The answer is yes, according to Jarret Stopforth and Andy Kleitsch of Atomo Coffee.
The idea came to the pair after learning about the issues plaguing the coffee industry. “As we got deeper into the process, we learned more about the threats to the coffee world as a whole — threats to the environment from deforestation, global warming and [a devastating fungus called] rust, and we were even more committed to making a consistently great coffee that was also better for the environment,” Stopforth says.
The future of coffee is uncertain. The amount of land suitable for growing coffee is expected to shrink by an estimated 50% by 2050, according to a report by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.
These facts lead Stopforth and Kleitsch to turn a Seattle garage into a brewing lab. They spent four months running green beans, roasted beans, and brewed coffee through gas and liquid chromatography to separate and catalog more than 1,000 compounds in coffee to create a product that had the same color, aroma, flavor and mouthfeel as coffee.
Atomo is slated to release its first products in 2020.
