VOA新闻杂志2024--Would You Pay $344 for a Coffee?

 

Would You Pay $344 for a Coffee?

A Scottish dairy, or milk cow farm, is offering what it calls Britain's costliest¹ coffee: one cup for $344.

It is a huge price for a little cup of coffee, but the man selling it offers a deal sweetener: a share of a dairy farm.

For that price, they also receive 34 shares in Mossgiel Organic Dairy. The company offers the deal in a crowdfunding campaign it opened. It hopes to raise enough money to enlarge its sustainable operation and produce more milk.

Investors² who buy 34 shares get a certificate for a special coffee drink called a flat white. Holders³ can present their certificate and get their flat white at one of 13 coffee shops in Scotland that use the dairy's milk.

The dairy's owner, Bryce Cunningham, notes his coffee costs 80 times the usual price. "We know it sounds crazy, but when you break it down, it's a pretty good deal. How much is the future of farming worth," he asked.

The price tops the $320 for a flat white at Shot London, a coffee bar in the wealthy Mayfair and Marylebone neighborhoods. That flat white was made with rare coffee beans from Okinawa, Japan. The Telegraph newspaper reported in April that it was the most costly⁴ coffee in Britain.

Cunningham is seeking about $375,000 from small investors in order to secure a much larger bank loan. He had already raised more than a third of his goal when he offered the flat white farm shares deal.

The loan he is seeking is worth more than $1.1 million. He says that financing will help him double operations and expand out of Scotland all the way to London.

Shareholders⁵ receive other rewards, too, such as farm visits, milk transport deals and invitations to special events. But investors are also given a standard warning that they could lose some or all of the money they invest.

The dairy farm in Mauchline, about 40 kilometers south of Glasgow, is historic. The famous 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns once worked at the farm. Burns, considered the national poet of Scotland, wrote while working in the fields there for two years. An image of his face is on each glass container of Mossgiel milk.

Todd Whiteford is an owner of The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, that is serving the costly cups. He said the store has been using Mossgiel's milk for several years. He said other milk producers cannot meet the quality of Mossgiel's milk. He said it makes "rounder, smoother and sweeter" drinks.

"Theirs is the best. I'll argue with anyone about that," Whiteford said.

Words in This Story

cohesive⁶ - n. exhibiting or producing the act or state of sticking together tightly

previously⁷ - adv. before; in the past

giant - n. huge

dissipate - n. to break up and scatter⁸ or vanish

diameter - adj. the length of a straight line through the center of an object or space

spin - v. to turn in a circular motion

warp - to be turned or twisted out of, or as if out of, shape

1 costliest   

adj.昂贵的( costly的最高级 )；代价高的；引起困难的；造成损失的

参考例句：

• At 81 billion dollars, Katrina is the costliest natural disaster in American history. “卡特里娜”飓风造成了近810亿美圆的损失，是美国历史上最严重的自然灾难之一。 来自互联网
• Senator John Kerry has proposed a tax on the costliest health plans sold by insurance companies. 参议员约翰？克里(JohnKerry)已经提议对保险公司销售的高价值的保险计划征税。 来自互联网

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

6 cohesive   

adj.有粘着力的；有结合力的；凝聚性的

参考例句：

• She sealed the parcel with cohesive tape.她用粘胶带把包裹封起来。
• The author skillfully fuses these fragments into a cohesive whole.作者将这些片断巧妙地结合成一个连贯的整体。

7 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

8 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。