The coffee of the future no longer needs beans

With a fine crema, a dash of milk, or deep black – coffee is popular. As a luxury item and fuel for everyday life, every Swiss person drinks an average of more than 1,000 cups per year. Only in a few countries is per capita consumption higher, including Germany and Norway.

This pleasure is becoming increasingly expensive, with bad weather in the growing regions driving up the price of green coffee, which is then passed on to customers. Some also suffer from a guilty conscience: coffee cultivation often requires deforestation, irrigation, and the use of pesticides, and farmers receive little money. Long-distance transport also harms the climate. There's little improvement in sight, as global demand for coffee is rising, especially in Asia. At the same time, large areas of cultivation are threatened with disappearance due to climate change, which can only be partially offset by other regions.

A sustainable alternative could be coffee from a bioreactor. Unaffected by the vagaries of the weather, the raw material matures in stainless steel tanks, as is common in beer brewing. It no longer needs to be shipped halfway around the world; instead, it is produced close to the customers. Whether it will be accepted by them is another question. Among other things, it will be at least similar to natural coffee in taste and price.

This hasn't been the case yet, but researchers in laboratories are working to catch up as quickly as possible. One of them is Heiko Rischer from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. He and his colleagues described in 2023 in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" what is needed for so-called cell-based coffee. The beverage originates from plant cells that are cultivated and processed.

"To achieve the typical coffee flavor, certain flavor compounds or their precursors are needed, which then develop further – for example, through roasting," explains Rischer. These substances are formed in the coffee cherries, from which the seeds, or rather the beans, are traditionally obtained. However, they are also partially present in leaf cells. If suitable cells can be identified, these too can be tuned to produce the desired molecules, which then give the coffee either a nutty or chocolatey flavor, bitterness, or acidity.

That's exactly what the VTT experts do. If the chemical profile of the cells is promising, they isolate them and place them in a nutrient solution. In addition to water, this solution contains primarily sugar, as an energy source, as well as salts and growth regulators, which plants also naturally produce. These ensure that the cells continue to divide and multiply.

This has little in common with the growth and development of a South American rainforest. The cells float in dark steel tanks, are heated and stirred according to a strict schedule, and, once they multiply well, are pumped into the next larger tank. The staff wear hygienic clothing to avoid any contamination.

The biotechnologists can influence which ingredients the cells preferentially produce to enable later coffee enjoyment. This is achieved partly through growth regulators, which also control metabolism. Rischer and his team also vary the environmental conditions in the steel tank, such as temperature and pH. They also add substances that trigger defense mechanisms, similar to those a plant would use against pest infestation. Experts call this "elicitation"; this method can be used to increase the caffeine content, for example.

Finally, the wet cell mass is filtered, dried, and roasted. The aroma in the lab is reminiscent of the natural model. The result is a dark powder, similar to ground conventional coffee. Chemical analyses then follow; the powder is brewed as usual and presented to trained taste testers. They don't know the origin of the sample and evaluate its taste, bitterness, color, and aroma according to established criteria.

The color is right, and the taste is at least similar to your usual coffee, says Rischer. "It's not yet an optimized product like you'd find in a supermarket, but rather a starting point for developing something." Some parameters are heading in the right direction, but there's still a lot to be done with others.

Chahan Yeretzian of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in Wädenswil comes to similar conclusions. The chemist has been researching coffee for decades and, with his team, has worked on cell-based cocoa and coffee for various startups, among other things. "What we produce in the lab is already close to natural coffee in terms of taste, but I'm still not completely satisfied," he says. A little too bitter, a little too little acidity, too much astringency, resulting in a fuzzy feeling on the tongue.

The scientist believes this is solvable, as the process can be further improved. "And we've learned that roasting has a major impact, more than we previously thought." So he's now focusing more on researching roasting. In addition to the goal of producing the desired aromatic compounds, it's also about working energy-efficiently and thus reducing costs. "One option is to press the powder into bean-like pellets so that commercial roasters can process the material well and don't have to buy new machinery."

Economics plays a crucial role, says Yeretzian. "Cell-based coffee must be able to compete in the mass market." He estimates that in four years, it could be offered at current prices. He expects the first products to be on the market in just two years.

Several companies are working on this, but none have received approval. Authorities want to ensure that novel foods like cell-based coffee do not pose a health risk and therefore require comprehensive testing. Even taste tests in laboratories require approval. The costs for approval run into the millions and represent an additional hurdle for startups.

Yeretzian believes that Food Brewer is certainly the most advanced in terms of the final product's taste, price, and regulatory approval. The Swiss startup from Horgen has already developed a process for cocoa in which cells from the cocoa bean are cultivated in bioreactors. The result is a brown paste, which is dried and powdered to make chocolate or spread. Here, too, the goal is to create a sustainable and resource-efficient consumer product.

Whether coffee drinkers would buy products from bioreactors is another question. According to surveys, young, tech-savvy people in Scandinavia could well imagine doing so, reports Rischer. However, representative studies are lacking. The Finnish research center wants to address this issue and produce several cell-based biotech products to test acceptance. "How many people try such food products is one thing," says Rischer. "The decisive factor is how many would be convinced and buy it again."

The companies' central argument is sustainability: cell-based coffee should protect natural resources and the climate. According to Rischer, there is a lack of analyses on this as well. "However, a model from the University of Helsinki suggests that the energy balance is similar to that of microalgae cultures and therefore quite favorable." Transport by ship, powered by fossil fuels, and emissions from fertilizer production in particular make green coffee a climate sinner. If the bioreactors are powered by low- _CO2 electricity, the balance quickly improves.

Critics warn that biotech coffee would destroy the livelihoods of coffee farmers. Rischer calls the argument "hypocritical." "Many are already at risk of losing their livelihoods and earn almost nothing, but sales of Fair Trade products remain largely low – people obviously don't care." The pressure is increasing because climate change is making cultivation difficult or impossible in many areas.

"I see cell-based coffee primarily in the mass market, also to compensate for crop losses," says ZHAW researcher Yeretzian. In the premium segment, traditional coffee will continue to be in demand. In addition, coffee-like substitutes made from barley, rye, and other plants have been around for over 100 years. "The international market is growing, thanks in part to China and Russia," says the researcher. "There will be enough room for all types of coffee."

An article from the « NZZ am Sonntag »