There are many reasons to drink coffee. On the one hand, we have the energy boost that a cup of coffee gives us due to its caffeine content. On the other hand, the health benefits, something that is increasingly being studied and, in addition to debunking myths, allow us to know its influence on organs such as the kidneys. And, obviously, there is also the ritual when preparing coffee, those five or ten minutes of mental peace in which we are focused solely on its preparation.
However, to traditional coffees and specialty varieties, we may soon have to add a new type of coffee: coffee without… coffee. The reason is that there are companies that are developing this coffee without coffee beans and it is something that can not only revolutionize the daily cup, but also the environment and the coffee industry.
Alternative coffee. In recent years, alternatives to traditional food have become popular. We have fish without fish or meat without meat, which are ideal for vegan and vegetarian diets, as well as for those who have allergies or intolerances. And, in that same scenario, there is coffee. Atomo Coffee is a startup that has been trying to create coffee that is not coffee for a few years.
In an interview with Bloomberg in 2001, its co-founders said they liked to think of themselves as “the Tesla of coffee,” and basically what they combined were sunflower seed hulls and watermelon seeds that they put through a chemical process to produce molecules that mimicked both the taste and mouthfeel of coffee. And with added caffeine, too.
Coffee in danger of extinction? It’s easy to understand why there are animal product substitutes, sugar substitutes and lactose-free dairy products, but why create coffee without coffee? A few years ago, there were some reports indicating that 60% of coffee varieties were in danger of extinction. That’s true, but it was also alarmist. The reason is that this 60% includes wild coffee, which is not the kind we generally consume.
Arabica and Robusta varieties are the most popular (by a long way, by the way), these are the ones we grow the most and they are not the ones that are becoming extinct. It is true that climate change can displace coffee growing areas (we are seeing this in Europe, in fact), but traditional coffee is not in danger. For the moment.
EnvironmentAlthough Atomo has argued for environmental reasons with data that support its product, such as water use or polluting emissions in the coffee industry, there is a problem that is inherent to coffee: deforestation. Now it is something that is regulated much more – in some countries – but in some large plantations, especially in companies that are not specialised, land has been reclaimed from the forest to create coffee plantations.
A UN report concluded that since 1990, the world has lost 178 million hectares of forest. This is the equivalent of 3.5 times the size of Spain and the rate is about 10 million hectares lost per year. This is a general problem, not due to coffee cultivation, but coffee is contributing to the loss of forests. This does not happen in specialty forests, where coffee grows in the shade of trees, but it is a problem in the cultivation of more commercial coffee.
The process. Andy Kleitsch and Jarret Stopforth (the co-founders of Atomo) claimed that the result is a normal cup of coffee, indistinguishable from the real thing to the human eye. That’s one advantage, of course. The other is that, according to Atomo Coffee, the production of the bean-free coffee resulted in 93% fewer polluting emissions and 94% less water than in regular coffee production. The recipe is not easy to replicate at home:
- The jujube seeds are ground into very small pieces.
- They are soaked in a secret sauce with fructose, sunflower seeds, ramon seeds, pea protein, lemon, guava, fenugreek seeds and baking soda, among other things. That’s a lot of ingredients, yes.
- After a while, the mixture is dried and different degrees of heat are applied to create different flavours and aromas. Just like in the roasting process.
- Additional ingredients are added (not specified) and synthetic caffeine is added so that the caffeine content is similar to that of conventional coffee.
Okay, but… what about the taste? And, as science doesn’t do itself, the BBC has tested this coffee without coffee. In the most recent formula, Atomo uses jujube seeds, sunflower seed extract and the omnipresent pea protein. And the result, according to journalist Joey Corbin, who has tried this type of coffee, is… that “they taste similar to good coffee, in general.”
That doesn’t really tell us much, but one thing that is clear is that this is not a two-man madness, but rather an emerging industry. And no special machine is needed, as it is designed for machines with a pressure of 9 to 12 bars.
It is an industryIn Europe, we also have coffee-free coffee enthusiasts. One example is the Dutch startup Northern Wonder that already has coffee on supermarket shelves in the Netherlands and Switzerland. They use lupins, chickpeas, barley, chicory as some of their main ingredients, but they have other elements in the recipe that are, again, secret.
In addition, the raw materials can change as they experiment with new flavours, and there are also companies such as Prefer (from Singapore) or Minus (from San Francisco) that use other ingredients and methods. In fact, the door is not closed to coffee grown in a laboratory. For example, cells extracted from coffee plants are grown, fermented and roasted to directly produce a prepared coffee, although this cellular coffee still has research ahead of it.
Criticisms and challengesAtomo, with its California and Seattle facilities, produces about 1,800 tons a year. Starbucks buys about 362,873,896 tons annually, but if lab-grown coffee or coffee-free coffee becomes popular, there are fears that large and small plantations will suffer a crisis due to a decrease in demand. Everything will depend on whether the population accepts this coffee-free coffee, since it is not just the taste, but the health properties.
Moreover, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee is something that, according to the BBC reporter, they have not managed to replicate. For their part, Atomo and Northern are looking for partners and investors from the coffee industry, since their presence is limited and in exclusive locations. Atomo’s coffees, for example, are available in some coffee shops at a Price of $20.99 per half kilo, slightly more than the $10-14 for the same amount that is paid in the average coffee shop in the United States.
And Atomo is optimistic. Due to climate change, they say that “all major coffee producers will have a problem with availability in the next 20 or 30 years” and that they are trying to anticipate future demand from large coffee companies. We will see if this mix takes hold in the market.
Images | Atom
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