Shifting Coffee,
Habits + Culture

We are brothers and first cousins - Daniel, Oliver and Lulu - who come from a tight-knit family of French Mauritian descent. Self-confessed coffee snobs, coffee has been a consistent thread through all our lives, and we have shared many of our most magical, memorable moments over a delicious flat white. Having all been raised on farms, we also share a very deep love for Nature.

Believing in business as a force of good, we wanted to be part of the shift that takes society and us into the future: A better, kinder future for people + for the planet. This is the reason we started 4WKS.

In 2018 alone, 56 billion plastic and 
aluminium Nespresso®-compatible capsules
(also known as pods) landed up in landfill, 
where they will remain for 450-500 years.

We recognised the brilliance of Nespresso® and how it meets the need for convenience: to enjoy an espresso anywhere, anytime and at the push of a button — at home, on holiday, in the office. But single-use plastic and aluminium pods aren’t options. Sugarcane pulp (bagasse) is. With millions of Nespresso® machines in use around the world, we wanted to use our home-compostable pods to shift coffee, culture + habits, 4WKS at a time.

We wanted to challenge the coffee inside pods, too. We asked ourselves: Why isn’t the coffee local, artisanal and freshly-roasted?

Why is it so often considered second-rate, and is mostly imported, mass-produced, with an expiry date of up to 2 years? So we approached the real experts: our favourite local roasters and invited them to be a part of our 4WKS pod collective — bringing them together to do better and to make great coffee available in a pod that's kind, fuss-free + fresh.