This week The Grassy Hopper celebrated its first year in business. The start-up began its operations from its popular food truck in Ta'Xbiex, going on to open a second outlet in Valletta after just a few months.

With over 90% of start up businesses failing within the first year, The Grassy Hopper is a story of success for its 27 year old founder, Yasmin de Giorgio and her team. The business has become well known for its gourmet veggie burgers, compostable take-away packaging and its regular donations of left-over food to local charities.

"You could say that the first year of managing a start-up is a wild ride, with many new skills to be learnt and constant challenges being faced. But it is also an amazing experience and being a small company we are not only a very close team, but we also have an amazing relationship with our customers - who are our biggest support and inspiration" says Yasmin.

The company celebrated its birthday by launching a range of handmade mugs, with all proceeds being donated to charity.  The mugs have a range of slogans, one of them a play on one of their most unusual products - fresh wheatgrass, which they sell by the shot.

"I'd rather be someone's shot of wheatgrass, then everybody's cup of tea" says the mug, a slogan appropriate to this adventurous little start-up.

Visit The Grassy Hopper outlets in Ta'xbiex or Valletta to sample some of their tasty but healthy dishes. Or find out more from their website www.thegrassyhopper.com