DC's Coffee Shops Offer Disloyalty Cards for Coffee Lovers who Seek out Local Cafes

Starting in the new year, Disloyalty cards will be available throughout the city of Washington, DC for local coffee shop customers to pick up and use when they buy coffee. This is a free program to participate in, just pick up a card at a participating shop. The premise is simple: instead of a loyalty card for one shop that offers a reward after several repeat visits, the disloyalty card rewards a local coffee lover who visits all six shops on the back of the card, collecting a stamp at each location. They can then return a completed card to a shop of their choice for a free coffee beverage.

Full instructions, explanation of the program and more on the Disloyalty philosophy can be found at the program's website: dcdisloyal.tumblr.com - which is also listed on the back of the card, along with the hashtag #dcdisloyal, participants can use when they share their Disloyalty adventures on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. 500 cards are available for pickup.

The program is a collaboration between Barista Guild of America member Dawn Shanks and fellow coffee professional Christy Pelton. Dawn organized the project and reached out to shops for participation, Christy-also a local graphic designer- designed the cards and set up the website. Baristas in DC already embrace the spirit of the program- they often visit different shops than their own to stay curious and visit friends who work behind other counters. The card program strives not only to encourage people to drink coffee at locally-owned shops, but also to get people to explore the city more through the neighborhoods each shop is in, making more of DC feel like home.

Coffee disloyalty programs have popped up in many cities over the past years - Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Atlanta have all had similar programs. The genesis of disloyalty cards was in 2010 in London, started by 2009 World Barista Champion Gwilym Davies.