Coastal Coffee: Two TY teens set up shop at Myrtleville Beach

Two innovative Transition Year students from Crosshaven have combined their love of the seaside with their ion for the environment in opening a coffee dock at Myrtleville beach with a conservation conscience.

Adam D’Arcy and his best friend Conor Walsh, both sixteen, bought a trailer on DoneDeal and spent five months painting and refurbishing it, to create Coastal Coffee and sell hot beverages to swimmers and beachgoers at Myrtleville beach.

“The aim of our business Coastal Coffee is to serve our customers with good, quality coffee and snacks and also to use reusable mugs to try and tackle the issue we have with non-disposable coffee cups," Adam said. 

“There are 22,000 non-disposable cups thrown away every hour into landfill so we want to try and help this problem. I know we won’t make a massive impact on this but if big companies and business see us 16-year-old lads making an effort, they should, without a doubt, be able to play their part in protecting the environment.” 

The two boys knew from visiting Myrtleville over the summers that there was a good business opportunity there, thanks to the large crowds that flock to the attractive coastal location for swimming.

Adam, who had been thinking of opening a coffee counter to sell hot drinks in Myrtleville since 2016 said it had been on his mind and when he found the perfect trailer on DoneDeal he knew it was full steam ahead.

Adam asked his best friend Conor to be his business partner and Conor was only delighted to get involved in the sophisticated set-up.

The boys spent five months working on the trailer to get it in tip-top shape, doing all of the refurbishment work themselves.

Open the last two weeks, the boys told The Echo that the project was a resounding success.

Adam explained that the deposit scheme works to encourage people to use a mug instead of a takeaway cup through giving people a 50 cent discount when they use one of the Coastal Coffee mugs that they then return after.

“Someone comes up to us to buy a coffee or tea or hot chocolate we ask them if they would like a mug or cup. For the mug, they give us €3. Fifty cent for the deposit and 50 cent discount, so when they bring back the mug we give back €1 and their drink costs €2.” Adam said that Coastal Coffee is kicking up a storm down at the popular beach with locals enthused with their original thinking and enthusiasm.

“We opened two weeks ago and business is going very well. People love the idea of the cups and it keeps the beach clean. The Myrtleville Swimmers, which is a group of people who go swimming every morning in the sea, love us because we serve them with lovely hot cups of coffee and tea. People are being really ive when they hear our story. We are very grateful for their kind words of .” Conor said the dynamic duo are open at Myrtleville Beach every day from 8.30am to 6pm until they go back to school in September.

The 16-year-old entrepreneur said the pair hope to open at weekends during the school year with further profits being made through private bookings for events.

Conor said the main aim is to expand the business beyond TY and keep it going for the future.

“Our parents were always encouraging us to find something in which we are ionate about,” Conor said, “We knew we wanted to do something together and we were both working in a restaurant. This brought us to the idea of a coffee trailer as it is something we could do locally.” Adam said that the future plan was to grow the business and to eventually have multiple trailers and perhaps a café.

To find out more about Coastal Coffee or to get in touch with the boys about a private hire search @coastalcoffee on Facebook.