The Food Scientist Behind Bean-Free Coffee on Staying Grounded

Creating new foods is difficult, particularly when looking for substitutes for favorites like chocolate and coffee. Sam Ryo, head of research and development at Voyage Foods, is intimately familiar with the challenges of making imitations of foods to which humans are emotionally attached—peanut butter without peanuts, cacao-free chocolate, and coffee sans beans. He devises products that can skirt the myriad problems that plague the coffee and cacao markets, such as deforestation and other risks tied to climate change, volatile prices, low wages, and child labor.

Many food companies outsource their product creation processes, but Voyage does everything in-house. Ryo is getting ready to release the imitation peanut butter in January, just a year after the company was founded. As Voyage works to close a second round of funding, it’s an all-hands-on-deck environment, he says. “We unload manufacturing equipment that’s really big, like 2 or 4 tons,” says Ryo. “The whole team gets together and does it.” Here are his strategies for staying grounded: