A Seattle startup has invented a way to recapture a byproduct of coffee farming – the sweet, vitamin-rich fruit surrounding the bean.
Farmers usually have to dispose of this flesh, which spoils almost immediately after harvest.
Founder Dan Belliveau developed a way to dry the fruit and grind it into a durable "flour."
The powder can be used to add a zip to baked goods (it does have a little leftover caffeine), pasta, candy or even steeped into a tea.
Belliveau's company, Coffee Flour, cranked out 4.5 million pounds of the stuff last year, recycling waste from farms from Central America to Southeast Asia.
The pulp can be composted for fertilizer, but provides only a little benefit for building soil.
Farmers who sell the pulp can make an extra three cents per pound on a crop that often yields only five to ten cents of profit per pound.