
Patented sustainable cellular agricultural technology from coffeesai now produces flavorful and aromatic coffee beans. Photo credit: coffeesai
Climate change is taking a massive toll on global coffee cultivation. The erratic climate phenomenon, labor challenges, declining soil health, decreasing suitable land for coffee cultivation, and highly complex supply chains make it increasingly difficult to produce coffee. According to FAO, 140 liters of water is required to grow, process, and transport enough beans for a single cup of coffee. Moreover, coffee production poses environmental challenges like biodiversity loss, deforestation, water pollution, agrochemical use, waste generation, and labor exploitation. In such times, cellular agriculture is a promising sustainable alternative to produce coffee.
Cells are the building blocks of all life, including coffee. After all, coffee comes from a plant, too. In recent times, cellular agriculture has made great strides in addressing the planet’s challenges, with path-breaking solutions potentially changing the course of human history. While cellular agriculture is usually associated with producing meat, dairy, and eggs, the technology now extends to many plant-based commodities, including coffee.
One such company doing an excellent job leveraging the power of cellular agriculture to produce high-quality coffee and offering sustainable alternatives for coffee production is coffeesai.
“Our parent company, Pluri, has developed this patented and validated 3D cell expansion technology for over two decades,” shares Ami Herman, CEO of coffeesai. “Originally developed for other applications, it has proven to be extremely efficient when it comes to serving cell-based coffee production needs.” With its proprietary 3D cell expansion technology, coffeesai uses plant leaves to efficiently produce coffee equivalent to 1,000 trees in just three weeks from a single cell batch. The resultant coffee delivers both quality and taste while substantially reducing the environmental footprint. Pluri – coffeesai’s parent company, confirms that producing coffee using their proprietary technology is projected to reduce water consumption by a whopping 98%.
“Cells from coffee plants are cultivated in a proprietary media in a bioreactor that mimics the original agricultural conditions within the plantations,” explains Ami. “When the cells reach a certain volume, they are removed from the bioreactor for drying, roasting, and brewing. The process is fully controlled and free of pesticides and fertilizers.”
But does the absence of natural environmental factors during the coffee’s gestation from blossom to fruit affect the flavor profile?
The coffeesai bioreactors mimic the cell source’s natural conditions using just the leaves and don’t need the whole plant for the process. The cutting-edge biotechnology at the core of coffeesai delivers sustainable coffee that offers great taste and quality.
“By maintaining a high level of process control, we achieve quality, uniformity, and consistency from batch to batch. In a bioreactor, all key parameters like temperature, pressure, oxygen level, pH, and others are easily programmable,” explains Ami.
“Even the caffeine level can be controlled. From decaf levels to levels closer to an arabica or a robusta can be obtained by tweaking the parameters,” he adds.
Coffeesai is currently optimizing its product. The proof of concept, which was conducted a few months ago, was highly successful, and work is being done to create an even richer and tastier cup of coffee without the entire year of climate uncertainties. The production scaling follows product optimization, fueled by the patented cell expansion platform.
“Harnessing advanced cellular agriculture technology to create new coffee experiences is our mission,” shares Ami. “The aim is not to replace existing coffee growers but rather to introduce a new method of production so everyone can benefit from it.”
The future of coffee is threatened, but replacing coffee producers completely with lab-grown coffee is not the way forward. Instead, a more sustainable and successful way would be to complement traditional coffee cultivation and offer customers choices as well as new experiences. The demand for coffee is growing exponentially, and conventional agriculture alone will not be able to keep up. Cellular agriculture startups like coffeesai could ease pressure on coffee farms globally while drastically reducing their environmental footprint.