Upcycling coffee fruit: I Am Grounded lands deal with Woolworths for its energy snacks

Sydney-based wellness social enterprise I am Grounded (IAG) has launched the first-ever energy snack made from upcycled coffee fruit, which has already hit the health food shelves in nearly 1000 Woolworths retail stores across Australia and are the first naturally caffeinated snack bars to hit the health aisle.

The IAG enterprise, which was founded by life and business partners Vanessa Murillo and Lachlan Powell in 2018, upcycles the natural by-product of coffee fruit into sustainable snacks for mindful eating. Coffee fruit refers to the red coffee cherry that encompasses the bean (seed) and is often discarded during the coffee bean harvesting process.

Murillo told SmartCompany she is proud that the business upcycles around 50 grams of coffee fruit in every snack bar.

“I grew up surrounded by coffee, having immigrated from Colombia as a child and working in my family’s coffee business from a young age. Through my father’s work in the agri-tech space, I was introduced first-hand to the devastating environmental impact of wasted coffee fruit,” she says. 

“I was shocked to see the amount of waste associated with coffee farming and I was inspired to make a difference.”

The average coffee drinker will consume roughly 11kg of coffee beans per year, creating about 57kg of coffee fruit waste. By using upcycled coffee fruit IAG helps prevent unused coffee fruit from ending up in landfill.

The company’s coffee fruit extract is sourced directly from a small number of micro-lot coffee farms in the Coffee Triangle farming region of Colombia.

The snacks bars have been available in Woolworths stores for four weeks and Powell says the response from customers has been “overwhelming”. 

“It’s also been a heartfelt moment for us personally to see our product on the shelf at Woolworths for the first time, as this has been a goal of ours since launching the business in 2018,” he says. 

The IAG bars are available in Woolworths stores in every state and territory, says Murillo, and are the first naturally caffeinated snack bars in the health aisle. The different varieties contain different levels of caffeine (between 20mg and 60mg), which means customers can “snack functionally”, says the co-founder. 

“Each I Am Grounded product sold further contributes directly to lessening food waste, with our customers already helping to divert almost 20,000 kilos of coffee fruit from going to waste since 2019,” she adds. 

Powell says the pair are now focused on building awareness of their brand and products across Australia and “grow strategically with the right retail partners”. 

“We have a number of products in the pipeline all featuring the delicious coffee fruit and our core brand propositions of innovation and sustainability,” he says.