What is coffee flour?
What if you could lower the amount of sugar in your baked goods without affecting the taste, but still be something you would want to consume every day?
And what if that alternative was loading with antioxidants and also used a by product of another food process? It turns out that a few enterprising people came up with a solution: Coffee Flour.
But what is coffee flour? And why is it proving to be an amazing alternative to regular flour?
Coffee flour, simply put, is just the pulp of coffee cherries ground into a fine powder.
It’s literally that simple.
So what portion of the coffee cherry is required?
The bean, is basically the pit of the ‘fruit’, and is the basis of the coffee we all know and love. The red berry is then separated and the pulp set aside, more than likely used for fertiliser or in some cases just discarded.
By grinding down the pulp of coffee cherries into a fine powder, you end up with a flour that is high in fibre, low in sugar and gluten-free.
Similar in appearance to cocoa, coffee flour actually has a bittersweet cocoa taste, but smells more like tobacco than actual coffee. These properties make it an excellent option for sweet and savoury baked goods or even as a separate flavouring of it’s own.
By using a by antioxidant superfood product such as the coffee cherry pulp, this innovation could in theory revolutionise the global coffee market.
Farmers have traditionally discarded or used coffee cherries and coffee cherry pulp as a fertiliser, so this could open up opportunities for further avenues of revenue and doesn’t require any more land, water or manpower to produce as it has always been miscatergorised as a by-product or waste-product.
Being able to utilise 100% of the plant essentially changes the entire process, but without any of the negative connotations.
We’re incredibly surprised and amazed that this hasn’t been tried or tested before, maybe we’ll see wide-spread usage in Vegan recipes and restaurants in the next few decades?
We certainly hope so.
But imagine a coffee cake made with coffee flour…