Auckland · Circular Food Innovation

Yesterday's Coffee.Tomorrow's Food.

Transforming Auckland's spent coffee grounds into fresh gourmet mushrooms — one local café at a time.

Freshly brewed coffee with beans and spent grounds
TerraCaffe gourmet mushroom growing kit with fresh oyster mushrooms
Scroll to discover the cycle

The Problem

What if coffee waste wasn't waste?

Espresso machine in a busy Auckland café

A city that runs on coffee

Auckland's café culture creates a continuous stream of spent coffee grounds. Once brewed, the grounds are wet, heavy and difficult to handle — and are commonly disposed of as general waste.

A person at home wanting to grow food but lacking space

Homes that want to grow

At the same time, households, families and schools increasingly want simple, hands-on ways to grow food and experience sustainability — without needing time, space or expertise.

"A waste stream on one side. A food-growing opportunity on the other."

The Transformation

From yesterday's coffee to tomorrow's food.

01
Collect

Spent grounds, saved from the bin

Separated spent coffee grounds are collected from partner cafés across Auckland.

Barista emptying spent coffee grounds into a TerraCaffe collection bin
02
Prepare

Prepared & heat-treated

The grounds are mixed into a substrate and heat-treated to create a clean growing medium.

Coffee grounds being prepared and heat-treated as growing substrate
03
Inoculate

Gourmet mushroom spawn

Premium oyster mushroom spawn is introduced into the prepared substrate.

TerraCaffe kit packed and ready to grow
04
Incubate

The mycelium colonises

Inside each kit, the mycelium quietly weaves through the coffee-based substrate.

TerraCaffe growing kit during incubation
05
Grow

A daily spray of water

Customers simply mist the kit with water each day and watch the mushrooms emerge.

Customer spraying a TerraCaffe kit with water at home
06
Harvest

Fresh gourmet mushrooms

Fresh gourmet mushrooms, ready to cook in approximately 10–14 days.

Freshly harvested gourmet oyster mushrooms on a plate
07
Return to the Earth

Back into the soil

Spent growing material can be composted — closing the loop and feeding new growth.

Coffee waste collection returning to the circular cycle
The TerraCaffe Gourmet Mushroom Growing Kit

The Product

Meet the TerraCaffe Growing Kit.

◍

Pre-inoculated

Ready to fruit without complicated preparation.

☂

Easy to Grow

Simply spray with water daily.

✦

Fresh Food

Harvest gourmet mushrooms in approximately 10–14 days.

♻

Circular

Made using spent coffee grounds, with an end-of-life compost pathway.

Join the Pilot →

Substrate Science

Engineered from waste. Designed for growth.

Substrate composition: coffee grounds, sawdust, wheat straw and gypsum
0%
Spent Coffee Grounds
0%
Hardwood Sawdust
0%
Wheat Straw
0%
Gypsum
Current development formulation

Coffee grounds provide a nutrient-rich input, sawdust contributes structure and carbon, straw improves aeration and bulk, while gypsum supports mineral and pH balance. This is our current working formulation — it will continue to be refined and validated through experimental batches during the pilot.

The Circular Economy

One coffee ground. Three lives.

Coffee → Waste → Mushrooms → Food → Compost → New Growth

TerraCaffe logo the cycle continues
☕Coffee
♻️Waste
🍄Mushrooms
🍽️Food
🌱Compost
🌿New Growth

"We don't just divert waste. We give it another life."

Impact

Impact you can see.

0 kg

Coffee Grounds Diverted

Pilot target
0 kits

Kits Created

Pilot target
0+

Local Café Partners

Growth target
0 lives

Per Coffee Ground

Circular design
TerraCaffe environmental impact dashboard concept showing collection network and diversion breakdown

Figures shown are pilot targets and planning assumptions from the TerraCaffe development proposal — not verified achievements. Actual collection, production and impact data will be measured and reported per batch during the pilot programme.

For Cafés

Your coffee can grow something new.

TerraCaffe collects separated spent coffee grounds from local café partners and turns them into a traceable waste-to-food product — with every batch linked back to the cafés that made it possible.

TerraCaffe supplies collection bins

Café separates coffee grounds

TerraCaffe collects the grounds

Grounds enter the production process

Coffee becomes mushroom-growing kits

Café receives impact information

The TerraCaffe collection ecosystem connecting cafés, production and customers

Circular Partner Programme

Make your circular contribution visible.

The TerraCaffe Circular Partner programme recognises cafés for the grounds they divert. Partners earn tiered badges they can display in-store and online — turning everyday coffee waste into a visible sustainability story.

Founding PartnerPlatinum PartnerGold PartnerImpact PartnerGreen Partner
TerraCaffe partner badge designs: Gold, Platinum, Founding, Impact and Green Partner
Become a Partner →
Example partner profile concept showing collection stats and badge status

Example partner profile from the TerraCaffe concept design — shown for illustration purposes.

Digital Platform

Circularity, connected.

"Behind every collection is a growing digital ecosystem."

Collection schedulingWaste-bin scanningCollection recordsBatch traceabilityImpact reportingPartner dashboardsCustomer engagementCircularity data

Interface concepts from the TerraCaffe digital ecosystem design — in development.

Customer Experience

From box to harvest.

📦
Day 0

Open

Unbox your kit and find it a bright spot out of direct sun.

💧
Day 1

Spray

Begin misting with water — twice a day keeps the mycelium happy.

Day 3

Mycelium develops

Fine white threads spread through the coffee substrate.

Day 7

Growth accelerates

Tiny pins appear and double in size almost daily.

🍄
Day 10–14

Harvest

Twist, pull, cook. Fresh gourmet mushrooms for your table.

Who It's For

Grown for every kind of grower.

Growing mushrooms at home with a TerraCaffe kit
Home

Homes & Apartments

For families, apartment dwellers and home growers.

"Grow fresh food without needing a garden."

School children exploring a TerraCaffe mushroom growing kit
Schools

Schools & STEM

For schools, universities and STEM programmes.

"Turn biology, food systems and sustainability into a hands-on experience."

TerraCaffe kits as corporate sustainability gifts
Business

Corporate & Gifting

For corporate sustainability and gifting.

"A meaningful product with a measurable circular story."

Business Model

Simple products. Circular value.

Retail

Home Growing Kits

NZ$39.95

Current planning retail price per kit.

Education

Education Kits

Bulk pricing

Classroom packs for schools, universities and STEM programmes.

Corporate

Corporate Packs

Branded orders

Sustainability gifting with a story worth telling.

Future

Refill subscriptions

NZ$19–24 planning range

Prices shown are current planning assumptions and will be validated during the pilot.

Innovation Lab

Coffee waste has more lives to give.

TerraCaffe's long-term vision extends beyond mushroom kits. Spent coffee grounds are a rich biomass with potential across materials, packaging and textiles.

Naturally dyed textiles in coffee-derived tones
Early-stage research

Natural Dyes

Researching the potential to extract natural textile dyes from spent coffee grounds. TerraCaffe has initiated discussions with Dr. Piyal Ariyananda regarding future natural-dye research.

Biodegradable coffee-fibre cups concept
Future application

Biodegradable Paper Products

Potential future applications include coffee cup sleeves, disposable cups, food packaging and paper bags.

Coffee-based fibre packaging and material concepts
Future application

Bio-based Materials

Potential future applications include fibre composites, sustainable packaging and coffee-based biodegradable materials.

These pathways represent future research directions under exploration — not completed research or commercial products.

Founding Team

Built across disciplines.

Buddika Lakmal, co-founder of TerraCaffe

Buddika Lakmal

Entrepreneurship & SME Development

  • PhD Candidate, Faculty of Arts & Education, University of Auckland
  • MPA, SKKU, South Korea
  • Certificate in Small Business Management
  • Entrepreneurship and SME development experience
Gihan Kuruppu, co-founder of TerraCaffe

Gihan Kuruppu

Systems, Digitalisation & Operations

  • PhD Candidate, Faculty of Engineering & Design, University of Auckland
  • MPhil in Computer Science
  • BSc in Information Systems and Electronics
  • Lean Black Belt · TPM Practitioner
Chathurka Mihiraj, co-founder of TerraCaffe

Chathurka Mihiraj

AI, Engineering & Control Systems

  • PhD Candidate, Faculty of Engineering & Design, University of Auckland
  • MSc in AI
  • BSc (Hons) in Engineering
  • Electrical Engineer · Control Systems Designer

Honest Status

From concept to validation.

NOW

Pre-pilot development

Substrate development, sourcing and kit design are underway.

NEXT

20–30 experimental kits

Small experimental batches to test the growing process end-to-end.

THEN

Three substrate formulations

Comparative trials to identify the best-performing coffee-based substrate.

PILOT

100-kit pilot

A structured pilot with real customers and partner cafés.

TEST

Validation

What we will measure before we scale:

YieldContaminationFruiting successCustomer experienceUnit economics
SCALE

Scale

Production capacity, an expanded café network and ecommerce.

TerraCaffe is at the pre-pilot stage. The milestones above describe planned development and testing — none of these future validation steps are claimed as complete. We believe circular food systems deserve both ambition and honesty.

Growth Roadmap

Where we're going.

01

Prove

5 café partners · 100 pilot kits

02

Learn

Farmers markets + University community

03

Launch

Ecommerce + direct sales

04

Expand

Schools + retailers + corporate

05

Scale

Wellington + Christchurch + nationwide

TerraCaffe logo

What if yesterday's coffee could feed tomorrow?

Join TerraCaffe in building a more circular food system — one café, one kit and one harvest at a time.

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