Is coffee without coffee beans still coffee? We tried this new made-in-Singapore alternative from upcycled food waste

Yes, we know – “bean-free coffee” sounds like a heinous abomination to coffee lovers. But we just had to find out, in the interest of science, what the product from local bean-free coffee maker Prefer tastes like.

Founders Jake Berber, a former neuroscientist, and Tan Ding Jie, a food scientist, said they embarked on the project because coffee farmland is diminishing and climate change threatens to erase 50 per cent of coffee by 2050. According to them, coffee also has a big carbon footprint as 1kg of coffee requires as much as 29kg of carbon dioxide.

Berber and Tan believe they are the first in Asia to have launched bean-free coffee.

While other bean-free coffee producers in the world use ingredients like chickpeas, rice hulls and seeds to make their product, Prefer’s founders wanted to upcycle food waste products found locally, in line with the whole point of bean-free coffee, which is sustainability, Tan told us.

To that end, they use soya pulp discard from local soya milk chain Mr Bean, day-old bread from Gardenia bakery and spent grains that are a byproduct of beer-making from local breweries.

These are fermented, then roasted, and finally ground up.

Consumers and partnering cafes receive the product in a form that looks like ground coffee and can be extracted using the usual methods. The point was for baristas to have to deviate as little as possible from their procedure, Tan said.

The bean-free coffee does not contain caffeine, but if you really, really need it, you can choose to add caffeine powder to your drink, he added.

As a food scientist who has conducted countless fermentation experiments, Tan studied flavour molecules in order to replicate the taste of coffee as closely as possible. It is an ongoing work-in-progress and a labour of love for the 31-year-old coffee aficionado.

So, what’s the verdict? Well, it works quite nicely when mixed into a medium, like in the Prefer Iced Yuzu Espresso Soda served at Dough cafe. And when it’s served as an oat milk latte, for example, it lends a depth of malted flavour bordering on umami.

A hoppy, even slightly savoury taste is discernible to varying degrees, depending on what it’s blended with. But if I were you, I wouldn’t try it as an espresso shot. It’s not ready to be drunk black yet, Tan opined.  

Does it look like coffee? Yes. Does it smell like coffee? Not far off. Does it taste exactly like coffee as we know it? Not so much. But does it give you the feeling of nursing a cuppa at a cafe while revelling in the smug satisfaction that you’re helping to save the whales? Absolutely.

Prefer bean-free coffee is available at Dough, 30 Victoria Street #01-30; Brash Boys, 8 Biomedical Grove #01-12 Neuros; First Story Cafe, 149 Serangoon North Ave 1 #01-917; Parched by Parchmen, 55 Ubi Ave 3 #01-11; and Foreword Coffee Roasters at 64 Club Street and 1 Stars Avenue #03-02.