Feel like you communicate with your fellow humans mostly via apps and emails? Then you need to know about the latest in old school charm that’s being brought back into modern life.
Mylkman is a modern take on the old-school milk service. Entrepreneur Jamie Chapman blends, bottles and drops off glass bottles of nut mylks to Londoners, daily, first thing in the morning. Empties can be left outside, to be refilled next time he swings by, while the service is also available via food delivery service, Farmdrop.
(Good news: Jamie has recently welcomed former model and vegan campaigner Heather Mills on board as a joint owner, via her V Bites Ventures investment and accelerator set up, meaning that some speedy growth is likely on its way, soon.)
The business was launched last year in response to the boom in animal-free eating, and has gone from strength to strength. “I saw that the vegan movement was growing and growing,” Jamie says. “More people are ditching dairy, for both environmental and animal cruelty reasons.”
Mylkman offer your classic plant-based flavours, like almond, in addition to funkier bottles, like pistachio and sweet chai and chocolate, coconut and oat. As well as these fancier varieties giving them an edge on supermarket-stocked brands, there’s also the 12% minimum volume of nuts in every bottle – significantly higher than most mass-produced blends.
Cost-wise, a 500ml bottle of oat mylk is £1.80, with the jazzier varieties going up to £3.75. Coconut is £2.30, almond is £2.45 and cashew is £3.30.
All bottles are glass – which you’re encouraged to re-use – and the company is plastic-free. “Sustainability is fundamental to what we do,” says Jamie. “As well as being plastic-free and using glass bottles, we give 10 per cent of our profits to Greenpeace.”
The brand will soon be stocked in Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason and Planet Organic, and is set to launch new “plastic-free, zero waste products, including nut butters and ready-to-drink coffee products,” later this year.
On what he loves about the gig, Jamie says: “It’s great to get out there and meet people. It’s been an amazing, if not crazy year at Mylkman HQ, things have quite literally gone nuts!”
Like we say. Bringing that need for connection to the iPhone generation. We’re sold.