Commercial Coffenol manufacturer?

[cmo]

That's not a joke.

We all heard about that developer made of coffee and soda, many tried it, and the results with this homebrew (!) are not bad.

I just wonder why there is a company that makes a sophisticated commercial product based on Caffenol?

Such a provider might use well-controlled, high-quality chemistry, let's say pure caffeine acid, soda, pure ascorbic acid, maybe some addons that make the process more reliable and exploit the capabilities of this only environmentally friendly "stain" developer.

[Lowell Huff]

It can be done. How much would you be willing to buy? Is there enough demand for this type of product to make it economical to manufacture?

[David A. Goldfarb]

The caffeine doesn't seem to be a developing agent, but rather things like catechol that occur naturally in coffee and other plant substances. Purify those ingredients and you might as well just use one of the standard pyro developers.

[Tom Hoskinson]

That's not a joke.

We all heard about that developer made of coffee and soda, many tried it, and the results with this homebrew (!) are not bad.

I just wonder why there is a company that makes a sophisticated commercial product based on Caffenol?

Such a provider might use well-controlled, high-quality chemistry, let's say pure caffeine acid, soda, pure ascorbic acid, maybe some addons that make the process more reliable and exploit the capabilities of this only environmentally friendly "stain" developer.

Folgers Instant coffee crystals (and its the Caffeic acid - not Caffeine).

Pure ascorbic acid (I get mine from Trader Joe's grocery stores)

Monohydrated Sodium carbonate (I get mine from The Chemistry Store)

[Kirk Keyes]

Isn't adding ascorbic acid cheating?

By the way, when is someone going to start touting the developing benefits of Emergen-C-ol?

[Tom Hoskinson]

Isn't adding ascorbic acid cheating?

By the way, when is someone going to start touting the developing benefits of Emergen-C-ol?

Isn't adding ascorbic acid cheating? No! Not at all!

But, adding Sodium Hydroxide and Muriatic Acid would be cheating (and pretty fizzy) as well!

[cmo]

There is no cheating except with a digital camera :-) With Muriatic Acid enlarging might become difficult - dodging might be done, but the developer already burnt the negative...

Adding other chemicals to combine their special benefits is okay for me, as long as the developer produces better results.

David, you are right, but as I said in the beginning, one of the interesting aspects of "Java" developers is that they are not toxic, and dumping used devloper into the sink is not a problem. With Pyro developers this is very different: they are pretty toxic, and at least here in Europe it is off limits handling it like a harmless fluid.

[Akki14]

There'd possibly be problems with the variability of the coffee beans/instant coffee (as it probably varies in whatever compounds season to season like most plant materials) and people expect reliable results from a storebought developer, as opposed to them mucking about with stuff at home. Testing and the like would make the price go up which would put off some people. And the other appeal of caffenol is that you can make it from stuff bought at the grocery store, you don't need to go to a photographic supply place to get it.

[mabman]

Is it really that popular? I've seen some samples, and at some point I'd like to try it myself (not looking forward to the supposed smell of "burnt bacon grease", though), but it doesn't get a lot of discussion as people's primary developer.

[Tom Hoskinson]

Is it really that popular? I've seen some samples, and at some point I'd like to try it myself (not looking forward to the supposed smell of "burnt bacon grease", though), but it doesn't get a lot of discussion as people's primary developer.

Fairly popular with folks who develop document films (or Tech Pan) to pictorial contrast levels.