Globally, we consume 10 billion kilograms of coffee a year and literally throw away the leftover coffee.
Efforts are being made to recycle them by converting floors into products, such as cups, fabrics, printing inks and biofuels. However, since coffee grounds are liquids, they require a drying procedure to reuse them and end up releasing a large amount of CO2. inside the Air.
Is there a way to reuse coffee grounds by damaging the environment?
The answer is yes, according to Tetsuji Ishigaki, a Japanese scientist and executive director of SOI in Shizuoka, Japan.
He recently came up with the idea of using koji, a favorable mold used to make classic Japanese fermented foods like soy sauce and sake, to recycle coffee grounds without negatively affecting the environment.
Experimentally, Ishigaki collected ground coffee from a coffee shop and fermented it with koji to make a paste. He pasteurized it and turned it into coffee bars called COLEHA.
“To make the dough, we add water to the ground coffee in a ratio of 2:1. COLEHA is prepared by adding cocoa butter to the dough to solidify it. 1 kg of ground coffee can produce bars,” says Ishigaki.
There are 3 types of COLEHA, ranging from 0% to 40% sugar. The products presented at the café five months ago, priced at 800 yen (about $7) per bar and have sold out.
COLEHA is strangely delicious. 0% sugar tastes like dark chocolate flavored with coffee with the slight acidity of coffee. 10% sugar has a fruity and milky taste. 40% sugar has a caramel note. All have a thin, brittle surface and the inner one temporarily melts in the mouth with an intense coffee flavor.
How can the remains of earth be so delicious?
Koji is known to generate a lot of umami. Umami is called the fifth flavor after sweet, salty, sour and sour and is described as “delicious” or “tasty”. As koji spreads, it produces various enzymes that convert proteins into amino acids, an important source of umami.
Ishigaki’s lab research indicates that his coffee paste has about 3 times more amino acids than raw coffee beans. It assumes that the koji’s protease enzymes added the rich flavor to ground coffee.
He also discovered possible health benefits in coffee paste. Lab research shows that coffee paste contains 1. 6 times more polyphenols, compounds that promote physical activity, and 1. 78 times more antioxidants than regular coffee (and coffee has a higher amount of antioxidants than popular beverages in the first place). In addition, 94% of coffee paste is an insoluble fiber that can promote gut health.
As for caffeine, a 50 mg COLEHA bar (22 g), or about part of a regular cup of coffee. The bar can be used to give an extra energetic touch to a cup of coffee in the morning or to increase wakefulness in the afternoon. without interrupting sleep at night.
The precise procedure for making coffee paste is patent pending and has not been revealed, but the koji-based recycling procedure is undeniable and versatile, according to Ishigaki.
Ishigaki did not invent the upcycling procedure by accident. His circle of relatives started a koji production business in 1739. His father founded SOI in 1984 to concentrate on generating healthy foods with herbal fermentation and Ishigaki joined the company in 2000 after completing his PhD at the University of Tokyo and working as a researcher at the University of Southampton in the UK.
“It’s in my DNA how to ferment everything I see. “Coffee grounds were no exception.
Ishigaki hopes to spread the word about his new approach to recycling coffee grounds and has already gotten many requests from environmentally friendly Japanese companies. But it also points to global opportunities. ” There are more and more requests for recycling around the world. “The Mandatory Composting Act came into force in January 2022, under which each and every jurisdiction in the state is required to provide biological waste collection to all citizens and businesses.
If Ishigaki’s affordable, herbal koji-based recycling approach were implemented in every coffee grounds in the world, we could produce 1. 7 trillion COLEHA bars a year.
The use of koji seems like a fruit at your fingertips to reach a circular economy.