hey!

We’re Laurra and Meryem 👋 Two friends brought together by coffee, long walks and one very unlikely bean.

Meryem is a scientist. Laurra is a brand and marketing specialist. Together with Phil, we discovered something rather unexpected: roast a lupin bean and it tastes surprisingly like coffee.

We both love coffee. A lot. But sometimes we want another cup without the caffeine, and disappointing decaf wasn’t quite doing it for us.

LUCO grew out of Lupin Loop, an Innovate UK-funded project exploring new possibilities for this overlooked but incredible crop. After plenty of experimenting, tasting and “go on, just one more cup”, we found our brew.

Rich, roasted and naturally caffeine-free, made from lupin beans grown right here in the UK.

Not coffee. Not decaf. A new kind of brew.

We hope you love it as much as we do!

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OUR GOLDEN ROASTER 

It took 14 goes. We drank the homework.

Our lupin beans get the roasting treatment right here in Leeds, West Yorkshire, in a Golden Coffee Roaster.

Finding the right roast took 14 attempts, plenty of patience and a fair few cups along the way. The result? The rich, smooth brew we’d been looking for.

An unlikely bean. A little Yorkshire roasting magic. Ready for your favourite mug.  

  • A LITTLE LEGUME

    Lupin beans are the seeds of the lupin plant, part of the same family as peas, lentils and chickpeas. We use blue lupin beans, also known as narrow-leaved lupins.

  • grown closer to home

    Lupins thrive across temperate regions, including the UK. Ours are grown in Lincolnshire, supporting British agriculture and giving us a shorter, more local supply chain.

  • NATURALLY CAFFEINE FREE

    Lupin beans contain no caffeine naturally. That means there’s no caffeine to remove before they become your favourite brew.

  • PERFECT UK CROP

    Blue lupins can grow in cooler conditions, making them well suited to growing in Britain including its colder, wetter regions.

  • clever little bean

    Lupins work with bacteria in their roots to fix nitrogen from the air. This can reduce the need for nitrogen fertiliser and benefit the crops grown after them.

  • a wild name

    Lupin takes its name from the Latin lupus, meaning wolf. One explanation is that people once believed lupins “devoured” the soil’s nutrients - an unfair reputation for a nitrogen-fixing plant! 

MEET THE TEAM

  • Laurra

    I've spent the past 15 years helping food and drink brands find their brand story, sharpen their positioning and develop their identity so naturally I look after LUCO's marketing!  

    I'm a massive coffee lover with a keen interest in food, nutrition and wellbeing, and when I discovered lupin beans I could have cried - finally something to replace all that rubbish decaf I was drinking! 

  • meryem

    I grew up in Portugal where lupin beans are a snack - it took a lot of research and testing to uncover their true potential - as a coffee alternative.

    I'm also a scientist with a PhD in organic chemistry so I bring the plant knowledge, product expertise and the curiosity that started this whole adventure! If you’ve got a question about the lupin beans - I'm your woman! 

  • phil

    An interesting bean is a good start. Working out how to get it from field to kitchen cupboard takes a different set of skills.

    That’s where I come in. I've been a Chartered Engineer for more than 25 years with experience across engineering and food innovation. 

    I bring the practical thinking that helps turn our ideas into bags of LUCO.

  • andrew

    I guess you could call me the Roaster Guy. Along with running my own coffee shop in Leeds I've been really proud to be part of LUCO's journey and help the team bring the most delicious tasting roast to market. 

    It's been a lot of trials in our coffee roaster to get to the perfect roast and as a coffee lover myself this is as close to really decent coffee as we could get it! 

  • wani

    Coffee is my business. We grow, source, process and import Malawian coffee, so supporting the LUCO team with advice on how to achieve the right taste that would satisfy a coffee lover has been where my expertise has shone. 

    I've really enjoyed getting to know a completely different kind of bean - but one that behaves and tastes like coffee.