Back to the Root's Alejandro Velez on Turning Coffee Waste into Gourmet Mushrooms

It only takes a few minutes of conversation with Back to the Root's Alejandro Velez to realize that this recent Berkeley grad has knowledge and talent far beyond his years. In fact, him and partner Nikhil Arora started their new venture harvesting mushrooms from their fraternity basement, and I'm not talking the psychoactive variety. They realized early on that the acidic and wet nature of coffee provided the ideal breeding ground for gourmet mushrooms.

They both turned down job offers in investment banking after school to explore the opportunity to grow these mushrooms on a larger scale. The two approached Whole Foods with the idea.

"The enthusiasm from Whole Foods and others like Alice Waters motivated us to take the idea further. After months of research, we were finally able to supply the Berkeley Whole Foods store," said Velez.

After realizing their mushroom growing potential they approached Peet's Coffee with the idea of using their waste to generate the mushrooms. As of this February they had become the sole oyster mushroom supplier to the entire North California region of Whole Foods while transforming over 10,000 pounds of coffee ground waste per week from Peet's Coffee.

"Our own by-product, the spent mushroom substrate, becomes a rich soil amendment which we donate to urban gardens around the area and it's now also being sold at Whole Foods and other nurseries as a premium myco-inoculated plant and vegetable bloomer," Velez says.

Most recently, BTTR moved from being mushroom farmers to manufacturing mushroom growing kits for kids. Velez, who was an education major at Berkeley, sees connecting kids with the food they eat as one of the most important goals of their venture.

"We chose mushrooms because kids can see the benefits of their work in 10 days. It keeps them occupied in a way that slower growing plants can't. If kids send us a picture of them growing the mushrooms we send them another kit free."

Today, BTTR has diverted over 50,000 pounds of coffee grounds into a rich soil for gourmet mushrooms while also sustaining 10 urban school and community gardens by donating their premium soil amendment.

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