Coffee Flour is newest and most inventive use of java to come along in at least a decade. A former director of technical services at Starbucks, Dan Belliveau saw the tremendous waste involved in coffee processing and invented a way to turn the coffee cherry pulp cast off in the harvesting process into a nutritious flour.
Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum, so the waste from discarded coffee cherry pulp causes both financial and environmental burdens for the countries that grow coffee, which tend to be among the world’s poorest.
Launched by CF Global, Coffee Flour has been well received by major food, beverage and baked-goods companies and is scheduled to hit consumer shelves in 2015. Seattle chefs like Jason Wilson are already integrating Coffee Flour, which doesn’t taste like coffee at all, into their recipes. The flour presents with floral, citrus and roasted fruit notes and works well in baked goods, pastas, sauces and beverages.
Coffee Flour is also highly nutritious, containing five times the fiber of wheat flour and more iron than any grain or cereal in the USDA database. It retains many of the great properties of drinkable coffee but is significantly lower in caffeine. And since Coffee Flour is naturally gluten-free, it’s likely to be popular amoung health-conscious consumers.
The last invention that put coffee detritus to such good use was the Java-Log, which launched in 2002. Sold by Pine Mountain Brands, the Java-Log is made from recycled coffee grounds and has been a big hit with environmentally conscious consumers. Who knew that coffee waste could heat the water required to make a good cuppa java and serve as the key ingredient in the breads, cakes, cookies and muffins that often accompany our favorite elixir?
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