On The Go Coffee

Entrepreneur: When Candy Palmer-Steele’s goddaughter went away to music camp for the summer, she remarked how much she would miss the local coffee shops she frequented with her friends. That comment inspired Palmer-Steele to send her a care package–with a twist. Palmer-Steele bought 100 percent Arabica beans, filtered water through the grounds and squeezed out the concentrate a little at a time. Twelve hours and 16 ounces later, Palmer-Steele sent the concentrate to her goddaughter in a glass bottle, with directions to mix one table-spoon with hot water. “I mailed it off with my fingers crossed,” Palmer-Steele says of the first incarnation of Javette.
Her goddaughter liked it–inspiring Palmer-Steele to turn her idea into a business. Wanting to perfect her product, she hired several consultants and manufacturers and spent $30,000 on R&D over four years. The end result: a 0.25-ounce single serving of coffee concentrate in pressure-resistant packaging that, when mixed with hot water, provides gourmet coffee on the go.
New Brew [Entrepreneur]