• “Beanless espresso” – made by synthesising or extracting compounds from different plant-based sources that mimic the flavour and aroma of actual espresso – is attracting consideration from shoppers and buyers alike.
• The US’ Atomo raised US$7.8mn in January 2025 to increase worldwide café collaborations and lately launched within the UK. Manufacturers like Minus, Voyage Meals, Want, and Compound Meals have seen related ranges of success.
• Beanless espresso manufacturers largely place their merchandise as a sustainable different to the espresso trade’s provide chain, with a particular deal with environmental points.
• Though it’s a disruptive signal of innovation, beanless espresso is unlikely to problem the consumption of conventional espresso any time quickly.

Traders and clients alike are displaying a rising curiosity in “beanless” espresso. 

Sometimes produced from substances like date pits, sunflower seeds, millet, carob, and pea protein, beanless espresso guarantees the identical flavour profile of conventional espresso.

Nonetheless, producers declare it has a greater sustainability footprint than actual espresso, serving to elevate thousands and thousands in funding to scale merchandise and increase café partnerships. Seattle startup Atomo Espresso, a frontrunner out there, raised US$7.8mn in Collection B funding in January 2025 to ramp up gross sales of its 50:50 beanless mix by worldwide partnerships.

Whereas it’s disrupting the trade, positioning itself as a sustainable different, beanless espresso has an extended approach to go earlier than it challenges the established order.

Dr. Steffen Schwarz on the Espresso Consulate and Andy Kleitsch at Atomo Espresso share their perception.

You might also like our article on Px espresso.

What’s “beanless” espresso?

The time period “beanless espresso” has proliferated lately, as mainstream media retailers report on its potential to duplicate one of many world’s hottest drinks. However what’s it precisely?

Though substances range between manufacturers, beanless espresso typically comprises a mixture of totally different meals merchandise. These can embody date seeds, sunflower seed extract, pea protein, millet, chicory, lemon, fenugreek seeds, lupin, chickpea, and malted barley. Inexperienced tea extract is commonly added to spice up caffeine ranges, too.

In the end, the purpose is to create a product that intently mimics the flavour, aroma, and look – and due to this fact the general consuming expertise – of actual espresso.

Whereas it represents high-level innovation in meals engineering, the idea isn’t fully new. 

“If historical past has taught us something, it’s that shortage typically breeds invention,” says Steffen, the Managing Director of the Espresso Consulate, a espresso analysis and coaching centre in Mannheim, Germany. “When Prussia banned espresso within the late 18th century, roasted chicory and barley had been the answer. In the course of the world wars, when beans had been rationed, acorns and rye had been the choice.”

These historic ties affiliate beanless espresso with durations of financial hardship or shortage. Nonetheless, immediately’s improvements go far past easy substitution.

Fashionable manufacturing processes typically make use of refined methods, together with fermentation and roasting, to create complicated flavour profiles. Right this moment’s beanless espresso merchandise are additionally floor and designed to be brewed utilizing the identical strategies as conventional espresso, sustaining the familiarity of the brewing ritual.

Funding alternatives are rising

The beanless espresso class has skilled vital development over the previous 5 years, with investor curiosity driving innovation and market enlargement.

In June 2025, Belgian startup Koppie Bean, based by a former marketer from Danone and Alpro, and a bioscience engineer, secured an undisclosed quantity of funding to scale up its know-how, which utilises native fermented legumes. Equally, beanless espresso model Singapore’s Want lately raised US$4.2mn in a funding spherical, demonstrating sustained investor confidence within the class’s potential.

Atomo Espresso is a distinguished instance. In December 2023, the corporate obtained a multimillion-dollar funding from Suntory Holdings – a Japanese firm that manages a various portfolio of soppy drinks, espresso, tea, and power drinks, and alcohol manufacturers. Extra lately, Atomo secured practically US$8mn in funding, which means the model has secured near US$60mn in funding since its launch in 2019. 

“Lots of our early buyers instructed us they noticed beanless espresso as an ‘inevitable know-how’ because of the local weather impacts affecting coffee-growing areas over the subsequent 30 years,” says Andy, the CEO of Atomo Espresso. “Our early buyers are largely mission-driven, centered on bringing climate-focused options to market.”

One frequent declare amongst beanless espresso merchandise is that they can assist bridge the rising hole between provide and demand.

Local weather volatility and fragile provide chains have created uncertainty in conventional espresso markets, particularly within the final two years, throughout which inexperienced espresso prices have greater than doubled. Quite a few research assert that by 2025, the quantity of land appropriate for espresso manufacturing might shrink by as a lot as 50%. As international espresso consumption is predicted to rise for the foreseeable future, this raises questions on how producers will meet demand.

Sustainability considerations, together with deforestation in coffee-growing areas and the carbon footprint of worldwide delivery, are additionally influencing shopper selections – and elevating their curiosity in beanless espresso merchandise.

Well being concerns additionally play a big position; shoppers are more and more searching for drinks which are gluten-free, caffeine-free, or gentler on digestive programs. Rising espresso costs add financial stress, prompting espresso drinkers to hunt out alternate options – though some beanless merchandise really value greater than espresso itself.

Others, in the meantime, assert that pure advertising innovation is the first driver of the class’s enchantment.

What does this imply for the espresso trade?

Like several new product improvement, it’s essential to query whether or not beanless espresso represents a passing pattern or a shift in consumption that might reshape the broader espresso panorama. 

Fairly than positioning itself as a direct competitor, beanless espresso seems to be searching for integration with current espresso trade markets. 

“We began Atomo to make the world a greater place, and to realize this purpose, we should associate throughout the worldwide espresso trade, supplying sustainable options to as many markets as attainable,” Andy says. “We see Atomo as a know-how and ingredient provider for the traditional espresso trade, enabling everybody concerned to carry progressive espresso merchandise to market.”

The model lately partnered with US chain Bluestone Lane, which serves Atomo’s 50:50 mix (a mixture of actual and beanless espresso) in any respect of its practically 60 places – indicators that collaboration between the 2 industries is viable.

“Will it disrupt? Presumably not in the best way artificial textiles disrupted wool, however extra as plant-based meats sit beside beef in immediately’s markets,” Steffen suggests. “They are going to coexist, generally complement, and in sure niches – resembling wellness inns, faculty canteens, or health-conscious properties – they might even displace.”

However the pathway to mainstream adoption faces a number of challenges. High quality, particularly, stays paramount for shopper acceptance. 

“As we developed Atomo over time, our early buyers reminded us that though shoppers need sustainable options, they first want a great-tasting, better-for-you, price-competitive product with the identical brewing expertise,” Andy notes.

The implications for conventional espresso producers, notably smallholder farmers, deserve cautious consideration. Over 125 million farmers worldwide depend on espresso manufacturing for his or her livelihoods, so minimising their entry to market dangers a discount of their earnings.

“I don’t see beanless espresso affecting espresso farmers,” Andy says. “Espresso producers already face vital issues: frost, leaf rust, drought, labour points, and local weather change. Beanless espresso is the least of their issues. We’d like all espresso farmers to be wildly profitable to satisfy the worldwide demand, however what we need to keep away from is the additional deforestation of the final wild locations on earth to develop extra espresso.”

Nonetheless, the espresso trade has already made vital progress in addressing points like deforestation. European Union Deforestation Regulation-compliant espresso is already out there available on the market, assembly the demand for extra sustainable choices.

“On one hand, a world that drinks much less espresso might imply shrinking demand and falling costs, putting hardest at smallholders who already stand on precarious financial floor,” says Steffen. “However, new partnerships could emerge: farmers in Ethiopia or Colombia might diversify by cultivating lupine or chicory alongside their espresso plots.”

The long-term outlook suggests market integration somewhat than displacement. In the end, beanless espresso is more likely to carve out its personal area throughout the broader beverage market somewhat than threatening espresso’s dominance. 

Beanless espresso is disrupting the trade, positioning itself as a sustainable different. But it surely has an extended approach to go earlier than it challenges the established order.

These alternate options are creating new alternatives for innovation, sustainability, and shopper alternative. Nonetheless, the success of beanless espresso will depend upon manufacturers’ potential to ship on flavour and high quality whereas fulfilling guarantees of sustainability.

As funding continues and main manufacturers start to experiment with these merchandise, beanless espresso might develop into a everlasting fixture within the beverage trade. For now, nevertheless, its market presence is minimal.

Loved this? Then learn our article on why sustainability has develop into a buzzword in specialty espresso.

Photograph credit: Atomo Espresso

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