Bean-free coffee? Coffee enthusiasts might balk at the idea, but there’s a good reason why entrepreneurs Tan Ding Jie (DJ) and Jake Berber decided to launch their own beanless coffee brand, Prefer.
Currently, 29 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide is generated per kilogram of coffee produced. With climate change and the growing trend of drinking coffee, it’s possible that 50 percent of suitable farmland for coffee production will be gone by 2050. The duo aims to create a coffee variant that’ll help tackle this issue, tapping on DJ’s expertise in food science and fermentation – having worked with illustrious bars like Jigger & Pony and Labyrinth – and Berber’s experience at food and med tech companies.
Prefer’s bean-free coffee uses three main ingredients that are sourced from local companies: day-old Gardenia bread, soybean pulp from Mr Bean, and spent barley grains from local breweries like The 1925 Brewing Co. and Brewerkz. The ingredients are blended, fermented, roasted and grounded, to achieve a texture similar to coffee grounds. The entire process takes up to two days, unlike the six to nine month harvest time for regular coffee.
From there, everything works the same as with normal coffee. The Prefer grounds can be extracted with usual brewing methods and even produces crema which is suitable for latte art. We tried the Prefer oat milk latte from Dough café at Chijmes and it has a nutty, fragrant aroma with a hint of earthy bitterness. Coffee aficionados might be able to sniff out the differences between Prefer and real coffee, but for the average coffee drinker, the taste is rather similar.
Prefer’s bean-free coffee is now available at 14 locations across Singapore, including Dough, Brash Boys, First Story Cafe, Foreword Coffee Roasters, Parched by Parchmen, Coexist Coffee, SaladStop and more.
Check out Prefer’s website and Instagram page to find out more.
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