{"id":76489,"date":"2024-09-24T11:17:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T03:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/?p=76489"},"modified":"2024-09-24T11:46:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T03:46:49","slug":"the-beverage-startup-making-coffee-without-coffee-beans-and-why-this-is-important-for-the-coffee-industry-in-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/blog\/2024\/09\/24\/the-beverage-startup-making-coffee-without-coffee-beans-and-why-this-is-important-for-the-coffee-industry-in-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"The beverage startup making coffee without coffee beans and why this is important for the coffee industry in Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Have you noticed that your morning cup of coffee has become a little bit more expensive recently? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>World coffee prices have been hitting new highs recently as surging demand from new, growing markets such as China and India meet weather-inflicted low yields in major producer regions such as Brazil. In fact, Arabica and Robusta futures have rocketed up<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-07-10\/arabica-coffee-holds-near-two-year-high-risking-pricier-lattes?srnd=markets-vp&amp;embedded-checkout=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"> 30-60% in 2 years<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Singapore-based startup, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prefer.coffee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Prefer Coffee<\/a>, aims to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/29\/hong-kong-cafe-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">support the coffee industry<\/a> with stable, natural coffee alternatives that taste as good as the real deal. Co-founder, Jake Berber, discusses future-proofing the coffee industry across Asia with Prefer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/3-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Co-founder Jake Berber on how Prefer Coffee is creating coffee without coffee beans\" class=\"wp-image-76494\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/3-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/3-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked about how he found himself innovating on bean-less coffee, Jake tells of his approach as an investor. &#8220;I saw a big trend in coffee Macros and potential opportunity to create an alternative&#8221; says Jake. The US-born entrepreneur immediately set his mind to assessing the feasibility of creating a coffee-like product without the use of coffee beans, leading to extensive research &amp; development with Prefer Coffee Co-founder and food scientist, Tan Ding Jie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Foodie and , Hong Kong\" class=\"wp-image-76492\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/1-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/1-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Created by fermenting soy, barley, and bread, the R&amp;D process involved extensive iterations on various  combinations of bacteria and funghi. &#8220;The process is entirely natural&#8221; says Jake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One can&#8217;t help but wonder if the flavour can match true coffee. Jake explains that the feedback from people who try prefer comment on the &#8220;chocolately, nutty flavour&#8221; that is &#8220;comparable to Arabica coffee&#8221;, a result of careful and precise natural engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now closing in on 100 businesses supplying Prefer Coffee&#8217;s delicious coffee products and an imminent expansion into the Philippines, Jake reflects on their journey introducing a alternative beverage product. &#8220;We messed up in the beginning. We were so focused on disrupting an industry, that we missed the real value of Prefer&#8217;s innovation&#8221;, Jake admits, &#8220;We can make sure that coffee is always affordable and accessible&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To try Prefer Coffee&#8217;s bean-less coffee for yourself, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prefer.coffee\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.prefer.coffee\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">visit their website<\/a> to find your nearest serving location.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you noticed that your morning cup of coffee has become a little bit more expensive recently? World coffee prices have been hitting new highs recently as surging demand from new, growing markets such as China and India meet weather-inflicted low yields in major producer regions such as Brazil. In fact, Arabica and Robusta futures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":76493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[635],"authors":[{"term_id":635,"user_id":177,"is_guest":0,"slug":"kieran","display_name":"Kieran","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/09\/DSC04511.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/09\/DSC04511.webp"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Gibb","first_name":"Kieran","description":"Kieran Gibb is a serial entrepreneur and co-owner of Foodie. With six-plus years in F&amp;B, he writes about industry insights, emerging trends, and the entrepreneurs and stories shaping the culinary landscape."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76497,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76489\/revisions\/76497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76489"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afoodieworld.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=76489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}