What’s new: Bean-free coffee

It’s the age of alternatives. Throw a dart at any F&B category and you’re likely to hit someone working on an alternative for consumers who can’t/won’t have the OG. And coffee is no different. Wake up and smell the (beanless) coffee, folks! 

Atomo (Seattle, US) - Launched in 2019

The first of the lot, Atomo’s espresso is made from upcycled ingredients and farm-grown superfoods that are roasted and brewed. 

• Ingredients: Date pits, sunflower seeds, lemon, guava, millets, pea protein, fenugreek, ramon seeds, fructose, baking soda, and caffeine from green tea.

• Investment: Received a multimillion dollar investment from Suntory in December 2023. Previously raised $50 million.

• New Product: Launched Remix in June 2024, a blend of conventional and beanless coffee.

Northern Wonder (The Netherlands) - Launched in 2022

Northern Wonder makes its coffee-less coffee with ingredients that are specifically not from tropical regions. It currently has six products available in the market (three with caffeine and three without). 

• Ingredients: Lupin, chickpea, malted barley, chicory, fig, blackcurrant, natural flavoring, uses synthetic caffeine.

• Investment: Raised EUR1 million in 2022.

• Upcoming: Developing a cold brew and whole beans made from compressed ingredients.

Prefer (Singapore) - launched in 2023

Prefer focuses on affordability and ensuring their products are priced below traditional coffee.  

• Ingredients: Surplus bread, soybean pulp, and spent barley, all byproducts of food production sourced from local companies. 

• Investment: Received US$2 million in seed funding in early 2024.

• Standout feature: Customizable caffeine content 

• Upcoming: Canned coffee, instant coffee

Voyage Foods (California, US) - Launched in 2024

Voyage Foods, known for its nut-free nut spreads and cocoa-free chocolate, recently entered the bean-free coffee space. The coffee is said to be over 40% cheaper than traditional coffee.

• Ingredients: water, roasted chickpeas, rice hulls, caffeine from green tea, natural flavors.

• Market: Currently, only for foodservice and food manufacturing customers. 

Minus Coffee (California, US) - Not yet available 

Minus Coffee is made from roasted and ground-up pits, roots, and legumes (upcycled, of course!).

• Ingredients: Date seeds, chicory, sunflower seeds, carob, lentils, grape seeds, millet malt

• Investments: Amplifica Capital invested an undisclosed amount in July 2023. Previously raised seed funding of US$4.5 million. 

• Upcoming: The company’s beanless instant coffee is said to be coming soon, according to the website. 

Other solutions in the works

• French startup Amatera is going to the root of the issue and working on developing perennial coffee crops, with the resilience and yield of robusta and the taste of arabica.  

• Israeli biotech company Pluri is working on a lab-grown coffee, developed by extracting coffee cells from the plant’s beans and leaves. The company has said that it plans to spin out its coffee production as a new subsidiary. 

Like what you’re reading?

Why should we care?

Last week, we spoke with GourmetPro’s coffee expert Felipe Cabrera about the challenges the coffee industry faces, in particular higher-than-ever prices and supply issues. 

If you missed this, check out our conversation here. 

These issues can directly be linked back to climate change and its impact on coffee production, not to mention the fact that the demand for coffee is set to explode as traditional tea-drinking nations like China and India take to the beverage. 

• Animal products get a bad rep for their high greenhouse gas emissions, but somehow coffee gets a pass even though it is among the “gassiest” foods out there. 

• It’s also quite water intensive – it takes 140 liters of water to grow, process, and transport enough beans for one single cup of coffee. 

• Let’s also not forget the deforestation and human rights violations linked to coffee production. 

• By 2050, estimates suggest that half of the global land used to grow coffee could be unproductive due to climate change. 

All of these issues and more are driving the need for suitable coffee alternatives to satiate our thirst for the world’s favorite stimulant.

So, what’s next?

These coffee substitutes are still in their infancy and have a long way to go to be identical to real coffee. But they could become much more ingrained in our culinary kitty sooner than expected. 

And the use of these unconnected ingredients isn’t as out-there as it seems. Many of them have been used to make coffee substitutes during times when supply was not a sure thing (like during war time).

• So in the coming years, much like alternatives in other categories, we’ll see greater improvements in taste and aroma – there are some quibbles about taste currently, unsurprisingly. 

• What will be really interesting to see is how innovation in this space will evolve. The lack of a bean opens up a ton of opportunities in terms of the base ingredients used. There will be a lot more options featuring a much wider variety of upcycled ingredients, which would support other climate-friendly initiatives, like waste management.

• In addition, we might also see newer functional claims, like not causing acidity/heartburn and others.

What do GourmetPro experts have to say about the latest coffee trends? Check out their insights here.

Prefer’s focus on bean-free AND budget-friendly coffee: A chat with Jake Berber  

We spoke to Jake Berber, Co-founder and CEO of Prefer, to find out more about the alt-coffee market, the company’s strategy, challenges, and the exciting developments on the horizon for beanless coffee. Read on! 

GourmetPro: So, how big is the beanless coffee market right now? And how big could it actually become? 

Jake Berber: There is no beanless coffee market - our market is coffee..

While there isn't a market we solve a major problem for food and beverage businesses, and so we can work directly with them without really having to market bean-free or alternative coffee. We are speaking with some of the biggest FMCG companies to see how they can start to integrate Prefer into their products.

GourmetPro: Who are your main customers currently?

Jake: Our primary focus is B2B, supplying our ingredient technology to large CPG brands. However, as we scale up to meet their needs, we’re also launching our own products in parallel, like our bottled oat latte and an upcoming canned coffee. We’re also supplying coffee grounds to coffee shops for them to use in their espresso machines.

These initiatives serve as proof of concept for the large B2B players we aim to partner with, showing them that there’s a market for our products and that consumers are genuinely interested in our story and enjoy the product. This way, when we’re ready to scale to the level these big companies require, we can show them that the market is already de-risked.

GourmetPro: Have you faced any challenges or pushback in educating customers about your product?

Listen to Jake’s answer: 

GourmetPro: Who have been your stickiest customers?

Jake: Corporates have definitely been our stickiest customers. Since we’re a B2B company, we sell primarily to corporate food service providers. We’ve worked with corporates like Google and Meta. It’s been an easier sell to these clients because they’re actively looking for sustainable solutions. They have sustainability goals and shareholders to answer to, so they’re motivated to work with us. So far, corporates have been our most reliable and consistent clients.

GourmetPro: You use some unusual ingredients in your production process…  

Jake: Yes, we do. We use spent barley from breweries. We also use okara, which is a byproduct of soy milk production, and even unsold bread that’s sent back to the factory after a day on the shelves. Essentially, our products are made by upcycling byproducts from food production.

GourmetPro: Price is a major aspect of your proposition. Why is that so? 

Listen to Jake’s answer:

GourmetPro: Your product offers customizable caffeine levels. How has that been received, and how much can you customize? 

Jake: Customizing caffeine levels isn’t a new concept – soft drink and energy drink brands have been adding caffeine to their products based on customer demand for years. For us, this customizable option has been a valuable addition for the cafes we work with. 

The great thing about our product is that it’s naturally caffeine-free. This opens up the market to groups like pregnant women and children who typically avoid coffee because even decaf contains some small amounts of caffeine. With our product, these consumers can have a completely caffeine-free experience.

On the other hand, for those who want more caffeine, we can offer that too. For some people getting double the caffeine at the same price is a significant benefit. It really comes down to personal preference. So, whether you want double the caffeine or no caffeine at all, our product can meet that need.

We adapt to what our customers want. Although we don’t sell designed caffeine products to consumers, we do for our B2B partners. FMCG companies spend billions on understanding customer preferences, so we leverage their insights rather than trying to push our own ideas. If they suggest variations like 0%, 15%, or 30% caffeine, we can deliver that based on their needs.

GourmetPro: In countries like India, chicory is often added to coffee in different proportions, which could also be seen as a form of caffeine customization and cost reduction…  

Jake: Unfortunately, chicory is not as much of a cost reduction as it used to be. We’re currently testing if we can get more value out of chicory in a chicory-coffee blend, too. I think that we're just finding a way to unlock more affordable and more sustainable ways to get more out of the value of coffee.

GourmetPro: What’s next for Prefer?

Jake: We’re also working on turning our coffee grounds into instant coffee. This allows us to offer a more affordable instant coffee option to major FMCGs and CPG brands. They can blend it into their existing coffee products, reducing their cost and carbon footprint. The beauty is they maintain the same flavor, so the end consumer is happy. We’re calling this the “coffee extender”. Essentially, it lets companies use X% of our product to stretch their coffee supply without changing the taste. This is exciting for us because our discussions with big FMCG and CPG players aren’t about creating entirely new products; they’re about enhancing their current offerings.

Within Prefer’s brand, our next step is launching canned coffee. This move will allow us to significantly drop costs, extend shelf life to over a year, and allow for storage at room temperature. It opens up large-scale distribution opportunities in B2B2C, like HoReCa and food service. In addition, we can start to scale our retail presence, potentially through supermarkets and our own e-commerce sites. So, getting into cans really helps us with distribution and brand awareness.

GourmetPro: How do you see the market for bean-free coffee evolving over the next 10 years?

Jake: 

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