There has been a rather lovely news story about coffee recently.

We all hear about the gloomy and nasty effects of the economic downturn, don’t we?

The redundancies.

The hardships.

The cuts and austerity measures.

However, it is rather nice to focus on something positive that comes out of all this gloom and doom.

The idea of ‘suspended’ coffee is a way of helping those more unfortunate souls to have a drink of the caffeine elixir, even though they are short of cash.

What’s the deal?

Thanks to an idea which started in Naples, according to reports, you can donate a cup of coffee in participating shops to those in need by ordering a suspended coffee.

In effect, this means that when kind-hearted souls buy themselves a cup of coffee, they can also order another one (which they do not take away and drink).

This additional ‘suspended’ cup of coffee is noted by the coffee shop.

What’s the purpose of it?

When a homeless or unfortunate person stops by and asks if there are any suspended coffees to be found, the coffee outlet can provide him or her with the paid-for-but-not-drunk cup of coffee.

This notion has been publicised a lot in Bulgaria and also in Australia.

The idea is also starting to take hold in Brighton, in the south of England.

Would you like to take part in this scheme?

If not, why not ask your local coffee shop (chain or independent) if they could organise for suspended coffees to be made available for those who haven’t got the cash to buy one for themselves?