HUNTSVILLE, Alabama– FigBrew recently announced that their beanless coffee replacement sales to date have offset the output of over 12,000 coffee trees while saving over 147,000-kg of carbon and over 740,000-gals of water compared to traditional coffee. Their product lines are based on a single-ingredient coffee alternative made from roasted fig and a 50/50 blend of premium coffee and roasted fig both introduced over three years ago in 2020 and most recently receiving rave reviews at the Specialty Coffee Expo in Chicago in April 2024.
With 1/8th the water footprint and 1/13th the carbon footprint in a cradle-to-grave analysis with traditional coffee, FigBrew products demonstrate that great taste is not a barrier to sustainability. And being made from upcycled organic figs, they’re also not a barrier to price relief for squeezed consumers.
“I’ve never bought into the concept that using upcycled raw goods should lead to a product that is more expensive than something like coffee that is highly valued to begin with.” says FigBrew Co-founder and CEO Andy Whitehead. “At 1/3rd the price per serving of coffee, it is a welcome relief to our costumers. We’ve made a coffee replacement that tastes as good as or better than coffee and with significant benefit to the environment and the consumer. We’ve accomplished what we set out to do but we’re nowhere near done.”
While both the single ingredient and 50/50 blend make a great espresso, that’s not the only way that coffee is brewed. FigBrew R&D are busy optimizing every aspect of the beanless coffee culture under the assumption that keeping coffee drinkers in their wheelhouse is the quickest way to making a positive impact on sustainability.
Instead of selling their own blend of coffee and fig as the defacto standard or convincing coffee shops to stop selling coffee and sell their beanless coffee replacement, FigBrew positioned their roasted fig as a coffee supplement that could be added to a coffee shop’s existing offering.
This lets coffee shops do what they do best and FigBrew do what it does best. “This was a minor selling point three years ago when we introduced the product but one that turned out to be prophetic. Now coffee shops aren’t threatened that something is going to take away their business. It’s a product that broadens their customer base,” says Whitehead. “We have both caffeinated and caffeine-free options that can be brewed by themselves or mixed with coffee in any ratio.”
The health aspects of figs are one of the main factors driving FigBrew’s success. Figs are classified as superfruits and have been used to improve health and athletic performance since the times of the ancient Greeks.
Part of a Mediterranean diet, they’ve have been grown sustainably in that region for thousands of years by workers who earn an honest wage. As it relates to coffee, figs are alkaline instead of acidic, caffeine-free, and high in potassium and low in sodium so help to regulate blood pressure.
About FigBrew
FigBrew mission statement: enriching the coffee culture with healthy, delicious, sustainable fig. All products are organic, made from the least number of ingredients possible, and available for wholesale or retail orders immediately. For more info and to learn about thier products click here.
