The $4 billion coffee pod business faces its biggest threat yet
Lavazza’s newest single-serve machine is brewing up a new promise to coffee lovers: less plastic waste. This week, the 131-year-old Italian coffee brand debuted Tablì, a 100% coffee tab that has no plastic capsule, individual wrapping, or coating. The tabs are a result of five years of R&D from a team of trained baristas and other experts whose primary goal was to develop a more sustainable coffee pod that won’t fall apart when touched and still matches the flavor and creamy consistency that’s in Lavazza’s other espresso offerings. Daniele Foti, VP of marketing for Lavazza North America, says the new innovation aims to bridge the gap between the convenience and consistency of single-serve coffee pods with the more classic, multisensory experience of using ground or bean coffee, which he contends coffee fans still crave. “There are structural limitations of the single-serve systems related to what you can actually experience around coffee, before and during the preparation of it,” Foti tells Fast Company. Taking on the coffee pod giants Four in ten American adults have a single-cup brewer in their homes, according to the trade group the National Coffee Association, and Lavazza says nearly 9.4 billion single-serve coffee pods are sold annually in the U.S. market alone. The rising popularity of single-serve coffee has created coffee behemoths like Keurig, which generates $4 billion in U.S. sales each year, and Nestlé’s Nespresso, whose annual global revenue totals $8.2 billion. Lavazza is far smaller, aiming to double revenue to $1 billion in the North American market by 2029 from 2024 levels. Lavazza’s 100% coffee tabs can be made only with the new Tablì machine, sold for $99.99 in a preorder bundle offering that includes the device, a milk frother, and a 60-count variety pod collection. The Tablì machine is sold in three colors: graphite black, sand white, and walnut brown. The machines are capable of making five different blends, including espresso, double espresso,