Did you know, if you drink 1.5 cups of Arabica coffee per day that equals to 14 trees per year just for you? Overall, the whole world drinks 2.25 billion cups of coffee every day. It takes a lot of trees to provide all those coffees! All this coffee consumption is causing massive deforestation worldwide. Coffee only grows well in tropical regions which is where all the rainforests are. All those fires happening in the Amazon… many of them are probably for coffee.
What’s more, climate change is endangering coffee beans. Rising temperatures cause the fruit of the coffee trees to ripen too quickly, which halts the development of the beans inside, sacrificing their wonderful flavors and aromas. In other words, climate change is depleting the quality of the brewed cup of coffee. This is a major factor in why coffee is so bitter.
Bitter No More
This bitterness is what led food scientist Jarret Stopforth to create Atomo, a synthetic coffee – a molecular coffee that is reconstructed to the full flavor profile of a slow ripen bean, eliminating bitterness and harsh acids. “I started thinking, we have to be able to break coffee down to its core components and look at how to optimize it,” he explained.
Not only does it taste better, but it’s also better for the environment as it doesn’t require deforestation. Stopforth said:
As we got deeper into the process, we learned more about the threats to the coffee world as a whole — threats to the environment from deforestation, global warming and [a devastating fungus called] rust, and we were even more committed to making a consistently great coffee that was also better for the environment.
Coffee Is Nothing But Molecules
Coffee is nothing but a complex drink composed of upwards of a thousand compounds. Knowing this, Stopforth and cofounder Andy Kleitsch turned a garage into a lab and spent months dissecting those compounds to learn about their role in coffee’s flavor, aroma and feel. The result – an artificial coffee that improves on the flavor of natural coffee, but doesn’t harm the environment or exploit people. It’s a sustainable and ethical solution to a pressing problem. As a bonus, it’s healthier too because it’s so tasty, you can easily drink it black!
Atomo writes on its website:
To some it is an experience. To others it is the magical bean juice that makes life doable in the mornings. But when you really get down to the technicality of it, coffee is a liquid beverage made up of hundreds of chemical compounds which can be broken down into categories such as aromatics, flavors, acids, alcohols and more. The chemical composition is unique in itself in that even though there are similarities across coffee varietals, coffees from individual regions around the world have a slightly different chemical makeup.
Stopforth said:
By evaluating the individual compounds in coffee we were able to map the most significant ones contributing to the characteristic aroma and flavor of coffee.
The Future Of Coffee Is Uncertain
The amount of land suitable for growing coffee is expected to shrink by an estimated 50% by 2050, according to a report by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, so the future of coffee is uncertain. Atomo is reliable.
You may be wondering what Atomo will be like. It will be seemingly the same as traditional coffee from beans. Meaning, it will be coffee grinds you can brew in your machine. Kleitsch says:
We wanted to maintain the ritual component of coffee, of waking up in the morning and putting grounds into the coffeemaker, and we wanted to replicate that scoop for scoop.
Better Coffee For A Better World
Their vision is to provide better coffee that is better for the environment and accessible. Meaning, they want to sell great coffee for a cheaper price while helping the planet at the same time. Atomo strives to be a part of the coffee community, and a choice for eco-friendly people, and coffee connoisseurs alike. The company does not wish to replace coffee as people know it. It just wants to offer people a choice that doesn’t cause deforestation and is affordable, sustainable, and scalable.
The team is confident that it’ll have their still-in-development beanless coffee on the market in 2020.
