Keurig Alta’s Seaweed-Based Coating Gets the Design-Press Treatment

The Keurig Alta has reached the design magazines. Milan-based DesignWanted ran a launch piece on Nov. 9, and the part it dwells on is the material that replaces the plastic pod.

Each AltaRound is a disc of ground coffee pressed the way a barista tamps espresso, then sealed in a plant-based coating that DesignWanted says is made partly from alginate, which comes from seaweed. According to the piece, the brewed puck and its coating come out as one lump that’s certified by BPI as home and commercially compostable, and the coating itself carries NSF certification. A code on each round tells the machine what pressure, temperature and water ratio to use, with up to 10 bar for espresso and a gentler setting for coffee.

The rest is the launch spec we’ve covered before. The brewer is $499.99 at KeurigAlta.com in white, sandstone or graphite, it has a built-in frother, and it still takes regular K-Cups. AltaRounds come in packs of eight for $9.99 to $10.99, in six varieties at launch, and DesignWanted says Peet’s will be the first outside brand, with more promised later. It also repeats Keurig’s claim that a limited pre-order sold out in under a day.

Our take: the coating is the clever bit, and it’s why the Alta can skip plastic without giving up the pressure espresso needs. But “home compostable” only helps if you actually compost, and the machine’s real selling point is still the milk drinks. Our AltaRounds explainer covers what each round costs, and our write-up of WIRED’s Alta review gets into whether $500 makes sense.