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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

coffee

Initiative Backed by Starbucks, McDonald’s Begins Testing Waste-Free Cups in the Bay Area

As a planet we produce the astounding 264 billion paper cups per year. Some of them are recyclable, some aren’t — but no matter their label, the vast majority end up in landfills because of an inner plastic inner lining which make the cups tricky to actually recycle.

That overwhelming amounts of coffee cup waste is the target of the NextGen Cup Challenge, a global competition to create a scalable zero waste cup solution. It’s the first project from the NextGen Consortium, an initiative aimed at reducing food packaging waste that’s managed by Closed Loop Partners as well as big-name food corporations like Starbucks, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and others (h/t Nation’s Restaurant News).

The 12 winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge were selected last year, and this week they’re beginning to roll out their cup solutions in participating cafés in the Bay Area. In San Francisco and Paolo Alto, coffee shops will be testing out reusable cups tricked out with chips and tracking codes. Once they’re done with their drink, customers can return their smart cup to any participating café or other designated drop off points. After that, NextGen will collect and sanitize the cups, then re-send them back out into circulation. San Francisco shops will use cups designed by Indonesia-based returnable packing service Muuse, and those in Paolo Alto will feature cups made by British startup CupClub.

In March, cafés in Oakland will start piloting their own waste-free cup solution. Instead of reusable cups, participating cafés will use fully recyclable single-use cups — that is, cups that don’t have pesky plastic liners, which sometimes make other “recyclable” cups difficult to actually, well, recycle.

Even though big chains aren’t using sustainable cups yet, this a still big step for the NextGen Cup Challenge. Launching in small, local cafés is an important proof of concept, as well as an opportunity to see which type of waste-free cup is the easiest to implement and most popular with consumers. The end goal is to roll out the most successful solution on a large scale — to national chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks.

NextGen Cup Challenge isn’t the only group out there fighting coffee cup waste. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Nestle-owned chain Blue Bottle is also testing a zero-single-use-cup program (featuring reusable cups) as part of their initiative to go waste-free by the end of this year.

Back in January, my colleague Jenn Marston predicted that 2020 could well be the year of the waste-free coffee shop. With NextGen Cup Challenge, a project backed by industry giants, finally starting to take off, there’s a chance that might actually happen.

Delays of MoJoe’s Travel Coffee Brewer Leaves Backers Feeling Cold

After posting a video interview with MoJoe Brewing last night about the company’s travel coffee brewer, we received a tip from a reader that the track record for the product is actually not so hot.

What didn’t come up in my interview with MoJoe was that the product was actually crowdfunded on Kickstarter. And like so many crowd-backed products we’ve covered, the MoJoe is late on delivering to its backers. Like, really late: four years at this point.

As a refresher, the MoJoe Brewer is a travel mug that you plug into a wall outlet or a car port to heat water, brew and enjoy coffee. According to the MoJoe Kickstarter campaign page, early backers could pick one up with a $79 pledge and expect to receive their brewer in May of 2016.

MoJoe raised $85,860 from 728 backers on Kickstarter. The company was also part of the 2019 cohort of the Accelerate Baltimore program, which says it offers a 13-week program along with $25,000 in seed funding.

Despite this, the MoJoe still hasn’t shipped. In my video interview, MoJoe Brewing Founder and CEO Joseph Hyman said that the company expected to ship in the second half of this year. But even that doesn’t seem to be a lock, with money still being an issue. In a follow up Linkedin exchange, Hyman wrote to me saying:

We have raised enough to get through plastic mold manufacturing, but need to close the round to get through product manufacturing and delivery.

Several issues pushed production: first some usability designs, then failed manufacturing molds, and then finally tariffs caused us to have to change manufacturers.

The round he’s referring to is a $500,000 seed round the company is currently trying to close. It sounds like if the round doesn’t close, the MoJoe might not ever make it to market. And even if the company does close a seed round, who knows what problems might arise in the move to mass production that could cost even more time and money?

All of the delays and the precarious position MoJoe now finds itself in has backers who plunked down money understandably upset. Part of their ire may have been the fact that MoJoe has not updated its Kickstarter campaign page since Jan. 2019. Our tipster told me that direct emails sent to the company have gone unanswered.

Backers will forgive a lot if the company running the campaign is transparent and honest, but a lack of communication brings distrust and breeds conspiracy theories. Just ask they guy behind the Rite Press.

Perhaps MoJoe is catching on. On its website (which still lists 2019 as the ship date), MoJoe posted an update this month on its corporate blog stating:

We’re making big changes in order to ramp up communication and operations around product delivery; we’re solidifying partnerships to make sure our manufacturing and product rollout run smoothly

MoJoe joins a long list of companies that discovered making crowdfunded hardware is hard. Hopefully MoJoe can right its ship and deliver the morning joe to to all of its backers.

Video: The MoJoe Brews Your Morning Joe on the Go

You know what is usually not great? Hotel coffee. You know what would be great? A convenient way to brew your own coffee easily and without out muss or fuss right there in your room.

That’s part of the pitch, anyway, for the MoJoe Mobile Brewer. Developed by MoJoe Brewing (and winner of the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit Excellence in Design award!), it’s a coffee brewer-plus-travel mug that you plug into a wall or your car’s power port. Inside, a chamber brings water up to temperature before running it through a separate chamber that holds the grounds.

The result? A hot cup of coffee made right there on the spot, even if that spot is inside your moving car or hotel room.

Joseph Hyman, Co-Founder and CEO of MoJoe Brewing, brought his brewer to our recent Food Tech Live show in Las Vegas, where he showed off the device for us in this quick video interview.

If you’re interested in grabbing your own cup o’ MoJoe, it will be out in the second half of this year and cost $159.

Meet MoJoe, the On-The-Go Coffee Maker

Video: See the Terra-Kaffe TK-01 High-End, All-in-One Coffee Maker in Action

There is no shortage of machines and methods that promise to make you a better cup of coffee. But one that stands out for us here at The Spoon is the Terra-Kaffe TK-01.

This beautifully designed all-in-one machine holds your beans, grinds them to the right degree, extracts your coffee and froths your milk — all with the push of the button.

There are a few features on the Terra-Kaffe that we really appreciate. First, all the controls are on the device itself, so there is no app to download and account to create before you use it. Second, no pods — just pour in your coffee. Finally, you can add whatever coffee you like. You don’t need to go through a Terra-Kaffe marketplace to get your beans.

Oh, one more thing we like about the TK-01? It’s shipping right now. There’s no backlog, no wait. I mean, the TK-01 isn’t cheap, it costs $775. But can you put a price on your morning caffeination? Check out this video with Terra-Kaffe’s Founder and CEO Sahand Dilmaghani to see the TK-01 brew up a cup of coffee.

CES 2020: A Look at the Terra Kaffe TK-01

SpaceX is Flying Coffee and Hemp Plants into Outer Space

Will coffee beans grown in the endless expanse of outer space taste any different? We’ll soon find out.

Colorado-based agricultural company Front Range Biosciences is partnering with SpaceCells USA Inc. and BioServe Space Technologies to send plant tissue culture from coffee and hemp up into Outer Space next year. The 480 samples will be packed aboard a March 2020 SpaceX cargo flight and remain in space for 30 days.

According to a press release, the purpose of this inter-space journey is to see how the cultures will (or won’t) mutate in zero-gravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Scientists will track whether any mutations will stick once the plants are brought back down to earth.

This will be one of the first times that a company gathers data on the effects of space travel on hemp and coffee cell cultures. Through the experiment, Front Range Biosciences hopes to learn more about how plants can adapt to climate change.

Coffee especially is a temperamental crop and threatened by more extreme weather conditions, like rising temperatures and drought, caused by climate change. To combat that companies are experimenting with new techniques to create more resistant coffee crops, from CRISPR gene editing to, apparently, space mutations.

The Colorado company may be the first to do concrete data on hemp and coffee plants in outer space, but Front Range Biosciences is far from the first company to launch food into zero-gravity conditions. Earlier this year Dubai startup Space Roasters claimed it would create optimal java by roasting beans in space, but now its website is an unrelated roasting blog, so I’m guessing that… didn’t work out. Japan’s Space Food X has an entire initiative figuring out how to feed people in zero gravity. And just last month a dozen bottles of Bordeaux were sent to the ISS for twelve months of intergalactic aging.

It’s still early days in the field of space agricultural experimentation, and Front Range Biosciences is just beginning its intergalactic plant tissue tests. But I for one can’t wait to sample a cup of joe made from interstellar beans. Far out.

Cafe X to Open its Robot Barista at SFO on Dec. 23

Good news for fans of robots and coffee who are flying either to or from San Francisco’s SFO airport! On Monday, December 23, Cafe X is opening up its latest robot barista location there.

Cafe X’s SFO robot is located in Terminal 3 near Boarding Area E and is the second airport for Cafe X, following the company’s launch at the San Jose Airport earlier this month. Both airport locations sport Cafe X’s new robot design which has three larger pickup windows, an expanded menu, and the ability to make up to six drinks at a time.

Though Cafe Xs typically have a human on hand to help with customer service, the company is in the process of getting its robot designated as a vending machine. This will allow the robot to operate without a human on hand and thus be easier to serve drinks at all hours of the day and night.

Busy travelers will be getting their cups of coffee from even more robots in the coming new year. Elsewhere in Terminal 3 at SFO is Briggo’s robotic Coffee Haus, which also has two locations at the Austin-Bergstrom airport. And Briggo has also partnered with SSP America to open up an additional 25 airport locations over the next two years.

If any avid Spoon readers are flying through SFO next week, stop by one or both of these robo-barista and let us know how you like them!

COFFEEJACK, the Handheld Espresso Maker, Crowdfunds $1.1M on Kickstarter

Last week on The Spoon Editorial podcast, Head Editor Chris Albrecht discussed his recent look back at food- and drink-related crowdfunding successes and failures of 2019. He noted that some of the biggest success stories from the year were around gadgets geared towards two beverages: beer and coffee.

When it comes to the COFFEEJACK, that analysis seems accurate. The product, from Bristol, UK-based company HRIBARCAIN, launched a $13,081 Kickstarter for its single-serve portable espresso maker back in October. As of this writing, the campaign has raised over $1,093,000.

The COFFEEJACK is a handheld device that brews a single serving of espresso directly into your cup. Put finely-ground coffee beans in the base, fill it with hot water, and press the pump a few times to get a DIY espresso.

COFFEEJACK’s co-founders Ashley Hribar-Green and Matthew Cain (Get it? HRIBARCAIN!) met when they were engineers working on the cordless vacuum at tech company Dyson. They began developing an idea for an affordable portable espresso machine three years ago. Almost 400 prototypes later, they filed a patent on the current COFFEEJACK device, which creates high-pressure coffee extraction without the use of pods, filters or electricity.

As a one-time barista, I know that making espresso is far more difficult than, say, brewing up some joe in a french press. The key is to apply the exact right amount of pressure on the beans to extract all of the flavors. Cain told me that most espresso makers rely on air to create said pressure, which is why they’re often large and heavy. COFFEEJACK, however, relies on hydraulics to exert the necessary pressure, which requires far less space. That’s how the engineers came to develop a portable espresso maker small enough to hold in your hand, but forceful enough to extract an optimal shot.

Traditional espresso makers are not just unwieldy — they’re also expensive. An average home espresso maker — a real espresso maker, not the stovetop kind which essentially makes concentrated brewed coffee — will set you back around $500. By contrast, prospective backers can pre-order a COFFEEJACK for £70 ( around $91 USD). That’s on par with other handheld espresso makers on the market, though COFFEJACK’s founders told me their machine’s hydraulic extraction made it stand out from the rest.

Hribar-Green and Cain haven’t decided how much the device will cost once it hits the market. They expect to sell the COFFEEJACK both through traditional brick and mortar retail partners and online through their website. 

If you missed out on the COFFEEJACK Kickstarter campaign but really want a handheld espresso maker, don’t panic. HRIBARCAIN plans to keep the crowdfunding a-rollin’ with a six-month IndieGoGo campaign, launching soon.

The COFFEEJACK is set to ship in May of 2020. As always with crowdfunded hardware, there’s no way to guarantee that you’ll actually get your hands on the thing you forked over money for. However, HRIBARCAIN already has two successful Kickstarter campaigns under their belt, for a magnetically controlled pen and pencil, both of which are still shipping today. So the pair clearly has at least some experience with the hardware crowdfunding world. 

One thing I personally like about the COFFEEJACK is how it cuts down on coffee waste. Keurig and Nespresso machines rely on tons of disposable pods to make espresso. While some of those pods can technically be recycled, they usually end up in landfills. COFFEEJACK isn’t reliant on pods or even filters, so it’s relatively waste-free.

HRIBARCAIN is based in the U.K., but they plan to ship COFFEEJACK globally. Down the road, Cain told me they would probably focus on the U.S., since Americans have, in his words, a “real appreciation for gadgets and great coffee.”

At least when it comes to crowdfunding projects, he’s got a point.

Kickstarter: Fellow Launches Campaign for New Ode Brew Grinder

Fellow, the company behind the Stagg EKG Kettle, today announced their latest product, the Ode Brew Grinder. The company launched the Ode on Kickstarter, where it is looking to raise $200,000 to fund its production. UPDATE: In mere hours, the Ode campaign has already exceeded it’s $200,000 goal.

This is not your grandpa’s coffee grinder. Fellow, which is known for its high-end design (and high price tags!), is going after hardcore coffee connoisseurs. The Ode grinder features 64 mm flat burrs, 31 grind settings, a magnetically aligned cup catch, a knocker to shake out grind remnants and an auto-stop direct drive motor.

What’s also notable about the Ode is what’s not there, namely a hopper on top to hold a bag’s worth o’ beans. For Fellow, this is definitely a feature not a bug, as it refers to the lack of bean storage as “single dose loading” of coffee beans, and it says the lack of hopper allows it to grind quietly (something I would gladly pay handsomely for as our grinder wakes up the whole house).

All of this high-tech coffee wizardry doesn’t come cheap, however. Super early backers can pick up an Ode for $219, with the device shipping in July of 2020. Those that don’t want to risk crowdfunding will pay $299 at retail.

This is the part of any Kickstarter story where we write about how you should proceed with caution when backing any crowdfunded hardware. Caveat emptor applies here as well, though Fellow has a proven track record of getting products to market (like the aforementioned Stagg), so that makeS shelling out for the Ode a little less of a grind.

Cafe X Opens New Version of its Robot Barista in San Jose Airport

If you flew into/out of the San Jose Airport over the past Thanksgiving holiday — bummer! You just missed having a robot make and serve you a latte. Cafe X announced today that its latest automated coffee kiosk is now open for business at the San Jose Airport (SJC).

This is the fourth Cafe X location to open in the Bay Area and SJC is the company’s first airport location (the opening of Cafe X at the San Francisco airport has been delayed due to airport construction).

This also marks the release of a new version of the Cafe X robot that was built in-house and features larger pickup windows, an expanded menu (the robot can now make 6 drinks at a time including four from different taps) and an designated area that can be used for different modules like pastry shelves in the future.

With high volumes of people needing their caffeine fix in a hurry, airports are prime locations for coffee robots like Cafe X’s. The autonomous articulating arm can consistently and quickly make drinks all day without needing to take a break. Cafe X rival Briggo also opened up a location at SFO this summer, and is also at the Austin-Bergstrom International airport.

One difference between Cafe X and Briggo is that Briggo is a standalone coffee kiosk with no humans, whereas Cafe X still has humans on hand to provide customer service and product education. However, I spoke with Cafe X Founder and CEO Henry Hu today, and he told me that the company is in the final process of getting NSF certification so it can operate as a vending machine. Operating as a vending machine means that Cafe X’s will be able to operate 24 hours a day with or without a human.

You’re going to see more high-end vending machines like Cafe X, Briggo and Yo-Kai Express, which makes hot bowls of ramen, pop up in more airports and other high-traffic locations in the future. Vending machines can operate around the clock to feed hungry travelers or employees when other stores are closed. Briggo has partnered with SSP America to open up its Coffee Hauses at an additional 25 airport locations.

Cafe X’s new robot is located in Terminal B, Cafe X at SJC and is open daily from 5:30 AM 10:30 PM for now. Hu said Cafe X will be expanding outside of the Bay Area and into New York next year.

The Food Tech Show: Editor Roundtable, Thanksgiving Edition

Like most Americans, the Spoon crew is busy preparing for Thanksgiving, but before we headed off our separate ways to overdose on home made cranberry sauce and tryptophan, we decided to get together to catch up on some of the news of the week.

Here’s the stories we discussed on this week’s show:

That’s it. Time to go make some Instant Pot cranberry sauce (here’s the recipe, btw).

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

As always, you can listen to the Food Tech Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download it directly to your device or just hit play below.

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The BrüMachen Will Let You Make Joe on the Go, But is it Really Necessary?

When I was a kid, my dad pulled off one of the all time cool-dad moves by connecting the family’s Atari 2600 game console and a small black and white TV to the car battery so my brother and I could play video games in the backseat during a long family trip.

Nowadays, if I saw some mom or dad had gone through such an effort to MacGyver a way for their kids play vids in the car, I would think that’s pretty cool, but I would also think it’s completely unnecessary in an era where we can bring the games along in our pocket.

Which brings me to the BrüMachen, a portable coffee machine that allows you to brew coffee wherever you go by plugging it into car power and brew up a cup of joe on the go.

To use the BrüMachen, the user simply drops in a K-cup (or uses a refillable pod with their favorite grind), adds water, and then brews a cup of coffee. Once brewed, the user can just drink out of the plastic vessel the coffee was brewed in.

It all sounds pretty cool, but I can’t help but wonder why wouldn’t I just bring a thermos or stop at the local AM/PM for coffee? After all, since brewed coffee is as widely available and as easily accessible today as a game of Angry Birds, isn’t the BrüMachen just a modern day coffee equivalent of hooking up a video game console to a car battery?

Admittedly, there are some situations where you can’t actually instantly have a cup of Joe sitting in your cupholder. Maybe you’re camping or on a road trip and have a very specific grind of coffee you prefer that would otherwise be impossible to get on the road. Or, maybe you just are really frugal and are a long road trip and just don’t want to spend a couple bucks for brewed coffee. In those scenarios, I can certainly see where BrüMachen would come in handy.

If and when the people behind the BrüMachen deliver, it will be interesting to see if they can find enough people interested in brewing on the go beyond Kickstarter to make it a successful product. Like they say, there are riches in niches, and the BrüMachen is betting there are enough car campers, remote workers, or fussy coffee drinkers who will like the idea of brewing in their car.

If the product’s early success in any indication, there might just be. So far, the product has 400 backers and has raised over $34 thousand in funding, an indication there is potential demand for a BrüMachen, at least on Kickstarter.

For me, I’ll just keep paying a little more for convenience at my local grab and go, but if you are interested in the idea of a coffee car maker, you can find the BrüMachen here on Kickstarter.

Bandit Launches Mobile Order-Only Coffee Shop in NYC

When writing about Bandit, a new coffee shop business that officially opened in New York City today, you have to mention two things. First, that the only way to order your drink from Bandit is through its mobile app. No cash. No card swiping. You pay by app.

This app-only approach then brings up the second thing. Given the current political climate in New York City and other major metropolises against businesses that don’t accept cash, how long can this app-only business model survive?

But before we get bogged down in regulation, let’s talk about what Bandit actually is, because there is something more to it than just the payment system. If all goes according to plan, Bandit will be a chain of coffee shops that use mobile ordering and payment to get you your coffee fast.

Max Crowley, Co-Founder & CEO, Bandit told me that his company mobile-first method was inspired by China’s Luckin Coffee. “We took some core learnings that we saw from them and over the last couple months, we tested and iterated on them,” Crowley told me by phone last week, adding that Bandit customers can get their drinks in as little time as 40 seconds.

On its face, mobile ordering and payment isn’t that innovative; I mean, Starbucks already offers it. But just like its coffee service, Bandit aims to be fast at opening up it stores. Bandit coffee shops are actually self-contained, pre-fab modular components that slot together to create an 11 ft. by 11 ft. store within just about any vacant space. Crowley said that once it has all the components, Bandit can open up a location in a matter of hours.

This standalone store-within-a-store approach should be a boon for Bandit, which doesn’t need to spend a lot of time scouting specific locations or doing buildouts. The whole concept is designed around speed so the company doesn’t have to create comfortable destinations where people hang out. Instead, it can carve out small footprints in high-traffic spaces.

The issue, though, is that even in these high-traffic areas, only people with the Bandit app can partake in its coffee. If you don’t have a mobile phone and a credit card, you’re out of luck.

Going cashless right now seems like a risky move for Bandit. New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco are among cities that are pushing back against cashless operations that cut out the poor and the underbanked. Even the mighty Amazon relented with its cashierless Go stores and added the ability to accept greenbacks. Sweetgreen backtracked on its no-cash policy as well.

Crowley is aware of the potential issues, but isn’t daunted by them. “Cashless is not the law yet in NY. We’re going to continue to look at that,” he said, “We’ll comply with whatever laws and we certainly want to serve all customers.”

Customers in New York certainly have their fill of innovative options when it comes to getting their morning java. In addition to Bandit’s app-only ordering, Truebird is deploying five robot baristas across Gotham, and GOffee just equity crowdfunded more than a million dollars for latte delivery to your desk in downtown NYC.

Bandit’s first location is located at 466 Lexington Ave, New York. The company is privately funded and plans to open more locations in Q1 of 2020.