I tolerate a lot of things, but gluten isn’t one of them….

I never intentionally set out to become a gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan-friendly coffee shop. It’s one of those things that just kind of happened by accident. If you happen to have one of our cookbooks, there is a small section in the introduction that explains some of the reasons why we provide the products that we do, but I thought it would be nice to go a bit more in depth. The excerpt from the book reads as follows:

While working in restaurants and cafes over the past 12 years, it has become hard to ignore the fact that the face of catering has changed dramatically. Dietary requirements, intolerances, allergies, and lifestyle choices impact the industry more than ever before and I feel it would be imprudent for chefs and bakers to not consider this change when designing their menus and recipes.

When I came back to the UK and more importantly back home to Knaresborough, it became apparent that my hometown was lacking in providing for customers with food allergies, intolerances or even basic vegetarian and vegan options. It turned into a personal ambition to provide for these consumers in particular; but not to alienate the rest of my potential customer base. I wanted to prove that you can have a vegan sponge cake, or a gluten free biscotti and it taste just as good as one that wasn’t vegan or wasn’t gluten free.

The result was what you see before you; a collection of recipes that celebrate taste, comfort, and decadence, striving to deliver exciting and inventive options for everyone, regardless of dietary need.

This makes it sound as if I set out to provide for these diets, it’s true – but unless you are someone who suffers directly with an allergy or food intolerance, or chooses to follow a particular diet – these issues don’t really leap out at you as a good USP (unique selling point). I have visited a number of coffee shops that are purely plant based for instance, but by and large, they are run by and owned by people who follow a plant-based diet. I know of one completely gluten-free café not far from Knaresborough, that was formed due to the owner suffering from coeliac disease and seeing a gap in the market. I am neither a vegan, a coeliac, or even lactose intolerant, but it just started to make sense that, as these people exist, it would be good if they could eat and drink nice things too.

My plan was to simply provide a couple of options to suit these different diets and address these allergies, while also providing for those who, like me, were lucky enough to not have to worry about these things.

I think it ultimately stemmed from an article I found in a book I was reading back in New Zealand, that was basically a how-to guide to opening a coffee shop. In the back of the book, there were a couple of articles and essays about different aspects of the industry, and one was about providing for food intolerances in a food business.

I thought it would be good to include the excerpt that stuck with me for so long, so I managed to find it online after some detective work:

Great news, food intolerances are on the rise! It might not be a good thing for those with a food intolerance, but your coffee shop can benefit from the food intolerances of your guests. With over 35% of people saying that they have a food intolerance, every café, coffee shop, and restaurant needs to take this seriously.

Recent research has suggested that only 5% of adults actually have an allergy or some type of food intolerance, whereas up to 35% of people believe they actually have a food intolerance. When you add that to the growing number of vegetarians and vegans, you have a large cohort of your customers who will be very aware of your menu items. The net impact of this is that 35% of your customers will be looking for a special diet of some type, any business that ignores this demand will lose more and more customers over time.

In a group of customers looking to visit, the person with the special diet will be the person that chooses to visit that restaurant or café, so the impact could even be higher. In a party of 4 there is a very high probability that there will be a person with a special diet among them who is likely to choose where to take the party.

Those last two sentences were a ‘penny-drop’ moment for me. If I don’t provide for someone with a food allergy or intolerance, I don’t just lose that one customer, I lose anyone they want to dine with. It was obvious to me that by providing for those with food intolerances and allergies, I wasn’t creating a niche for myself and limiting my customer base, I was in fact, opening up my business to a wider audience than many of my competition.

After a little research online, it is suggested that the number of vegans in the UK is estimated to be around 2.5 million, approximately 4.7% of the population. Vegetarian numbers are estimated to be around 6% at 3.2 million. Around 500,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with coeliac disease, however it is believed that only 36% of people with coeliac disease are clinically diagnosed so this figure is more likely to be around 1.4 million. It is thought that there are around 6-8% of the UK population with a gluten intolerance (rather than allergy), and many of these people will choose to follow a gluten-free diet. It is suggested that the number of adults with lactose intolerance range between 5-10% of the population, so many of these people may follow a dairy-free diet. As stated above, even though only a small percentage of the population are clinically diagnosed with an allergy, it is what the population believes they have, and chooses to eat based on those beliefs that actually matters. If 35% of the population believes they have an allergy or intolerance, it is your choice as a business to cater to those needs or not, whether or not those beliefs are based on a clinical diagnosis or a gut feeling (pardon the pun), as much as it is the customer’s choice to buy from you.

Of course, providing for food allergies and intolerances comes with its own struggles. Our food hygiene and preparation practices must be on another level to a business that doesn’t provide for these issues. Cross-contamination is a major concern for many customers with severe allergies, and we try to communicate as clearly as possible, that although we are not an allergen free premises, we make every effort to make sure that cross-contamination doesn’t happen. If a customer comes in with a particular allergy, our staff are able to assist with anything the customer needs, pointing out suitable products, helping them make informed decisions by explaining our preparation practices, and generally making sure that the customer has a positive experience with us.

After 8 years of trading, we have become well known for our gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan options. It’s one of the reasons many of our customers come to us, but thankfully, we are visited by many other customers who don’t have any intolerances or allergies, and simply just love our baking, and our coffee. As I say in our cookbooks – we prove that you can have your cake, and eat it too, regardless of dietary need.