Wait For It ... Beanless Coffee

By reverse-engineering the coffee bean, Atomo has created a naturally-derived and sustainable coffee with the same caffeine you'd expect and no harsh acid or bitterness.

"The coffee industry is ripe for innovation and change. The acceptance of agriculture alternatives has been proven with meatless meats and dairy-free milks; we want to continue that movement in a category we feel passionate about, coffee."
"[With] reverse-engineered [ground coffee, Atomo aims to produce a more sustainable cup.] We will be a coffee that is around for the next hundred years."
Jarret Stopforth, chief scientist, co-founder, Atomo, Seattle, Washington

"We expect coffee growers to continue to grow coffee in established plantations, but we'd prefer they didn't continue deforestation to plant new crops."
"If you drink 1.5 cups of coffee a day, that equals 14 trees per year, just for  you. By reducing the need for new coffee plantations we can save the remaining forestlands."
Atomo FAQs 

"It’s [the new beanless coffee grounds] not going to be made out of peanut shells. What we’re really excited to do is find a material that we can upcycle — naturally occurring ingredient that is probably a spent item, that is usually thrown away from a different food process and give it life again."
"People’s coffee ritual is very important to them and it’s something they do every morning. And so we want to fit into that ritual, we want to be a part of that, and that’s why we’re coming up with the grounds. So they can just replace [their current coffee] one for one."
Andy Kleitsch, Atomo co-founder

Atomo Image

What an advertising bonanza...what a confluence of issues that a new start-up can utilize to showcase its green credentials! With greater numbers of coffee drinkers emerging year over year, facing climate change, and deforestation along with the struggle of coffee plantations to cope with the ravaging effects on crops of pests and disease, pressure has grown on coffee producers to meet market demand.


Kew researchers discovered earlier in the year that over 60 percent of the world's 124 wild coffee species are being threatened in the forests of Africa, Madagascar, Asia and Australia. The world's preferred bean, representing 60 percent of global product -- Coffee Arabica -- is among the endangered species, along with the other most commonly used bean, Robusta. Bean-free coffee to the rescue!

The ranks of milk-free dairy, plant-based meat and fishless fish has gained yet another companion food of irreproachable derivation; bean-free coffee. Atomo has appeared on the horizon as a new competitor in the world of coffee production, one to be taken seriously, given its green credentials. Billing themselves as "the world's first molecular coffee", the producer speaks enticingly of providing the caffeine of a regular cup of coffee without the bean and its inherent bitterness.

Now how intriguing is that? The company claims to have created its caffeine-rich, beanless-coffee product through adjusting "molecular flavour compounds, using naturally derived sustainable ingredients to produce the smoothest coffee, [the process eradicating harsh bitterness]". Now does that not sound like a formula for success? Would that not appeal to dedicated coffee drinkers around the world dependent on their morning rush?

Far less appealing, however, to the approximately one hundred million people working in the coffee production industry, living for the most part in tropical countries who rely on coffee for their livelihoods. Atomo is not blissfully ignorant of this situation, addressing it in their FAQs with the statement that it is not the company's intention to put farmers out of business, given its initiative in the production of bean-free coffee.

They do point out that one Arabica plant produces 455 grams (one pound) of coffee annually. With the growing demand for coffee, land is continually being cleared of their vital carbon-sink forests to make way for coffee crops. Think of it; daily consumption of a guilt-free coffee substitute that bills itself not as a substitute but an alternative that still promotes itself as genuine coffee whose grind can be used in the very same manner as coffee-coffee. Got that?

"I love coffee, but every day I was adding cream and sugar to mask coffee’s bitter flavor. By replicating the taste, aroma and mouthfeel of coffee, we’ve designed a better tasting coffee that’s also better for the environment", explains Stopforth. "I got all kinds of great ideas. I heard ideas around firefighting robots and all kinds of things. But Jarret said, ‘I want to make coffee without the bean.’ And that was just too good. It blew my mind", added tech veteran Andy Kleitsch, co-founder of Atomo.

Image credit: Atomo