Welcome to AM Breweries

Brewed to stand out!

In spring 2017, we promised each other that we would only brew sustainable and organic beverages made of waste coffee leaves if the taste turned out great. We were fed up with healthy, organic and sustainable beverages that either tasted awful or were pumped full of sugar to disguise the true taste of the ingredients. Later that spring, however, we succeeded and AM Breweries was born there and then in Anders’ kitchen.

We are extremely proud and humble to welcome you to the first company to producing sustainable and delicious cold beverages made on coffee leaves – a natural waste product in the coffee industry – a perfect ingredient for brewing our distinctive, yet remarkably fresh and delicious beverages. By adding only nature’s finest organic produce, these beverages with their gentle bubbles provide you with a sparkling and refreshing sensation of sunshine and evergreen.

While enjoying our delicious, sustainable and all-natural beverages, you will also be helping to lift small-hold coffee farmers out of poverty in the developing world.

Products

Since we started in 2017, we have developed and tested our first two Twisted Leaf products, and are currently working on many more.

Vanilla Lime

Leaf

Brewers´ notes

Vanilla Lime is our very first beverage and offers spring floral notes and a crisp tight body of sparkling bubbles. The fresh but almost indefinable, subtly bitter taste of coffee leaves is balanced by the fresh acidity of ripe organic lime and the natural sweetness of organic vanilla, creating a heavenly sensation for your body and mind.

The alcohol percentage is 5.8% and it contains only 2.9 grams of sugar per 100 ml.

Food Pairing Notes

Always served chilled, the Vanilla Lime is the perfect start to any reception, the perfect accompaniment to veggie sticks, hors d’oeuvres, sushi, white meat, or green salads. With its gentle acidity and freshness, why not try it with a selection of your favorite cheeses!

Serving Notes

Serve it in chilled champagne or white wine glasses straight out of the refrigerator, and gently tip the bottle back and forth before opening to include the natural lees.

Raspberry Rose

Leaf

Brewers´ notes

Raspberry Rose is our rosé version with a natural summer bombardment of raspberry notes. The beverage is a perfect balance of gentle bitterness from coffee leaves and fresh sweetness from organic ripe raspberries. It’s sparkling bubbles, fill your mouth with sunshine and bliss.

The alcohol percentage is 5.8% and it contains only 3.9 grams of sugar per 100 ml.

Food Pairing Notes

Always served chilled, the Raspberry Rose is perfect to enjoy after work, at birthdays, weddings or other celebrations. It is the perfect accompaniment to sushi, white meat, and crisp salads. If you have a sweet tooth, you’ll love it! Enjoy it with your favorite petit fours and chocolate selection.

Serving Notes

Serve it in chilled champagne or white wine glasses straight out of the refrigerator and gently tip the bottle back and forth before opening to include the natural lees.

"We were thrilled to serve Twisted Leaf for our guests During Copenhagen Fashion "Week. With AM Breweries dedication to sustainability and great taste they were the perfect match for us and our guests loved it"

"At the beginning of our semester, we had the pleasure of serving Twisted Leaf. The drink stands by its name as it is twisted from coffee leaves and rum – who would have guessed? The two options of lime and raspberry had an exceptional tea-like taste which gave it a fresh and light aftertaste that was very popular with the students. We hope this will be a long-time collaboration!"

"While we were planning our national premiere of our documentary Michelin Stars – Tales from the Kitchen, we wanted to serve our guests more than "just" the usual suspects such as caviar and champagne. We choose a whole new and exciting product, Twisted Leaf. A product that are in tune with one of our key narratives of the movie, namely the need to think, eat and drink sustainable products. This, along with the chance to serve gastronomic connoisseurs something they have never tasted before, was simply too good to miss out on, and - from people’s reactions and commentaries - it was a great choice, our guests were just as excited as we are"

"Over the last couple of months we have had the great pleasure of serving Twisted Leaf at various occasions at our company – we strongly support and enjoy these products and proud to align our company with the vision of AM Breweries."

An unknown superfood

We know that nature itself provides us with the means to build a sustainable and just future – coffee leaves are one of those means. In order to grow the amazing coffee beans that most of us depend on every morning, coffee farmers have to trim the coffee tree, making sure the tree’s beautiful white flowers develop into the ripe tasty coffee beans that we then roast, grind and infuse with hot water. Cultivating the coffee cherries involves ensuring that as much nourishment passes from the tree into the cherries and, to ripen the cherries need to be exposed to just the right amount of shade and sun at exactly the correct time. All of this trimming creates a large volume of wasted coffee leaves. Coffee leaves that currently are either burned or left to decompose on the ground.

Last year, we discovered that these waste coffee leaves can provide an amazing ingredient which can be brewed– so we set out to explore the possibility of developing a new type of beverages based on dried coffee leaves. To carry out this task, we were awarded an innovation grant by Future Food Innovation Denmark and, developing in from this, we started collaborating with The Danish Technological Institute. They have confirmed that these discarded coffee leaves are full of natural caffeine and rare antioxidants such as mangiferin and chlorogenic acids – which means that the coffee leaves are chock full of bioactive components that are renowned for their beneficial effects on human health, and especially their ability to prevent cancer and heart disease. Furthermore, The Danish Technological Institute has documented that our beverages, in comparison with other beverages, are rich in antioxidants.

However, the fact that coffee leaves are a natural waste product and unknown superfood, even to most coffee farmers around the world, is not even the best part. Not only does it provide us with an amazing natural ingredient, but utilizing and enriching this waste product will help us to collectively change the livelihoods of millions of small-holder coffee farmers and their communities.

Meet Charles Ngugi

Our first smallholder coffee farmer

Up to 80% of all farmers in East Africa are smallholder farms of up to 3 hectares. It is a struggle for the farmers who only have a limited number of crops and one harvest per year. The small-hold farms are merely the beginning of a very long complicated supply chain, their yield is low, and the level of poverty hinders investments in more effective growing mechanisms. Youth, having little hope of a better future, migrate to urban areas and other countries, with the result that the average age of farmers is 60 years old. These are just a few of the structural challenges that smallholder farmers face. With a growing population and the effects of climate change gradually being felt, the future of farming in East Africa looks somewhat bleak and unsustainable. This has to change!

Charles Ngugi is a hardworking, highly competent coffee farmer who grows some of the most incredible Arabica plants on earth. He owns a small 2.5 hectare coffee farm in the mountains, just a few hours north of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Charles has been a farmer his entire life, and the land he farms, has been passed down through generations. However, over the past decades, stagnating global coffee prices have meant that Charles has struggled to make ends meet. Even though he grows high quality coffee, the numerous other actors in the coffee supply chain mean that he is paid very little. What´s more, he has no banking facilities and his one yearly payment from his coffee production is insufficient to maintain his farm and household, making it impossible for him to secure the future of his three kids.

Impact

Every sip matters

By partnering with Charles and other farmers like him, we co-create a whole new revenue stream for smallholder coffee farmers. Together with a local organization focusing on sustainable farming, Charles has been able to increase his yield output without raising his environmental footprint, simply by making use of what would otherwise be a waste product for millions of coffee farmers, and utilizing the soil around and between his coffee trees. All in all, Charles has gone from having one crop to having multiple crops; from one harvest to three harvests a year; has secured a year round revenue stream and doubled his annual income; and finally, tripled his annual yield output.

We insist on utilizing new technologies like block chain to create a fully-digital supply chain, making our trade direct, transparent and traceable. We are partnering with other companies and NGOs to pursue this even further, to ensure direct payments, banking solutions including savings options and to provide our consumers with traceability and transparency. We have only been in business for one year but, from our partnership and newly generated income stream, Charles’ family will be able to afford:

Behind AM Breweries

Meet Anders and Magnus

We are Anders and Magnus, the founders of AM Breweries. We met as youngsters at Viby Efterskole (a boarding school in Denmark), and have been best friends ever since we were roommates. We are both shaped by the same moral upbringing, and believe that although we may not be able to save the world, we do have a responsibility and duty to make it a better world. So even though life has taken us in very different directions, our aim has always been to improve the existing status-quo. AM Breweries embodies that moral philosophy from coffee leaf to bottle.

Anders is a Danish military veteran, and holder of two badges of military merits, has a degree in International Economy plus an MA from Copenhagen Business School, where he developed his own theory in business and psychology. While studying for his MA, he founded his first company – Studenterbolaget – followed later by Monso. Anders works actively with Danish Veteran organizations and networks, and is a frequent guest lecturer at Copenhagen Business School. AM Breweries is his third company.

Magnus, on the other hand, was a conscientious objector to military service and instead joined Operation Day’s work, working on a campaign to secure better education for homeless youth in Kyrgyzstan. He has an MA from Roskilde University Center specializing in political economy, rights and the global south. Before founding AM Breweries, he was the National Director of Humanity in Action Denmark working with human rights education and youth from all over the world.

In May 2017, Anders & Magnus joined forces and founded AM Breweries to produce delicious and natural beverages for taste-conscious people everywhere while empowering smallholder coffee farmers around the world.

Sustainability

Working with the UN´s sustainable development goals.

At AM Breweries, we believe that we all share the responsibility for shaping a better and more sustainable future. We do this by questioning our practices and processes – we have a direct impact on the 10th of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

We strongly believe in well-functioning and sustainable ecosystems, but willingly admit that we are no experts. This is why we partner with carefully selected organizations like Forests of the World, Naturschutzbund Deutschland and Nutri Farm Fresh. Together, we are working to improve not only the livelihoods of the farmers we work with, but also their families and local communities while also ensuring biodiversity.

Partners & Awards

Join us

Follow our journey on Instagram and Facebook

In June 2017, we won the Creative Business Cup Denmark, and received an honorary award at the Global Finals later the same year. We received food innovation funds from Future Food Innovation Denmark to develop and test our first two prototypes of our Twisted Leaf. We were Runners-up in the start-up category of the Danish Sustainability Award 360 degrees Award. At the beginning of 2018, we were selected to take part in the Food Agro Challenge and came in 5th out of 1,000 start-ups from around the world. We were also chosen to be showcased at Oxford University Said Business School – Responsible Business Forum 2018.

3,000 people have tasted our products so far and loved them – join us and contact us for tastings and samples.

Contact

We’d love to hear from you

Anders Lauritsen

Founder & Business Developer

@: anders@ambreweries.dk

tel: +45 30 814 814

Magnus Harrison

Founder & CEO

@:magnus@ambreweries.dk

tel: +45 30 882 882