David

In 2021, David embarked on a 10 day hike through Andalucia, Spain with friends. While deep in the mountains of the Sierras de Tejeda, with over 30km's still left to cover until they could reach the beautiful village of Competa, they came to a startling realisation: they needed coffee. Literally kilometers away from civilization and with no café con leche in sight, tensions rose, desperation set in, and something had to be done. It just so happened that David, an avid adventurer and enthusiastic planner, had recently stocked up his provisions at a local supermarket and secretly bought & stashed a small jar of instant coffee in his backpack. Equipped with luke warm drinking water and the only travel cups he could find, he proceeded to the make the unimaginable happen. David's small jar of instant coffee stayed with the group throughout the While the instant coffee was certainly not the best coffee any of them had ever tasted, they realised that it still provided them some solace when nothing else could.

‍This got David thinking, what would it take to create a great instant coffee?

And so the quest for Stardust began!

Peter

Peter has a very different story. While he was living in Vienna, Austria in 2020 - when weeks of lockdown turned into months - the sleeplessness, anxiety and exhaustion sent Pete into a full-blown burnout. Needing to take charge of his well-being, he quickly became hooked on tools for health optimisation.

With a bit of research, Pete realised that drinking 3 - 4 cups of coffee was probably not a good idea, especially because he had no way of knowing how much caffeine was in each cup.

‍An Americano made at home could have around 60mg of caffeine, while a brewed coffee from a popular coffee chain could have almost triple that amount. Upsize that to a medium cup? You're looking at around 400mg of caffeine - the equivalent of about 7 Stardust sachets!
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Fast forward to 2022, Pete's small obsession is now a not-so-small obsession and, with a background in tech startups, he joined forces with David to work on something that they're both really (really) excited about: finding the ultimate solution for manageable doses of insanely good instant coffee.

Paul

Paul is equal parts coffee-lover and adventurer. In 2013, he traveled to Ecuador for the first time and was amazed by the beauty of the country. He came across a piece of land that he loved, and he knew right away that he had found the ideal place to grow his own coffee.

By 2015, Paul had started his own coffee plantation. Over the years, he built strong relationships with local farmers and the plantation became an organic farm. Paul has also built his own organic food brand in Europe, providing him with more than 15 years of experience in the food and retail industry. Did we mention that he also has a diploma as a nutritionist?!

While traveling the world, Paul often drinks instant coffee because of its convenience and, well, there aren't always other good options out there. But truth be told, he has never really been satisfied with the quality or taste of instant coffee. When Pete and David approached him with the idea of setting up a brand that will shake up the industry, he jumped at the opportunity. With all of his expertise, as well as an unquenchable thirst for coffee, Paul became a valuable addition to the Stardust (ad)venture.