STARBUCKS has brought a version of the charity scheme sweeping through Europe’s cafés and social media to Herefordshire’s coffee bars.

Starting as a traditional gesture of goodwill in Naples, cafe-goers could pay for a ‘suspended coffee’ along with their own order, to be drunk at any time by someone unable to afford their own hot drink.

Through Facebook the scheme spread with thousands of cafés signing up, and Starbucks announced this month that it would be the first multinational company to back the scheme – albeit a slightly modified version.

If you order a double espresso from their Hereford High Town branch – for example - you can buy an extra coffee and Starbucks will pay for a hot drink to be served at one of Christian charity Oasis’ community hubs.

While it loses some of the rustic charm of local cafés and communities supporting their neighbours, the scheme does mark a change for Starbucks, much maligned for recent allegations of tax-dodging.

And for the drinks’ recipients, like a wise man once said, “where there is tea, there is hope.”