STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 27 Although Meier originally started out market- ing his pods through distribution partners in Eu- rope, he has since begun re-focusing on online sales. "This was primarily a decision based on end-price considerations, as our former partners naturally insisted on receiving a profit cut too," he explained. That, he added, would not have allowed him to offer his pods at a reasonable price in the long run. His company is currently shipping to anywhere within the European Union, but for the past year has also begun accepting online orders from the United States and Canada "quite success- fully and in increasing amounts." An interesting future market with potential would be Australia, Meier said. SealPod, the Taiwanese solution Half around the world from Switzerland, in Taiwan, a young entrepreneur by the name of Molly Liu ex- perienced her very own eureka moment a few years after Erwin Meier had his game-changing idea. Liu claims on her website that she had become frustrated with the large amounts of money she invested in regular single use pods in order to satisfy her "coffee addiction". Possibly inspired by Erwin Meier's products, she therefore decided to develop her own reusable capsule, naming it SealPod. STiR got hold of an eco-conscious online retailer in the United Kingdom, Maverick Coffee, which had been featured in a recent report in "The Inde- pendent" newspaper. According to Maverick Coffee's co-owner and director, Natalie Hancock, her online business started marketing Liu's invention in 2019 and was "one of the first UK coffee companies to offer reusable pods for Nespresso and Dolce Gusto machines." Hancock's company has since become the exclusive UK distributor of SealPods. "We felt that SealPod would be a great product for us, as sustainability and ethical coffee play a big part in our company ethos," she explained. Hancock's hunch turned out to be entirely correct. "As soon as we had started offering SealPods they quickly became our big- gest-selling product," she claimed. "Our customers are often surprised at how easy they are to use and how great the coffee tastes." The "The Independent" article that had initially alerted STiR to the Taiwanese product, aptly described "SealPods" as "perhaps the most eco-friendly option of all reusable pods". Naturally, we wanted to know from Hancock whether these accolades were justified. Citing "a number of surveys in the trade press," she confirmed that SealPod brews "a far superior coffee with a very rich crema when compared to some single-use capsules that often make a weaker, more watery coffee." Wash, rinse, repeat! Currently being available in Nespresso and Dolce Gusto-compatible versions, a SealPod cup - just like Meier's mycoffeestar - is made from stainless steel. But that is where the similarities largely divert. After refilling, Molly Liu's Nes- presso-compatible pods are sealed with aluminum foil sticker lids that need to be discarded after each use. Meanwhile, the Dolce Gusto version also has a steel strainer that goes into the bottom of the cup before filling. An additional filter paper to cover the strainer is optional. "But some people prefer not to use the filter as it can weaken the brew a little," Hancock pointed out, adding that a SealPod can last up to 10 years "if looked after properly." That "looking after" is as easy as pie, of course. Whether it's Erwin Meier's pioneering mycof- feestar or Molly Liu's SealPod, they both are simply washed out and can then be immediately refilled, discarded coffee grinds simply going into the regular dustbin or onto the backyard compost heap. If that doesn't sway consumers with an incorrigible penchant for convenience, what does? Maverick Coffee's Natalie Hancock is visibly proud about her reusable SealPod capsules. Credit: Pippa Williams The Vertuo/Vertuoline-compatible "V-Multidisk" version of mycoffeestar pods. The Nespresso-compatible "Gamma" version of mycoffeestar pods. Credit: Swiss Innovation Products GmbH Credit: Swiss Innovation Products GmbH

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