Another new find for us is Point3, who have recently expanded from Hong Kong, into the UK market. We recently spoke to Janice Wong, who talked us through her ideas and the story behind the brand.
So what’s in a name, why Point3? Well, the coffee they’re moving is 30% caffeine, so lo-caff, although we spent a while debating the terms, is it lo-caff or light-caff, whatever the answer really is, the coffee remains the same.
Janice is a keen advocate of lo-caff coffee, the brand is actually the result of solving a problem she experienced, with some well-thought-out research along the way. She explains the half-life of coffee, on average, is around 4-6 hours. Which means if you’re sensitive to caffeine, that afternoon cup you’re craving to get you through that late meeting, could very easily start toying with your sleep - so the answer is usually decaf right? Well, it could be, but I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried going cold turkey from caffeine (🙋🏼♀️), it can be unpleasant, headaches and dips in productivity, but if you switch to a lo-caff, you’re still getting some caffeine, enough to stave off the afternoon slump without endangering the quality of your sleep.
So the challenge was creating a coffee with just enough caffeine to see you through without keeping you up at night. At the same time, it has to be better than the generic decaf options you can often find, old and stale because no one wanted it, or just what was left over and sent for decaf processing as it wasn’t as good as the rest 😬
With the help of a local roaster, Janice has picked out a Swiss Water Process Mexican coffee, which is blended with single origins from Colombia, Ethiopia or Brazil, to create their select range of 30% caffeine offerings.
