What the pod is made of, whether it is safe, whether it works in the machine you own, what it will cost and when you can actually buy one. If something is missing, ask Naturista AI or write to us.
One material: pullulan, a natural polysaccharide produced by fermenting starch and agro-plant waste with the fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. There is no plastic cup, no barrier film and no aluminium lid, which is what makes the pod a single material rather than a bonded laminate.
Yes. The machine pod is shaped to the standard single serve capsule format and brews in an ordinary machine with no adapter, no modification and no separate appliance.
Hot water dissolves it. Pullulan is water soluble, tasteless and already used as an edible film in products like breath strips and medicinal capsules, so the shell leaves nothing behind in the cup and nothing to pull out of the machine.
With the machine pod the shell dissolves. Anything left, including the used grounds, goes on the garden or in the food waste, and breaks down in soil or a home compost heap within days rather than needing an industrial facility.
A dissolvable sphere of instant coffee for people without a machine. Drop it in hot water, the shell dissolves and the coffee is made. No capsule, no wrapper, no spoon.
Pullulan is GRAS approved by the FDA and has been used in food and pharmaceutical products for decades. It is also a prebiotic dietary fibre, so the small amount that dissolves into the cup is food, not packaging residue.
Pullulan is neutral in taste and odour, and it seals against oxygen and moisture, which is the job the plastic and aluminium laminate was doing. The coffee is the variable, not the shell.
The material is a fermented polysaccharide, not a nut, dairy or gluten derived product. If you are managing a specific allergy, write to us before ordering and we will tell you exactly what is in the pod you would receive.
Measured research says yes. A 2025 study of 155 hot retail coffee samples found microplastic in every one, at a median around 43 particles per litre, and polypropylene, the plastic most capsules are made from, was the most common polymer identified.
The aim is parity with premium pods, not a green premium. A box of 48 instant pods is $84, which works out at $1.75 a pod; current prices are on the shop. Pullulan currently costs roughly five to nine cents a pod against three to five for a conventional capsule, and that gap narrows with volume.
Checkout runs through Stripe, so card details never touch this site. You will get an emailed receipt as soon as the payment clears, and boxes go out from New Jersey.
That is the plan, and it is the conversation we are most interested in having now. Write to contact@naturistacoffeepods.com.
Two founders, Karan Verma and Aditya Herekar, who started the company in December 2024 while still in high school. More about both on the team page.
Entirely through competition prizes and grants: $35,350 to date, including the grand prize at the Mott Million Dollar Challenge 2026. No equity has been sold, there are no investors and there is no debt. The full list is on the awards page.
Yes. Nine biopolymer candidates were tested against six criteria and the comparison is published with a registered DOI. The paper, the charts and the references are on the research page.
A provisional patent has been filed and a utility patent is pending.
Naturista AI answers questions about the material, the research and the company in its own words. For anything commercial, email reaches the founders.