I’m Not Trying to Create Another Coffee Product. I’m Trying to Solve a Problem.
The longer I work in the coffee industry, the more I realize that coffee trends move ridiculously fast.
Today it’s an iced latte.
Tomorrow it’s coffee mocktails.
Next week, maybe someone will mix espresso with soda and somehow make it the next big thing.
And honestly, I love that.
Coffee should be creative. People should be able to experiment with it.
But there’s something interesting underneath all those trends.
The recipe keeps changing.
The ingredients keep changing.
The presentation keeps changing.
But the foundation often stays the same:
Espresso.
That realization changed how I think about coffee innovation.
What Will Always Be Relevant?
As a founder, I used to think innovation meant creating something completely new.
But the more I worked in coffee, the more I realized that sometimes the better opportunity is hiding inside something people already love.
Espresso is one of those things.
You can turn it into an Americano, latte, affogato, iced coffee, coffee mocktail, or pretty much anything your creativity allows.
The drink can change.
The occasion can change.
The trend can change.
But a good espresso will always have a place in that ecosystem.
So instead of asking myself, “What new coffee should I create?”
I started asking:
“How can I make premium espresso more practical?”
The Problem With Great Espresso
Making great espresso isn’t exactly complicated if you have the right setup.
But the setup itself can be a barrier.
You need an espresso machine.
You need a grinder.
You need good coffee beans.
You need the right dose and extraction.
And you need to know what you’re doing.
For cafés and coffee professionals, that’s part of the process.
But for everyone else?
Sometimes people just want a good espresso without having to build a coffee lab in their kitchen.
And that’s where I saw an opportunity.
Why Espresso Pouch?
That’s where we started working on espresso pouch at Tibasuka.
The idea sounds simple:
Make premium espresso more practical.
But actually building it is anything but simple.
I didn’t want to create another instant coffee.
I didn’t want to turn espresso into powder.
And I didn’t want convenience to become an excuse for lower quality.
I wanted to work on a format that could bring real espresso into more situations.
At home.
At work.
While traveling.
Get Tibasuka’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Behind a bar.
Or anywhere else someone wants to create coffee.
The pouch is simply the starting point.
What happens next is up to you.
Add water.
Add milk.
Add ice.
Mix it with soda.
Turn it into a mocktail.
Make an affogato.
Or create something nobody has thought of yet.
That’s what makes espresso interesting to me.
It’s not just a finished drink.
It’s a foundation for creativity.
I Don’t Know What the Next Coffee Trend Will Be
And honestly, I don’t think I need to.
That’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned as a founder.
You don’t always have to predict what’s next.
Sometimes you just need to understand what will remain important when everything else changes.
For me, that’s espresso.
Coffee culture will keep evolving.
New recipes will appear.
New formats will come.
New ways of consuming coffee will become popular.
But people will still want good coffee.
And there will always be a need for a great base.
That’s why I believe premium espresso and practicality can become a powerful combination.
Not because espresso pouch is supposed to replace cafés or espresso machines.
It isn’t.
It’s about creating another way to experience espresso.
We’re Still Building
I’d be lying if I said this journey has been easy.
There are still challenges around consistency, packaging, storage, shelf life, production, and scaling.
Some problems take weeks to solve.
Some take months.
And sometimes solving one problem creates three new ones.
But that’s part of building something that doesn’t have an obvious playbook.
We’re still experimenting.
Still improving.
Still learning.
And that’s okay.
Because I’m not trying to create another coffee product just for the sake of having another product on the market.
I’m trying to solve a problem that I believe will stay relevant.
How do we make premium espresso more practical without losing what makes espresso great?
That’s the question behind Tibasuka.
And that’s what I’m working on.
The trends can change.
The recipes can change.
The way people drink coffee can change.
But the foundation doesn’t have to.
Premium espresso, made more practical.
And honestly, we’re just getting started.
