[imagesource: Atomo Coffee Inc.]

Tesla has done just fine over the past few years, so if you’re calling yourself ‘the Tesla of coffee’ you better deliver the goods.

Andy Kleitsch and Jarret Stopforth, the co-founders of Atomo Coffee Inc., certainly believe their company can, and they have some very big dreams.

The food tech start-up, reports Bloomberg, hopes to produce “the successor to meatless meat, eggless eggs, and milkless milk”.

Introducing – wait for it – ‘coffeeless coffee’:

Atomo’s coffeeless coffee is made from upcycled ingredients, e.g. sunflower seed husks and watermelon seeds, which undergo a patented chemical process to yield molecules that mimic the flavor and mouthfeel of the real thing.

The resulting grounds are brewed just like a regular cup of coffee. And yes, it has caffeine…

After more than two years of development, they’ll finally roll out their coffee this year, selling cans of cold brew. Eventually they plan to expand into instant, brew-at-home grounds and whole beans—a roll-out strategy followed by one of the company’s role models.

I already have my favourite cold brew sorted, thank you very much, with a range of uniquely South African flavours.

It’s Stopforth who says “we like to think of ourselves as the Tesla of coffee,” and let’s give him a chance to explain.

The world’s coffee industry is very vulnerable to climate change, and plants that grow Arabica beans, the most common worldwide, thrive in cooler regions:

But global warming is causing those regions to shrink. Within the next seven decades, arabica is likely to lose at least 50% of its habitat…As temperatures continue to rise and growers move their farms in search of cooler temperatures, rates of deforestation rise, as well…

Image: Atomo Coffee Inc.

“Before Tesla came along, if you wanted a luxurious, powerful vehicle that was detached from diesel and fuel, you had no option,” Stopforth said. “In the same way, before Atomo, if you wanted coffee that wasn’t linked to deforestation, you had no choice. Now you do.”

As things stand, Atomo, which derives its name from the Italian word for ‘atom’, has raised around $11,5 million in two rounds of funding since 2019.

Atomo is talking about rolling out ‘coffeeless coffee’ later this year, and it may be a while before it is widely available, but there are South African companies leading the charge on environmentally friendly and eco-conscious coffees.

Terbodore Coffee Roasters, for example, has teamed up with producers in the beautiful Mt Elgon region of Uganda to source Pura Cepa Fermentation coffee from the Buzibiti Washing Station, as part of a great green coffee innovation programme being done in the area.

Farmers receive higher premiums, and producer communities receive higher education, land-floor regeneration, and other benefits.

The end product, available to order now, offers tropical, vibrant flavours.

Terbodore’s coffee pods are also 100% biodegradable, biobased, and guaranteed to degrade in 14 to 16 weeks, whereas the average pod can take up to 300 years to degrade.

Finally, they’ve recently released a new range of 100% plant-based recyclable packaging, as well as a Revival blend, where a percentage of your purchase will be donated to local community initiatives.

There’s even a special running until the end of May:

I’m not quite sure I’m ready to make the switch to ‘coffeeless coffee’, but I am far happier spending my monthly coffee budget with a brand that I know priorities environmental concerns.

It doesn’t hurt that Terbodore’s goodies are helluva tasty, either.

[source:bloomberg]