Nestled in the heart of Ketchum, Idaho, Coulée Coffee Co. is redefining the single-serve coffee experience. Led by co-founder Ted Ayliffe Ph.D., a seasoned engineer with a passion for both coffee and the outdoors, Coulée Coffee merges innovation with sustainability to deliver exceptional coffee without compromising the planet.
The inspiration for Coulée Coffee struck Ted during a spring ski trip in March of 2021, and it was with co-founders Greg Dittami and Mike McGinnis that they brought the company to life.
"I was on a ski trip and staying in a hotel in Bozeman, MT,” recalls Ted. “The room had a Nuzee style, in-cup, drip coffee bag, and I hadn’t seen that before. The coffee was better than a Keurig, but still not great, and the process seemed a bit awkward. As I sat there drinking the coffee, I thought why isn’t this just easier and/or automated? I went straight to my design notebook and got started."
Innovating the Single-Serve Experience
Coulée Coffee's flagship innovation is the SWIRL Brewer, the world's first single-serve automated pour-over system. Designed to replicate the manual pour-over process, the SWIRL ensures each brew is self-adapting, delivering consistent, high-quality coffee.
“We took great care to get the water temperature just right (205 degrees), be sure to fully wet the coffee grounds (thus the Swirl Arm movement), and optimize the grind size and filter material to be sure the water/coffee exposure time was perfect,” explains Ted, noting that the machine also senses pre-boil, so if you live at altitude it will get you as close to 205 degrees as possible automagically.
Coulée's claim to fame: the SWIRL brewer! You can use the same EcoPour pods on trail.
“We also wanted to address the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of other single-serve brewers,” he continues. “The SWIRL is an external brewer and coffee never comes into contact with the system, so it stays clean and free of mold. The “hot side” of the system is also all stainless steel, so no hot water comes into contact with plastic. It’s healthy, clean, easy to use, and makes fantastic coffee without harming the environment. Boom.”
Complementing the SWIRL Brewer are the EcoPour™ filters—100% compostable, single-serve filters pre-filled with 14 grams of ethically sourced, premium coffee. These filters are designed for convenience, fitting over any standard mug for manual brewing or integrating seamlessly with the SWIRL system.
This means you can enjoy the same great coffee that you brew up in your lightweight, EcoPour™ filters at home—out on the trail. These lightweight brew pods also feature a wide 2.35-inch opening that makes manual pouring a breeze, while also helping you minimize the need for carrying bulky brewing gear or relying on plastic-heavy brewing contraptions while exploring the great outdoors.
The EcoPour™ pods fit perfectly in your my or camp pot and are compostable at your municipal composting facility.
A Legacy of Design and Sustainability
Ted's background in product design—including being the co-founder of G3 and Skye Alpine, as well as one of the main brains behind the design, launch, and sale of the life science company ORFLO Technologies—has been instrumental in shaping Coulée Coffee's innovative approach.
"The experiences on the product design, manufacturing, and commercial side with G3 helped immensely, especially the market knowledge I obtained there," Ted notes. “A general understanding of who the outdoor customers are and what they need has also shaped product design for the EcoPour™, and it drove us to find a simple solution that would just sit on the cup, travel well, and be fully compostable.”
On the other hand, their 19 years of product design and manufacturing experience at ORFLO—developing sophisticated cell analyzers for cancer research—helped significantly with the complexity that was required for them to develop the SWIRL automated pour-over brewer.
“It's a brand new coffee system unlike any in the world before it.”
Of course, pioneering new technologies is never a smooth process, as Ted notes the challenges of starting up were a-plenty.
“Finding compostable materials for the EcoPour™ and packaging, developing a custom boiler that would deliver water intermittently without getting cold, developing the algorithm to 'know' when to dispense water (and when not to), determining how to sense water pre-boil for systems at altitude, developing the automated filling systems for the EcoPour™, and being able to offer this level of complexity at an affordable price.”
“In short, it was all more challenging than we anticipated, and we feel very fortunate to have gotten this far with such a new technology,” Ted says, acknowledging that none of this would be possible without the team behind the scenes.
Coulée Coffee’s core crew is composed of three lifelong development engineers—two of whom hold Ph.D.s in bioengineering. It’s not the typical resume you’d expect in a coffee startup, but that’s exactly what makes the company so exceptional.
“Together we have developed this technology from the ground up, in-house,” Ted shares. From custom boilers to compostable packaging to altitude-adapting algorithms, the Coulée team has tackled a laundry list of technical challenges to bring their vision to life—and they’re just getting started.
Complexities aside, the most rewarding moments for Ted and his team are often the simplest.
“People actually write or call to thank us for doing this—it’s very rewarding,” reflects Ted. “We also have new hotel customers that tell us their guests love the in-room SWIRLS—and nobody EVER likes in-room coffee:). It’s so fun to see the vision coming to life.”
Looking Ahead
Coulée Coffee is poised for growth, with plans to expand its product offerings and retail presence. The company is collaborating with renowned coffee brands to offer more variety in the EcoPour™ format and is developing a 20-pack of compostable EcoPours™ for home use, further reducing packaging waste.
Additionally, a new brewer is in the works, that, while still under wraps, promises to build on the same game-changing innovation that made the SWIRL a standout in the coffee world. As Ted hints, “We can’t say much about that at this point though, other than it will be awesome.”
This drive toward constant innovation is balanced by a grounded commitment to sustainability and real-world usability. Coulée isn’t in the game of gimmicks—they’re here to make brewing great coffee easy, accessible, and gentle on the Earth.
“We are hopeful that people will see the value of switching to Coulée Coffee Company for both their home brewing and camping/travel coffee,” shares Ted. “As we grow, we will not stray from our core values. Our mission is simple, the highest quality coffee with the lowest possible environmental impact. We hope that in 5-10 years there will be no more plastic or aluminum pods delivering sub-par coffee.”
At its heart, Coulée Coffee isn’t just about better coffee. It’s about better systems. Better experiences. Better impacts.
And if Ted could share a Coulée brew with anyone? It’d be Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and icon of purpose-driven business. “I love his style, vision, and story. Doing good things and giving back to the world. Who better to share a Coulée coffee with on a mountain top?”
With one foot in cutting-edge engineering and the other in the dirt, Coulée Coffee is crafting the future of brewing—one thoughtful pour at a time. And if that pour happens to be at sunrise on a ridgeline? All the better.
Ali Becker is a freelance writer and adventure storyteller who relishes time spent in the great outdoors. When she isn't hiking, biking or trail running in the mountains, you can find her working as a wellness guide, empowering women to thrive through every cycle of their lives. You can keep up with her latest adventures at @thisisalibecker on Instagram.
