Why Puroast Sued Trader Joe's — And What We Are Fighting For

We did not want to sue anyone. We wanted to make great coffee. But when we saw what was happening to the people who needed honest low-acid coffee the most — we had no choice but to act.

This is our story, in our own words. Why we filed. What we found. And what we are asking for on behalf of every coffee drinker who has ever been misled by a label.

Puroast was founded on a simple but radical idea: that low-acid coffee had to actually be low acid. Not lower acid in a vague, unverifiable way. Not darker roasted and relabeled. Not decaffeinated and called something else. Genuinely, scientifically, measurably low acid — in a way that could be independently verified and replicated.

That obsession led us to partner with researchers at UC Davis. It led us through years of refining a patented slow-roasting process. It led us to two independent university studies that confirmed what we always believed: our coffee works. It is 5X less acid than leading brands. It has 5X more antioxidants. And it does this without stripping caffeine, without chemical treatments, and without shortcuts.

We built something real. And then we watched other brands slap the same words on their bags — with none of the science to back it up.

Trader Joe's is not the only brand making questionable low-acid claims. But their Low Acid Dark French Roast presented a specific and particularly troubling combination of problems that we could not ignore.

First, the acid reduction was not meaningful. Independent testing placed their coffee at pH 5.44 — barely above the upper range of regular coffee. For someone with chronic acid reflux or GERD who is paying a premium specifically for stomach relief, a marginal pH shift of 0.04 to 0.6 points is not going to help. It is not what the label implies.

Second — and this is the part that genuinely troubled us — the caffeine levels told a very different story than the packaging. Testing showed the product had approximately 50% of the caffeine of a standard coffee blend. Half. The caffeine profile of a half-caff product. And there was not a single word about this on the label.

Think about who buys low-acid coffee. It is often someone who cannot drink regular coffee because of a health condition. Someone who finally found something that seemed to offer relief. Someone who trusts that what is on the label reflects what is in the bag. That person deserved better.

Let us be clear about something. We did not file this lawsuit to put Trader Joe's out of business. We did not file it to collect a settlement check. We filed it because the low-acid coffee category has no rules — and that needs to change.

Our two requests are simple:

1. Clearer, mandatory labeling. If a brand uses a decaffeination-adjacent process to marginally reduce acid, consumers deserve to know. If the product has half the caffeine of regular coffee, that belongs on the front of the bag — not buried or absent entirely.

2. An official federal standard for what qualifies as low-acid coffee. Right now there is none. Any brand can use the term with zero accountability. We are asking the federal government to establish a clear, scientifically grounded threshold — so that when a consumer picks up a bag that says low acid, they can actually trust it.

Our patented slow-roasting process does something no other method in the industry has been able to replicate. By carefully controlling the roasting temperature and duration, chlorogenic acids — the primary acidic compounds in coffee — are transformed into antioxidant-rich phenolic compounds. The acid goes down. The antioxidants go up. And the caffeine stays completely intact.

This is not a marketing story. It is chemistry. It was confirmed by UC Davis in 2014. It was confirmed again by NC A&T in 2024. And it is now protected by a USPTO patent — the first of its kind in the coffee industry.

When Trader Joe's achieves their marginal acid reduction through what appears to be a decaffeination-adjacent process, they get a small pH bump at the cost of half the caffeine. When Puroast achieves genuine acid reduction through our patented roasting process, consumers get 5X less acid, 5X more antioxidants, and 100% of the caffeine. The difference is not subtle. It is the difference between a shortcut and a solution.

The case is active in the Southern District of Florida. Mediation has been ordered. Two consumer class action lawsuits — filed independently by real customers — have since piled on, both citing our original testing data as the foundation of their claims. National media has covered the story across CBS affiliates, legal news outlets, and coffee industry publications.

We do not know exactly how or when this resolves. What we do know is that the conversation has started — and it is not going away. Every day that passes without a federal standard for low-acid coffee is another day that consumers are left without protection.

We will keep fighting until that changes.