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The tech world is dead set on remaking the rest of the world, and now they want to disrupt your cup of arabica.
Good luck with that, you might think.
After all, the world of upper coffee, with its epicurean quest for authenticity and flavor, will not be an easy target for the tech bros. Why re-engineer the arabica bean when mother nature has done such a good job already? What's the point of bean-less coffee?
Enter Atomo Coffee Inc., a Seattle-based startup that began as a Kickstarter project in 2019. On July 15, it finally released its first retail product, a line of ready-to-drink cold brew available in three flavors: Classic Black, Ultra Smooth and Oat Milk Latte, which are sold online for $5.00–$5.50 a can.
Around the same time, the company pocketed a new round of venture capital funding worth $49 million from some of the brains who backed the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger, meatless patties tasting so much like beef that they've become part of daily life for hundreds of thousands of people around the world in recent years.
Atomo stakes two bold claims: its product is better tasting and better for the planet. CEO and co-founder Andy Kleitsch has told the media that most consumers don't actually like the taste of coffee, and that's why they usually drown it in milk and sugar.
So Atomo "reverse-engineered" the coffee bean by identifying its flavor compounds and devising a patented process to derive the key ones from other crops like chicory root and upcycled crop by-products like watermelon seed and sunflower seed husk.
These "molecular" flavorings are added to Atomo's main solid ingredient: roasted date kernels. A dose of 84 milligrams of tea-derived caffeine is also added to each 8-ounce (225 ml) can, for a kick similar to the level in coffee. Future products will include roast ground coffee for brewing by pod and filter systems.
These are early days for a coffee made from date pits. But it's worth noting that arabica, too, is bean-less. It, too, is the seed of a fruit tree.
As for better flavor, various blind tastings by the University of Washington, CNBC and National Food Labs reportedly found that most panelists preferred Atomo's cold brew to competing products made from coffee.
Better for the planet? Atomo claims that global consumption of coffee is leading to loss of forest land, especially now that global warming is forcing farmers to move their crops to higher elevations. Moreover, they claim, Atomo takes 94% less water to produce and the process emits 93% less carbon, as certified by CarbonCloud, a Sweden-based consultancy.
It's also green because it involves upcycling agricultural by-products. Date seeds are left over from the pitting of dates that are sold whole or as paste. The seeds have long been used as livestock feed and soil fertilizer, but these uses have lower value than in a premium beverage like bean-less coffee.
"With Atomo in the hands of consumers, we are empowering them to drink coffee they love while making a choice to do something better for the planet every day," Kleitsch said.
Atomo's latest funding round included Horizons Ventures, the private investment fund of Li Ka-Shing; S2G Ventures, which specializes in food, agricultural and clean energy startups; and AgFunder, an agri-foodtech venture capital firm.
“The demand for coffee is increasing year over year with climate change significantly impacting the farming regions, which in turn will impact the consumer through price and availability,” said Rob Leclerc of AgFunder. “Breakthrough technologies pioneered by Atomo are going to be a part of the solution for future generations to be able continue enjoying their favorite brews.”
As the food and beverage industries confront challenges related to global warming, war and famine, it is worth paying attention to companies innovating products at the deep level of the compounds responsible for taste, aroma and nutrition. At least one other molecular coffee is on the way, by Voyage Foods, which like Atomo has been funded by Horizons Ventures.