Our Worms Have Discovered Proper Mercado Cafe Coffee (And They're Absolutely Buzzing)

Brewcycle has a new supplier on board, and frankly, our worms have never looked so perky. Mercado Cafe - the lovely lot with the spot on Burton Road in Chorlton - have joined our growing network of caffeine philanthropists, and their coffee grounds are already causing quite the stir in our worm bins.

Picture the scene: our friends at Chorlton Bike Deliveries swing by Mercado on a Thursday, load up their cargo bike with a box of coffee grounds, and pedal them over to our site at Forever Fields. It's proper sustainable logistics - no diesel fumes, no traffic jams, just good old-fashioned pedal power delivering what is essentially worm gold dust.

When the grounds arrive, we've got a bit of a dilemma. Do the coffee grounds go straight to the worm bins, or do we send them to our mushroom operation? It's like being a parent with two kids and only one bag of sweets. Usually the worms win, mainly because they give us that look (okay, they don't have eyes, but you know what I mean). They know quality when they smell it.

And these Mercado grounds? They're something else. The worms have been munching through their Peruvian roast like it's Christmas dinner. We're a bit worried they're getting over-caffeinated, to be honest. I've seen them wriggling about with what can only be described as enthusiasm. One of our volunteers reckoned he spotted a worm trying to dig a hole to China at 3am, but that might have been the compost tea talking.

The beauty of it all is what happens next. Those caffeinated worms work their magic, breaking down the grounds along with our usual mix of food waste, spent mushroom substrate, garden trimmings and cardboard. What comes out the other end is pure black gold - worm castings so rich and nutritious that our community garden soil practically purrs when we mix it in.

And this is where Mercado's contribution really blossoms into something special. Those coffee grounds, which would have otherwise ended up in landfill, become the foundation for growing fresh vegetables in our community garden beds. We're talking proper veg here - kale that doesn't taste like punishment, tomatoes that actually smell of something, courgettes that don't turn into marrows the second you turn your back.

This locally grown veg goes straight into community food programmes. Families in South Manchester who are finding things a bit tight at the moment got fresh, organic veg that started life as someone's morning latte at Mercado.

It's bonkers when you think about it. Someone sits down for a coffee and a chat at Mercado Cafe, leaves the dregs in their cup, and six months later that same coffee has helped grow a cabbage that feeds a family. That's not just circular economy, that's proper circular community.

Mercado have been dead sound about the whole thing. No fuss, no drama - they just gather up the grounds and leave them ready for collection. We can imagine regular customers thinking: "My morning coffee grows vegetables? That's the most Chorlton thing I've ever heard."

We're buzzing about this partnership (and not just from the caffeine). It shows how local businesses can be part of something bigger without having to change their whole operation. Mercado keep making cracking coffee, we keep making cracking compost, and somewhere in the middle, people get fed.

It's a proper win-win-win. Mercado reduce their waste and get to tell a great story. Our worms get a gourmet diet. The community garden gets amazing fertiliser. And local families get fresh veg that hasn't travelled further than the distance between Burton Road and Forever Fields on the back of a cargo bike.

If you're ever in Mercado Cafe, order an extra coffee, knowing that the grounds are going to a very good cause. The worms will thank you – though they'll probably be too jittery to sit still long enough to show it.

Fancy getting involved? Whether you're a local business with waste to share, or you just want to see this whole operation in action, get in touch. We'll show you the worm bins, the veg beds, and we'll even tell you which worms are which. Though to be honest, they all look the same to us.