Start-ups launch drinks that look and taste like coffee but they say are better for the environment.

I am in a high-end coffee shop in a tech-heavy area of San Francisco, staring suspiciously into a cup of espresso. This is no conventional coffee: it is made without using a single coffee bean.

It comes from Atomo, one of a band of alt-coffee start-ups hoping to revolutionise the world of brewed coffee.

“We take great offence when someone says that we’re a coffee substitute,” says Andy Kleitsch, the chief executive of Seattle based start-up Atomo, from whose pure, beanless ground product my espresso has been made.

Traditional coffee substitutes have a reputation for not tasting much like coffee and are usually caffeine-free.

However, the newcomers intend to replicate one of the world’s most popular beverages from taste, to caffeine punch, to drinking experience – and the first of this nascent industry’s beanless concoctions have begun to appear.

  • @snekerpimpEnglish
    23•6 months ago

    Atomo’s ingredients aren’t particularly high tech: date seeds, ramón seeds, sunflower seed extract, fructose, pea protein, millet, lemon, guava, fenugreek seeds, caffeine and baking soda.

    For those wondering.

    • CyborganismEnglish
      18•6 months ago

      So it’s a coffee alternative. Like chicory but with caffeine.

    • @rhandyrhoadsEnglish
      5•6 months ago

      I can’t help but wonder whether having 3 tropical plants involved is actually better than one.

    • @UnrepentantAlgebraEnglish
      2•6 months ago

      That is the ingredient list for their espresso. Weirdly enough, the coffee they sell is 50% real coffee grounds (per the ingredient list on their website). Kinda feels like cheating.

      • C A B B A G EEnglish
        1•3 months ago

        So is the idea to cheapen coffee given that the price of it is likely to increase with potential tariffs and climate change?

        Or is it just because?