A block away from the Starbucks on Seattle\u2019s busy Western Ave., a woman bends over a coffee grinder and a black kettle full of bubbling water sits on a hot plate. The air is thick with the roasty aroma of fresh-brewed java. The scene would be entirely unremarkable except for a few outstanding details. One, the woman is wearing a lab coat. Two, there\u2019s a steaming glass beaker instead of a mug. And three, not a single coffee bean was involved in making it.<\/p>\n
This is the office of food tech start-up Atomo Coffee Inc, where a team of food scientists and chemists led by friends and co-founders Andy Kleitsch and Jarret Stopforth are working on what they hope will be the successor to meatless meat, eggless eggs, and milkless milk.<\/p>\n
Atomo\u2019s coffeeless coffee is made from upcycled ingredients, e.g. sunflower seed husks and watermelon seeds, which undergo a patented chemical process to yield molecules that mimic the flavor and mouthfeel of the real thing. The resulting grounds are brewed just like a regular cup of coffee. And yes, it has caffeine.<\/p>\n
The $100 billion coffee industry is one of the world\u2019s most vulnerable to climate change. The plants that grow arabica beans\u2014the most common worldwide, favored by both coffee snobs and chains like Starbucks Corp.\u2014thrive in cool regions with distinct rainy and dry seasons. But global warming is causing those regions to shrink.<\/p>\n
Within the next seven decades, arabica is likely to lose at least 50% of its habitat, according to a 2019 report from scientists at Britain\u2019s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.<\/p>\n
As temperatures continue to rise and growers move their farms in search of cooler temperatures, rates of deforestation rise, as well.<\/p>\n
This is where Kleitsch and Stopforth are hoping to step in. After more than two years of development, they\u2019ll finally roll out their coffee this year, selling cans of cold brew. Eventually they plan to expand into instant, brew-at-home grounds and whole beans\u2014a roll-out strategy followed by one of the company\u2019s role models.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to think of ourselves as the Tesla of coffee,\u201d said Stopforth, who\u2019s spent the last two decades working in food science and development. Kleitsch, meanwhile, is a serial entrepreneur and former product manager at Amazon.com Inc.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore Tesla came along, if you wanted a luxurious, powerful vehicle that was detached from diesel and fuel, you had no option,\u201d Stopforth said. \u201cIn the same way, before Atomo, if you wanted coffee that wasn\u2019t linked to deforestation, you had no choice. Now you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
While there are numerous certifications available to show that products are sustainably sourced, the lack of a unified standard with transparent metrics leaves the door wide open for fraud from producers and mistrust from consumers. Investors with experience backing plant-based food tech are betting Atomo can fill that gap.<\/p>\n
The company has raised about $11.5 million in two rounds of funding since 2019, when it launched with a $25,000 Kickstarter campaign. Its backers now include Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures, which invested in Impossible Foods Inc, and S2G Ventures, whose portfolio includes Beyond Meat Inc.<\/p>\n
Plant-based foods are a high-growth category, and not just for start-ups. Nestle SA, for instance, is rolling out everything from vegan chocolates to sausage substitutes; fast food giant McDonald\u2019s Corp. is doing a trial run of its first meat-free McPlant burger in Europe, developed with Beyond Meat; and even America\u2019s biggest meat company, Tyson Foods Inc., unveiled a line of 100% vegan meat products in May, including ground \u201cbeef\u201d and multiple varieties of \u201csausage.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, coffee is an especially tricky market. For one, many people have a more intimate connection with coffee than with other food products, even such iconic items as ice cream and hamburgers. For another, coffee culture varies dramatically region to region\u2014the name Atomo, Italian for \u2018atom,\u2019 is an homage to that country\u2019s espresso bars.<\/p>\n
Even plant-based alternatives that have already amassed major market share are facing a potential regulatory challenge emanating from traditional producers who aren\u2019t willing to give up their exclusive claims to \u201cmeat\u201d and \u201cmilk\u201d so easily. Vegan food-makers say the meat and dairy industry is marshaling scientists and lobbyists to defend their turf by pushing to restrict the labelling of \u201cmilks\u201d and \u201cmeats\u201d strictly to products derived from animals.<\/p>\n
One advantage Atomo has over these businesses is that, unlike meat and dairy, coffee doesn\u2019t have a standard of identity regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. This means it doesn\u2019t have to come from a particular place, or even a particular plant, said Kleitsch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe anticipate there will be legal challenges around the naming of our coffee,\u201d he said, but that won\u2019t stop them from labelling it as such. \u201cWe are challenging norms and disrupting big giants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kleitsch and Stopforth are trying to form partnerships with high-end coffee shops, particularly ones interested in reducing their carbon footprint. Whether those come together will depend on how quickly the food service industry bounces back from Covid-19.<\/p>\n
Any level of success, of course, is predicated on the answer to a single question: does Atomo\u2019s coffeeless coffee actually taste good? While the cold brew lacks some of the bitterness one might expect from a cup of traditional coffee, it\u2019s refreshingly smooth with a lingering sweetness on the palate.<\/p>\n
Dani Cone, the fourth-generation owner of local Seattle grocery chain Cone and Steiner, is in talks to become one of Atomo\u2019s first retail partners. Having been in the coffee industry for three decades and spent the last fifteen years running a coffee shop in Seattle, she admits to being skeptical about Atomo\u2019s molecular coffee initially.<\/p>\n
But once she tasted it, she was convinced, said Cone, who met Kleitsch when they attended mentoring sessions at a business school.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with any new product like this, there will be a curve of consumer education, just like it was for me,\u201d Cone said. But she\u2019s confident Atomo will reach its niche market of busy, environment-conscious people looking for ready-to-drink coffee-like beverages.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the same way that bottled frappuccino opened up a new category of coffee,\u201d Cone said, \u201cthis too capitalizes on a super-hot category.\u201d<\/p>\n