Process
Most açaí coffee is roasted by eye. That is a problem.
Roast the seed too hot and you destroy the things worth drinking it for, while making the powder look more like coffee. So we do not roast by eye.
What the research found
In 2025, a study characterising roasted açaí seed beverages from three Brazilian regions found wide variation in quality between producers, attributed to a lack of standardisation in artisanal roasting. In 2026, a second group roasted açaí seed across a controlled range and measured what happened to it.
Higher roasting temperatures reduced phenolic content, antioxidant capacity and inulin. Temperature was the dominant factor. Colour darkened with both time and temperature.
Read those together and the trap is obvious. The hotter you roast, the darker the powder gets, and the more it looks like the coffee it is standing in for. It also loses more of the fibre and the polyphenols that made the seed worth using. The same study found soluble solids peaked under mild conditions, around 175°C for 10 to 20 minutes. That is the window. Hotter is not a stronger roast, it is a diminished one.
What we control
The seed is roasted under controlled speed, temperature and uniform pressure, rather than judged by eye. The controls start well before the roaster, and the two that matter most are at either end of it.
Thirty-six hours from the tree
Seed is collected within 36 hours of the fruit being harvested and de-pulped. Açaí seed does not keep once the pulp is off it. Ours is washed, graded and dried to a controlled moisture point before it is stored.
The roast is stopped, not left to fade
Out of the roaster the seed goes straight into high-speed extraction cooling, so it stops at the intended point instead of cooking in its own residual heat. That is the step that protects what over-roasting destroys.
Packed within twenty-four hours
Ground seed is packed within 24 hours into laminated zip-lock pouches that keep out light and heat, sealed and marked with production date, batch and expiry.
What this does not mean
The research above was carried out in a laboratory, on seed from Afuá, by scientists with no connection to us. It tells you why roasting temperature matters. It does not measure our product, and we are not going to present it as though it does. Any figure we publish about what is actually in Dripssai will come from laboratory analysis of Dripssai.
References
- Pereira et al. (2026). Roasting-Induced Changes in Bioactive Compounds and Volatile Profile of Açaí Seeds Powder. Journal of Food Biochemistry.
- da Silva et al. (2025). Upcycled Beverage From Roasted Açaí Seeds. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.
- Lima et al. (2025). Investigating Roasted Açaí Seed Powder as a Coffee Substitute. Foods, 14(15):2696.