Protecting your ritual
Climate change is forcing crack in our food system and the rituals which define our culture. We choose to rethink & redesign
these rituals for the better.
We aim to be the best coffee alternative: delicious, affordable, within planetary boundaries, and free from
systemic exploitation.
Who is behind Koppie?
Who would be crazy enough to try to ferment peas to create coffee flavour? It turns out: 2 Belgians...
Daan has a background in strategy consulting (Bain & Co) and as marketing director at Alpro (Europe's leading dairy alternative).
Pascal has a PhD in Bio Engineering and brings a wealth of expertise in beverage creation, from spirits, to beers, non-alcoholic beverages and now Coffee!
They share a mutual passion for taste, food and sustainability, combined with (un?)healthy curiosity.
Jobs
FAQ
We do not add any flavouring, other ingredients, to create our Koppie signature taste.
Of course, in case you'd like caffeine added, that will be part of the ingredient list as well.
We leave the source of the caffeine open to the customer.Koppie is crafted from carefully selected local legumes. We take 1 legume (preferably yellow pea, fava bean or chickpea) and take it through our patent pending fermentation system. Once fermented, the still intact pulse is dried and can now be roasted like coffee beans, on coffee equipment.
The result is a unique whole bean that can be ground, brewed and blended exactly like traditional coffee using the same equipment and recipe, without additional ingredients or additives.
We take pride in the fact that we can adjust to pulses that fit your location. Thus bringing "coffee" to your home market and home climate. We have a preference to working with yellow pea, chickpea, or fava beans. These are all local, abundant, allergen free and fairly cheap.
To reach our ambition of the best coffee alternative based on new technology, we tested everything: from roots, to vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains,… In Legumes we found the perfect partner for our technology. Not only are they a great crop, binding nitrogen in the ground, implying they require significantly less to no fertiliser. They also improve soil health and sequester CO2. On top of that, they form a perfect vessel for our technology and remain in bean form throughout the process implying they can be roasted just like coffee.
The ingredient declaration is "Roasted Fermented (Yellow) Pea", where actually only "Roasted Pea" is mandatory. For product declaration this depends on local legislation, however "Pea Coffee Alternative" or in some case even "Pea Coffee" would almost always be acceptable. We have conducted specific research by geography on this question, which we're happy to share with you.
Koppie naturally does not contain any caffeine (because the pulse doesn't contain caffeine).
Thus making it a perfect opportunity for a half-caf or low caf concept in a blend. It also provides a much more clean and economical alternative to decaffeinated coffee.Caffeine can always be added, both in the fermented bean form and in the powder form. We leave the source of the caffeine up to the customer: from coffee, from tea, chemically produced, …
Just like coffee, Koppie, when extracted through Espresso or filter is very low in calories.
As such, there's no nutritional benefits which are relevant in these types of processes.Similar to coffee, Koppie boasts a reasonable amount of phenolic compounds, implying antioxidant activity.
We have conducted a full food safety analysis incl heavy metals, acrylamide, typical toxins etc.
We can offer a product spec sheet with all details if so required.Given pulses, fermented pulses and roasted pulses have been consumed for a long time, and given all ferments and enzymes used are foodgrade, we do not fall under Novel Food guidance.
Our production partners are ISO 22000 certified in case working toward semi-finished product and FSSC 22000 certified when working toward final packaged product.
Koppie is 100% free of the major allergens.
To manufacture our Koppie product we have found 2 partner companies in Belgium and the Netherlands, each well-known and with a long history in food ingredient production.
One partner is ISO 22000 certified and delivers up to the fermented & roasted product.
Our other partner is FSSC 22000 certified and can deliver ground product and blends with coffee.You can source Koppie in the format that best fits your production line:
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Green Koppie (unroasted)
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Roasted Koppie (whole bean)
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Ground Koppie (for Filter or Espresso)
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Koppie Concentrate (Liquid or taste)
We are currently working on an instant product – if this is relevant please let us know through our contact page?
All formats can be used on standard coffee equipment — no new machinery required.
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Taste is subjective! Koppie delivers a rich, roasty and authentic coffee-like taste, created through fermentation and roasting — not added flavours. We’ve had multiple blind tasting tests where most people just accept our product pure as coffee.
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Our Standard profile aligns with a Brazil Arabica-style cup, sweet, nutty and free of off-flavours. It has been evaluated with a 75 Q-grader score and can be tuned for bitterness, sweetness or acidity depending on your needs.
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In blends with coffee, depending on the coffee type, most consumers aren’t aware of changes. In a recent test (70% Arabica/30% Koppie) 80% found the product to be at least equal to usual product, and 40% even preferred it
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Koppie comes in 3 flavour variants enabling you to create a perfect match with your specific coffee profile.
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Our base product is our "standard", which delivers a balanced profile with sweet, roasty & bitter notes fitting most medium to dark roast coffees.
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For blends which are more mild, light & medium roasts, we offer a "Sweet" variant, which has sweetness boosted.
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Finally, we offer a "Fruity" variant, which adds more acidity to complement lighter and medium roasts, especially for filter use.
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Our technology allows us to further refine and shape the taste of the product, making it possible to adapt the flavour to your specific request. This follows a typical project approach where we work together closely with your R&D department to ensure the best possible blend. Depending on financial framework, regional or temporary exclusivity can be gained for this formula.
At Koppie we pride ourselves on being able to match most coffee profiles, hence why we've aimed for Brazil Arabica filler profile. To fully address your particular coffee profile, we've make 3 different product flavour profiles (standard, sweet & fruity) that can also work in a blend of their own.
Should you find that Koppie still doesn't work with your coffee, we would happily look to set up a project to create a profile that does match.
Generally standard coffee equipment can be used to roast, grind & brew Koppie. We have used both home and industrial coffee grinding equipment to grind our Koppie. When using home equipment, we typically need to slightly adjust the setting, as you would for a new coffee origin/vendor.
No, Koppie is not novel food.
Our flavour modification process is patent pending.
Koppie offers advantages across taste, cost, sustainability and operational ease:
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Cost & stability: A reliable, stable supply without price volatility, which is comptitive with coffee.
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Taste: Rich, roasty, complex — scoring comparably to commercial coffee arabica filler type without noticeable off-flavours many alternatives struggle with
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Single Ingredient: Made from just one locally sourced legume (base product: yellow pea); naturally caffeine-free; uses non-GMO ferments and enzymes.
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Operational ease: No novel-food, no allergens, compatible with all existing roasting, grinding and brewing equipment.
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Reduce your emmissions & land use: To create 1kg of roasted Koppie requires 1,19 CO2 equivalents, 11L of water (outside of cultivation) and ~5m2 of land
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Health: Lower acidity, relevant antioxidant levels, low acrylamide, no toxins
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Yes of course, our Koppie concentrate (liquid or paste) can be used to create RTD Coffee drinks.
We advise using our Koppie standard or sweet profile. If caffeine is required, this can be added by us, or by the RTD manufacturer.Yes of course, our Koppie concentrate (liquid or paste) can be used to create RTD Coffee drinks.
We advise using our Koppie standard or sweet profile.We cannot guarantee our bean product will work with all existing fully automatic machines, we have not conducted enough testing for this at the moment.
Yes, absolutely, our Koppie products can be used like coffee in all applications except coffee cupping.
For Espresso we typically propose a 18gr in 40ml out recipe. Since Koppie is slightly more dense than coffee, it may appear the port-a-filter is underfilled, but this will be fixed during brewing.Most mushroom coffees are a blend of a carrier (cacao, coffee, or coffee alternatives) with mushrooms.
These are typically "alternatives" not to the coffee flavour, but to the caffeine stimulant effect.As such, Koppie could provide another base layer for such concepts and products as we focus on recreating coffee flavour, not the stimulant effect.