27 December 2019
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
New sustainable café concept, Blue Bird Coffee Roasters opens at Ireland’s fastest-growing and most punctual airport
Cork Airport is the first airport in Ireland to roast its own coffee beans as it welcomes the opening of a new sustainable café concept, Blue Bird Coffee Roasters.
Opened by KSG Catering in the check-in area, the contemporary Blue Bird Coffee Roastery Café at Ireland’s fastest-growing and most punctual airport, champions sustainable initiatives. Using ethically sourced speciality grade coffee beans direct from Columbia, the coffee is roasted daily and stored on-site in reusable sealed containers, lowering its transport carbon footprint. All disposable packaging offered on the premises — including cups, lids, straws and cutlery — are compostable and bio-degradable, while crockery is set as the default option to help reduce the generation of waste packaging. This is the second Blue Bird Coffee Roasters to open in Ireland and the first outside of Dublin.
Commenting on the launch of the new café, Head of Aviation & Commercial Business Development at Cork Airport, Brian Gallagher said: “We are delighted see the launch of our new café offering, Blue Bird Coffee Roasters, making Cork Airport Ireland’s first airport to host an on-site roastery. Our unique food and beverage offerings — from the Airport’s Taste of Cork specialities, to now our very own freshly roasted coffee — ensures that passengers choosing to fly from Cork are in for a treat the moment they enter the terminal.
“At Cork Airport, we take our sustainability commitment very seriously, and this year we signed a landmark commitment to become net-zero for our carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. Blue Bird Roastery Café’s sustainable model works in tandem with this, with a focus on waste reduction and segregation, reducing general waste and in turn increasing recycling.”
Pictured is KSG Head Of Coffee, Darren Kelly about to roast coffee beans for the first time in the new Blue Bird Coffee Roasters at Cork Airport. Cork Airport is officially the first airport in Ireland to roast its own coffee beans as it welcomes the opening of the sustainable café concept from KSG Catering. Photo credit: Monika Coughlan
KSG’s Blue Bird Coffee Roasters replaces the offering from the company’s Refuel Café at the Airport, which operated at the transport hub for over six years with high customer satisfaction rates. The experienced staff of Refuel Café will be serving customers in the new Bluebird Coffee Roasters and have been trained on making the perfect cup of speciality coffee by KSG’s Head of Coffee.
The new spacious coffee house offers a diverse menu with a broad range of breakfast options and snacks along with signature sandwiches, healthy rice bowls, salads and of course your favourite beverage roasted in the cafe.
Commenting on the launch of Cork Airport’s Blue Bird Roastery Café, Managing Director Michael Gleeson at KSG, Ireland’s leading restaurant service provider, said: “This is our second Blue Bird Coffee Roasters to open in Ireland, with an outlet already on-site at University College Dublin. The idea is simple — source the best AA grade coffee beans direct from Columbia complemented by seasonal guest coffees from around the world, all speciality grade, along with having conscious sustainability initiatives around disposable packaging and single-use plastics.
“At KSG we are committed to using Irish and local suppliers as much as possible and our food in Blue Bird Coffee Roasters is freshly prepared in the café. The menu incorporates on-trend breakfast dishes, full deli offering, hot lunch bowls, bakery from Cork’s own Hassetts Bakery and, for those in a hurry, a range of grab and go sandwiches and salads made freshly in the café every day.”
