 Piccadilly, London W1J 9HD
- •15 Regent St, London SW1Y 4LR
- •Waterstones Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5EJ
For more information please contact: the Costa press office on 0207 467 9278 or at Costateam@onegreenbean.com
Notes to editors
1 UK Equity Costa Coffee employees.
Founded in London by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971, our quality coffee was the premium choice for boutique hotels and restaurants across the city. Today we continue to roast the original Mocha Italia recipe in Old Paradise Street, London with our 100% Rainforest Alliance certified coffee remaining at the core of our quality coffee credentials.
With over 2,000 coffee shops in the UK and more than 1,240 in 31 overseas markets, we are the fastest growing coffee shop business in the UK. We’re proud to be the UK’s favourite coffee shop, having been awarded “Best Branded Coffee Shop Chain in the UK and Ireland” by Allegra Strategies for six years running (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & December 2015).
Our people are the heart of our business and we employ over 30,000 people worldwide, with a target of 5,000 new jobs in the UK by 2020. Last year, we increased Barista pay by c.10%. Our Pay for progression model was introduced in October 2015, and our training rate of £7.20 was launched well ahead of National Living Wage.
As a popular, mainstream food and beverage brand, we can make a positive contribution towards customer health and wellbeing by investing in safe sourcing, new product development and consumer education. Health and wellbeing remains a strategic business focus area and we will continue to evolve our product offer over the coming years. We are working to reduce added sugar in our drinks by 25% by 2020 and will reduce salt in our sandwich range by a further 5% by 2017.
We care about the communities we operate in with our store teams volunteering over 10,000 hours of their time to lend support to over 900 local community projects.
Looking after coffee growers is extremely important to us, which is why we established The Costa Foundation, a registered charity with the aim to relieve poverty, advance education and the health and environment of coffee-growing communities around the world. So far, The Costa Foundation has funded the building of 53 schools and improved the social and economic welfare of coffee-growing communities.
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Source: Costa