Reid Tedder
Unlike K-Cups, these pods decompose.
Single-cup coffee is on the rise, and it’s the way to go when it comes to superior flavor retention, says Tom Weigand of Madison’s True Coffee Roasters.
Consumers also crave the convenience of these single-serving packages. It’s one of the fastest-growing segments of the coffee market. Hotels, offices and waiting rooms of all description are increasingly offering single-cup coffees to their patrons and clients instead of brewing a large pot of coffee that goes stale or cold.
Unfortunately, the demand for these single-use packages (often shorthanded as “K-Cups,” after the name of the leading provider, Keurig) has led to a massive increase in waste packaging. K-Cups are plastic. That troubled Weigand.
But late last year, True Coffee began selling single-cup packages of its sustainably sourced coffees in compostable pods. They are currently available only to its commercial and business clients; Weigand hopes to introduce the coffee in that format to home users within 18 months.
“To my knowledge, we’re the only local roaster doing single-serving pods,” Weigand says. Small roasters like True Coffee have the ability to move quickly and provide fresher coffee compared to large-scale providers.
True Coffee roasts the beans that it buys from specialty importers, then ships them to Pod Pack, a processor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which grinds the beans and packages them in a round filter similar to a tea bag, which is compostable. That is then wrapped in foil to create a 97 percent nitrogen environment. “Oxygen is coffee’s enemy, and the nitrogen keeps the product fresher longer,” says Weigand.
The foil is not currently recyclable, but a new recyclable version should be available very soon, says True Coffee marketing director Devin Renner.
“Environmentally concerned consumers are worried about the billions of plastic K-Cups ending up in landfills,” Weigand says. “Most are made of type 7 plastic, which is not recyclable. And even if they were, people don’t want the hassle of washing out the coffee from each little cup. That means they get tossed in the garbage.”
Adopting the pods was something tangible True Coffee could do for the environment. “You can compost them, but even if you just throw them away, they’ll still compost naturally in landfills,” Weigand says.
Weigand is also the co-founder of Noodles & Company. In 2008, Weigand and a business partner bought two Ancora cafes, one in Stoughton and one in Fitchburg, and began learning the coffee trade before starting True Coffee that same year at its original Nesbitt Road location. It moved to 800 W. Broadway in Monona in 2019. There, True Coffee sells whole beans and the full contingent of coffee drinks as well as serving breakfast and lunch.
True Coffee’s compostable pods are currently available only to commercial customers utilizing equipment from GoldStar Coffee Service.
Before the pods can be sold to home consumers, users need compatible coffee makers. It’s a classic chicken-and-egg problem.
“Bunn and Senseo make residential coffee brewers for these pods in the $150 range, but they have not promoted them aggressively yet,” Weigand says. But there’s “aggressive research and development” in the area of residential brewing equipment for pods, he adds. It appears True Coffee will be well positioned to capitalize on the market.