[Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company, AgFunder, is an investor in Rarebird]
A metabolite of caffeine that is now being deployed in everything from coffee to pre-workout supplements, paraxanthine (Px) delivers what most people want from energizing beverages, says Rarebird founder Dr. Jeffrey Dietrich: stimulation without the associated jitters, sleeplessness and anxiety.
Just like caffeine, Px wakes you up and reduces fatigue, claims Dietrich, a bioengineer who started exploring an enzymatic process to convert caffeine to Px using the same enzymes produced by the liver a few years ago. But unlike caffeine, he claims, “Px won’t leave you feeling jittery, wired, or over-caffeinated.” Px is also cleared from your body faster than caffeine, he asserts. “So you can drink Rarebird Px coffee later in the day without worrying about it affecting your sleep at night.”
Founded in 2020, San Leandro-based Rarebird has a patent covering the application of Px in coffee. For its first product, it combines Colombian decaf coffee and Px in a ground coffee product Dietrich is currently selling direct to consumer.
“Our coffee has 60mg Px per serving,” says Dietrich. “Right now we infuse roasted ground coffee with Px, but we have also developed technology to do it pre-roast with green coffee beans, which would give us the option of selling whole bean Px coffee down the road.”
AgFunderNews caught up with Dietrich at the SynBioBeta conference in San Jose this week to discuss the next generation of coffee, and his ultimate goal: “I want you to walk into every Starbucks and see Rarebird.”
