Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/90134
OFF THE WIRE NEWS BRIEFS WITH PATENTS EXPIRED, K-CUP SPACE DRAWS A CROWD Early autumn is typically a time when companies throughout the café spectrum unveil new lines and products. But September and October of this year were marked by a particularly powerful deluge, and many of the unveiled ideas came in one particular cat- egory: automated single-cup brewing for the home market. The swath of new entries into the field is hardly shocking. Sept. 16 marked the expiration of a pair of patents held by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for its K-Cup coffee capsules that are made specifically for the company's Keurig brewers. (Green Mountain acquired Keurig in 2006.) The Vermont-based roaster enjoyed huge growth over the past several years market- ing the brewers to individual consumers drawn to the simplicity and convenience of the K-Cup technology. Green Mountain also struck licensing deals with major brands—including Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks—that created an array of hot-drink options for Keurig devotees. Apart from a few exceptions, Green Mountain and the giants who could play ball in the licensing arena were the only roasters able to bring their coffee into the K-Cup world. But now that the patents have expired, the market has opened to anyone who can successfully develop and distribute a product that adapts to the brewer. A number of companies have wasted little time entering the fray. In early September, for instance, a venture called Brooklyn Bean Roastery announced its launch. The brand offers 12 different roasts, all available in capsules that work on Keurig brewers. The relative unknown plans to appeal to K-Cup customers via price, a strategy many newbies in the space are likely to employ. "Brooklyn 20 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com Bean Roastery simply turns a smaller profit per single-serve cup sold than Green Mountain because we don't have the same mar- gins," claims Brooklyn Bean co-founder Steven Schreiber. "We do expect to see other companies come into the marketplace, also at a lower price point." Chicago-based LBP Manufacturing also sees possibility in the space, recently rolling out a product called the Upshot. It's a capsule-like device aimed at roasters who want to get their coffee in front of users of Keurig brewers and those like it (LBP president Matthew Cook predicts other brewer manufacturers will be roll- ing out similar technology soon). The goal of Upshot is to allow roasters to buy the packaging element royalty-free, and it's then up to individual companies to decide how to fill and market their single-cup capsules. "We realized quickly we needed equipment that would let roasters do it themselves," Cook says. The list of companies recently announcing single-cup plays goes on. Red Rose Tea in Little Falls, N.Y., is offering four black tea varieties in a single-cup brewer compatible format—the suggested retail is $7.99 for a 12-count box. Filter company Melitta, meanwhile, in September introduced the JavaJig, a reusable cup that single-cup-machine users can fill with ground coffee or loose tea and then pop in a brewer. And Delaware-based Telesonic Packaging began marketing a packaging system that allows a roaster to fill and cap 50 Keurig-compatible capsules per minute. However, though plenty of ideas on getting into the Keurig space have been presented, it's not clear if any of them are tailor-made for small specialty roasters or tea packers. The number-one obsta- cle is the cost of equipment needed to create Keurig-compatible continued on page 22 RANDY READ