In Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi film Interstellar, a global crop blight leaves corn as one of humanity’s last remaining food sources. While fictional, the premise is edging closer to reality as companies seek alternatives to climate-vulnerable crops such as coffee.
According to World Coffee Research, climate change could halve the land suitable for growing Arabica coffee by 2050.
Coca-Cola Japan has unveiled Cafe Water, a coffee-flavoured beverage made from corn-derived fibre and flavouring ingredients designed to replicate the taste of coffee.
The product will launch under the company’s flagship Georgia coffee brand in September.
Priced at around US$0.93 for a 500ml bottle, the beanless drink is targeted at younger consumers and will retail below the price of its conventional coffee drinks.
Meanwhile, Asahi is developing what it describes as a close replica of coffee, delivering similar aroma, bitterness, body, and caffeine content without relying on coffee beans.
The company has not disclosed the drink’s primary ingredient, but says it is relatively resilient to climate change. A latte-style version is expected to launch this year, followed by a black coffee variant next year.
“The challenge will be ensuring a stable supply for a mass-produced product,” the company said.
Other manufacturers are also trialing different solutions. Suntory Food & Beverage is developing technology to extract more flavour from existing coffee supplies through a process that breaks coffee into its core flavour compounds.
The company has already incorporated the technology into parts of its Craft Boss ready-to-drink range.
Elsewhere, companies have been ahead in exploring coffee alternatives.
In the Philippines, for example, corn coffee has been available since 1975, offering consumers a coffee-like aroma and taste without the caffeine. Malaysia and Thailand also have substitutes from rice and grains.
In the US, Atomo Coffee has been producing espresso-style beverages since 2019 using ingredients such as date pits and caffeine derived from green tea.
Atomo Coffee CEO Andy Kleitsch said the company’s goal is to reduce pressure on coffee-growing regions and limit deforestation linked to expanding coffee production.
“There are about 360 billion cups of coffee that have to move locations over the next 30 years,” Kleitsch said.
“So, I’d like to just take a few billion of those cups and say ‘you don’t have to wipe out any forest’ to grow those.”
- Further reading: Researchers take the heat out of coffee processing.
