Coffee alternatives: Start-ups claim beanless coffee more ethical
Start-ups launch drinks that look and taste like coffee but they say are better for the environment.
BEANLESS " COFFEE " ??
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Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker
Likes a fat handle in his hand
Coffee alternatives: Start-ups claim beanless coffee more ethical
Start-ups launch drinks that look and taste like coffee but they say are better for the environment.www.bbc.com
Coffee has been around since the 15th century. So there is going to be pretty big shoes to fill, if one wants to produce a coffee substitution, that tastes just as good, as well as including the caffeine energy kic, that commonly comes with normal coffee.
As with all startups, they have an equal 50% chance of failure, with up to a 50% chance of success. But as it is, I don't like to be the first guinny pig, to find that out. So I will other people test it out, and if they don't end up in the hospital, and they actually love it, I might try it out myself.
Thanks for sharing, sounds interesting.
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- #3
The first and last coffee " substitute " I tried was this one :
Looks like you tried it quite a while ago. Probably tastes just like it did when the jar was new.
O.H.
This irritates me more than it should probably. It is a coffee substitute. It's not like they produced coffee but then took the bean part of it out, debeaned coffee like decaffeinated coffee.
I'm fine with coffee-like beverages — I like chicory quite a bit for instance — but I wish they would just be more upfront about it and run with their own identity.
Thanks for sharing a very interesting post.
Now a commercial break for a small rant.
Reading between the lines of the article here's what I get. There've been variants of coffee substitutes, as duly noted by the Postum reference for several decades: if not quite a bit more. A small list of these you'll find across the world: Postum, Inka, Kaffree Roma, Cafix, Orzo Buono, Pero. All share similar ingredients: roasted grain (generally barley), chicory, dandelion root. The roasting of these bitter ingredients produces something akin to the roasted flavor of coffee. Having recently experimented with Pero, I can share, it is NOT coffee. It does not have a like mouth feel regardless of how much or little water one uses. The flavor is not that of coffee though it is roasted, bitter and enjoyable in its own right.
I needn't extol the virtues of well roasted, freshly ground coffee beans, turned into your morning cup o' joe: shout out to the fans of pour over!
The article noted an unnamed flavoring agent. While food science and chemistry are grand things, I've a very hard time imagining replicating the flavor of a truly fresh ground cup of coffee and its attendant mouth feel. It is near impossible to truly mimic the OG.
Espresso is a unique product in and of itself and getting it right with authentic ingredients is hard enough, but throw on top of that pulling a good shot from a science project seems a bit dubious to me. But alas, there are those who will drink the proverbial Kool Aid as it were and extol with high acclaim this seemingly revisited/reinvented not so new fangled thang.
The article also noted the issue of deforestation for the sake of coffee production...Save to say this is definitely a real thing and so also is the fact that commercially grown coffee is one of the most heavily sprayed crops in the agricultural world. On this point I can possibly see the value of a substitute.
On the flip however, the land needed to cultivate, grow and harvest the plant based ingredients for these substitute products will come from somewhere. Additionally, what savings is there regarding the energy necessary to harvest and process these earth grown ingredients to make the coffee substitute? And, if commercial agricultural means are used to produce the various ingredients, you still end up with heavily sprayed crops.
Like the Frankenveganmeat industry has fallen under considerable scrutiny and has tanked, one might foresee this type of product could quite easily find itself in a similar place a few years hence.
I'll continue to grind my organic decaf beans in my modified hand-powered "electric" coffee grinder, weigh out my grounds and water and use my electric kettle for a simple pour over brew.
Enjoy your cup of coffee in good health, the way you like to make it. Let's savor it while we still can.
Now a commercial break for a small rant.
Reading between the lines of the article here's what I get. There've been variants of coffee substitutes, as duly noted by the Postum reference for several decades: if not quite a bit more. A small list of these you'll find across the world: Postum, Inka, Kaffree Roma, Cafix, Orzo Buono, Pero. All share similar ingredients: roasted grain (generally barley), chicory, dandelion root. The roasting of these bitter ingredients produces something akin to the roasted flavor of coffee. Having recently experimented with Pero, I can share, it is NOT coffee. It does not have a like mouth feel regardless of how much or little water one uses. The flavor is not that of coffee though it is roasted, bitter and enjoyable in its own right.
I needn't extol the virtues of well roasted, freshly ground coffee beans, turned into your morning cup o' joe: shout out to the fans of pour over!
The article noted an unnamed flavoring agent. While food science and chemistry are grand things, I've a very hard time imagining replicating the flavor of a truly fresh ground cup of coffee and its attendant mouth feel. It is near impossible to truly mimic the OG.
Espresso is a unique product in and of itself and getting it right with authentic ingredients is hard enough, but throw on top of that pulling a good shot from a science project seems a bit dubious to me. But alas, there are those who will drink the proverbial Kool Aid as it were and extol with high acclaim this seemingly revisited/reinvented not so new fangled thang.
The article also noted the issue of deforestation for the sake of coffee production...Save to say this is definitely a real thing and so also is the fact that commercially grown coffee is one of the most heavily sprayed crops in the agricultural world. On this point I can possibly see the value of a substitute.
On the flip however, the land needed to cultivate, grow and harvest the plant based ingredients for these substitute products will come from somewhere. Additionally, what savings is there regarding the energy necessary to harvest and process these earth grown ingredients to make the coffee substitute? And, if commercial agricultural means are used to produce the various ingredients, you still end up with heavily sprayed crops.
Like the Frankenveganmeat industry has fallen under considerable scrutiny and has tanked, one might foresee this type of product could quite easily find itself in a similar place a few years hence.
I'll continue to grind my organic decaf beans in my modified hand-powered "electric" coffee grinder, weigh out my grounds and water and use my electric kettle for a simple pour over brew.
Enjoy your cup of coffee in good health, the way you like to make it. Let's savor it while we still can.
lasta
Blade Biter
I remember BBC used to employ some of the best writers around. Took 3 pages for them to reveal "flavoured date seeds".
Date palms are a lot less cultivated than coffee, I doubt the arable lands required for dates would satiate global coffee demand.
As for sustainability, people need oil and palm oil is one of the highest yielding forms available. IIRC, it's probably the same sustainahillbilies bad mouthing palm oil as though advocating for coffee substitutes.
Date palms are a lot less cultivated than coffee, I doubt the arable lands required for dates would satiate global coffee demand.
As for sustainability, people need oil and palm oil is one of the highest yielding forms available. IIRC, it's probably the same sustainahillbilies bad mouthing palm oil as though advocating for coffee substitutes.
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- #8
Like liquid Cream of Wheat !
Interesting, but I will keep my coffee. Reminds me of chicory my folks had tried when I was a kid.
And the caption of the second photo in the article, of course...
For the sake of accuracy: "date seeds, ramón seeds, sunflower seed extract, fructose, pea protein, millet, lemon, guava, fenugreek seeds, caffeine and baking soda".
For what it's worth, I did the math. Atomo's current production capacity would fulfil approximately 0.017% of the world's demand for coffee.
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- #11
For some unknown reason I always thought the Chok Full O' Nuts coffee was made with chicory , it wasn't and it has an interesting history which I am posting right now .
I finally read the full article. Interesting, but dubious in my opinion. As noted, it is a coffee substitute. They can be as offended as they want. Now, that doesn't mean I'd criticize anyone who likes it and decides to drink it instead of coffee. We all have our preferences. Also as noted, they use grains that have to be harvested. I don't know how well grains grow in places like Ethiopia, but if it isn't good, a lot of farmers could be put out of business. They may not make much, but it is far better than making nothing. Finally, I am not convinced they will ever be cheaper than the coffee I roast and brew at home. I don't buy fancy roasted beans unless I am traveling. The beans I roast on my own are anywhere from just under $4 per pound to $8 per pound. Even taking in the loss of weight when roasting, I'm still paying a top price of $9.44 per pound. My local roaster sells their cheapest coffee at $12 per pound.
