Beanless Coffee: Seattle-based startup, Atomo Coffee, takes innovative initiative to combat deforestation

Seattle-based startup, Atomo Coffee, is prepping to combat deforestation as they introduce a new "beanless coffee." Unlike regular coffee, Atomo's coffee grinds are made with a wide range of common and upcycled food sources to reduce the damage caused by coffee plantations across the world. These upcycled food sources include sunflower seed extract, Ramon seeds, and date seeds, among others.

Atomo is backed by several popular investors including some of the people behind Beyond Meat. The Seattle-based startup introduced a Beanless 'Ground Espresso' as its first coffee product at the New York Coffee Festival on Friday. The brand also has plans to offer sustainable coffee solutions to fans as it expands its portfolio to include other formats of coffee beverages in the near future.

The new Beanless Ground Espresso was launched last Friday at the New York Coffee Festival (Image via Atomo Coffee)

Coffee lovers looking forward to sampling the new 'beanless' Atomos Ground Espresso can find it at Gumption Coffee - Midtown at '106 W 45th St. New York.' As of now, the new coffee is only available at Gumption Coffee which is the exclusive launch partner for Atomo Coffee.

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Atomo Coffee aims at combating deforestation by making their coffee 'beanless'

Seattle's Atomo Coffee wants to combat deforestation caused by coffee plantations across the globe by going 'beanless.' The new-age startup is focusing on making its coffee by mimicking its flavor profile and molecular structure using upcycled ingredients and superfoods instead of real coffee beans.

Introduced last week, Atomo's Beanless Ground Espresso features ingredients like date seeds, ramon seeds, sunflower seed extract, fructose, pea protein, millet, lemon, guava, defatted fenugreek seeds, caffeine, and baking soda.

The regular coffee beans require specific climatic conditions and can only grow in select regions. However, the ingredients used in Atomo's coffee grinds are common in most parts of the world and are grown in surplus.

As such, Atomo Coffee can deliver the same delicious cup of coffee to fans every day while tackling the sustainability issues that have been plaguing the coffee industry at the same time.

However, that may not be the case for several other coffee businesses that rely on real coffee beans. This is because most of these beans come from commercial plantations across the globe which are often linked with serious cases of deforestation.

Reuters reported that coffee farms across the globe cause alarming rates of deforestation every year as they are forced to go uphill following the global change in climate temperature. As these farms move uphill for more favorable climatic conditions, the farmers have no options other than clearing several patches of forest in the way to clear farmlands for the coffee plantations.

Atomo Coffee aims to combat deforestation by switching to sustainable methods for producing the grinds for the caffeinated beverage (Image via Atomo Coffee)

Reports also suggest that things may only worsen in the future as over 50% of the land being used for growing coffee today won't be productive enough to support the coffee plantations.

While one or two startups like Atomos Coffee may not be enough to trigger a global change, they may inspire others so they can switch to sustainable methods along the way. Coffee lovers across the United States can also become a part of this journey by switching to sustainable coffee products.