‘Beanless Coffee’ Remarkably Like Your Daily Cuppa Is Brewing Behind The Scenes
Photo 4049393 © Elena Moiseevavia | Dreamstime.com
To a large group of workers and café-hoppers, a coffee a day is a must. However, with every buzz from java, coffee crop fields are being put to sleep. Statistics by Our World in Data say coffee ranks in sixth place for the most greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain.
If you ask us, giving up coffee is a virtually impossible task. Luckily, a new startup is working to ensure you can have your cuppa and drink it too. Compound Foods is approaching our coffee addiction differently by developing beanless coffee that tastes just like the real deal, according to TechCrunch.
The company, launched in 2020, was founded by Costa Rica-born, San Francisco-based coffee lover Maricel Saenz. Looking at her cultural flight path, it sounds like she knows her coffee. Backers trust this experience; Compound Foods amassed US$4.5 million at its last round of funding.
Compound Foods is taking this massive step because the more we drink coffee, the fewer places there are to grow it. Combined with rising temperatures and irregular rainfall, “the same crop can’t grow in the same place anymore, or it will be a lower-quality product,” she told TechCrunch.
To be able to feed the demand, Costa Rica farmers would have to shift higher up mountains to use untouched ground. “Experts predict that 50% of farmland will be unsuitable in the next couple of decades,” Saenz added.
The company is replicating the aroma and flavors of coffee by synthetically matching the molecules of real beans. It analyzes the core elements of coffee’s flavor profile and precisely recreates its biological makeup.
The technology of replicating flavors and textures of real food at a molecular level is slowly taking predominance. We’ve seen this with cocoa-free “chocolate” and “cow’s milk” without the cow.
Compound Foods’ “coffee” production techniques also heavily cut back on the amount of water required to grow coffee.
What’s worth noting is that beanless coffee can still be regarded as coffee, as, according to Saenz, coffee doesn’t have a regulatory definition.
Everyone likes their cup of Joe a little differently, so, in time, Compound Foods is hoping to replicate the brews of beans grown from different regions. There are the fruity notes of Costa Rica beans, and then there’s the chocolaty flavor of Brazilian coffee. All this is possible with biological matching.
Compound Foods stresses that it’s not looking to replace the entire coffee industry, but is simply looking to offer a more sustainable alternative. A soft launch for the beanless coffee is expected to take place later this year.
[via The Takeout and TechCrunch, cover photo 4049393 © Elena Moiseevavia | Dreamstime.com]
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