Coffee without the bean, and Coffee without the bitterness. Imagine not having to add sugar and cream and still being able to enjoy a cup of coffee without the bitter taste. Yes, you heard it right. Food Science is evolving fast. We are hearing so much about the overexpanding range of foods such as plant-based meat and dairy, the never melting ice cream, and so on. So is asking for coffee without the bitter taste too much to ask for? Well, the scientists at Atomo coffee don’t think so.
Before going on to how to eliminate the bean from the product let’s take a look at the product itself. For most of us, mornings start with a cup of coffee. The refreshing smell and taste of coffee on our tongues wake us up and get us going for the rest of the day. Coffee is basically a black liquid containing a whole lot of volatiles and non-volatiles within it which gives rise to its aroma, taste, body, color, and caffeine. So, if somehow we could map all of this volatiles and non-volatiles, we would have the same coffee characteristics which would be imparted by a bean of coffee. However, this process is made much more complex due to the presence of more than 800 compounds present in coffee which impart it its sensory properties
Also, another major factor to encourage this amazing innovation is the fact that coffee plantation is onto the way for extinction. As much as 60 percent of wild coffee might become extinct, according to a 2019 study(2). Labour issues and High costs of coffee are also a major factor. So, when Atomo offers that it could bring the price of a cup of coffee to less than 40 cents a cup, it couldn’t be the worst thing in the world to count on for this cup of coffee.
The Scientists at Atomo Coffee reverse-engineered coffee. They picked out the top 5 characteristics they needed to achieve, namely aroma, taste, body, color, and caffeine- THE BIG 5. For aroma, they picked out from the diverse range of sustainable plants some compounds that could produce the same aroma like that of a heavenly cup of coffee when reacted together. When you drink coffee, the organic acids, oils, proteins, and polymers produce a velvety sensation on your tongue. However, it is not quite difficult to find these compounds in other plant materials too. So, with a series of experiments, the mouthfeel was achieved. It is well known that the color of the coffee primarily depends on the roasting and brewing processes. The color was replicated from pigments of natural ingredients. The major advantage of this ‘molecular coffee’ however comes in the taste and caffeine section. The exact taste of coffee was extracted from sustainable options keeping the bitter-tasting compounds out of it. Likewise, caffeine is found in tea, cacao, and kola nuts to name a few. Not only could caffeine be added to your cup of coffee, but it could be controlled from in between 0-300 mg per cup.
To put it in simple words, one cup of coffee was mapped for its most essential compounds and replaced with other sustainable as well as natural options such that one couldn’t tell both of the coffees apart. Atomo Coffee conducted a trial at the University of Washington where 21 people selected Atomo’s molecular coffee over regular coffee and 9 people selected the regular one.
One important feature they have kept in mind while reverse-engineering coffee is that they have gone for ground coffee instead of powder to keep the traditions of brewing a hot cup of coffee alive. For this, they would also need an inert material to hold on to all the flavor and aroma compounds, but which could also release them when steeped in hot water(4).
You could get into this experience of coffee before it launches into the market by joining their Kickstarter campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kleitsch/atomo-we-hacked-the-coffee-bean-invented-molecular. They planned to raise 10,000$ on this campaign, and here they are at more than 25,000$ already. This says a lot about the support they have gained worldwide.
So, are you ready for this beanless coffee yet, or as they call it - ‘The Molecular Coffee’ ?
References
2. This “Molecular Coffee” is Brewed Entirely Without Beans, But it's unclear what it's actually made of, Victor Tangermann, Futurism.com
3. Goodbye Beans, Hello Molecular Coffee, Abbey, www.medium.com
4. This Startup Created Coffee That Doesn’t Use Any Bean, Mike Pomranz, www.foodandwine.com
5. Photograph by https://www.omsphoto.com/blog/photographing-coffee-with-a-pro/
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