Our Mission
We’re on a mission to create the most flavorful beverage extractions for quality-conscious brands.
Like many entrepreneurial stories, BKON’s was born in a basement back in 2008, where the pursuit of a more efficient way of producing a cup of coffee resulted in a new discovery. That innovation became BKON’s RAIN® extraction technology and it powers everything we do.
RAIN®’s evolution has brought us to where we are today, with a laser focus on cold brew manufacturing and production services and creating the best opportunities for our coffee roaster and beverage brand partners. While our current operations are highly focused, our practices along our journey have affirmed that RAIN’s application goes beyond coffee and it has a bigger beverage story to live.
We’re excited to bring you along on the journey as we live our vision to redefine craft refreshment and transform consumers flavor expectations.
The Evolution of BKON
Coming from a 3rd generation coffee roasting company, founders Dean and Lou Vastardis have been immersed in the coffee industry since their childhood. In 2007, Dean began to investigate some non-traditional coffee brewing methods inspired by how chefs speed marinate proteins.
After three years of in-house product development the brothers realized they cracked the code on much more than a cup of coffee. They termed this new technology “Reverse Atmospheric Infusion (RAIN®)”, and it was poised to disrupt the beverage industry by changing the physics of extraction.
By 2013, BKON had its first patent in hand and established a strategic partnership with Swiss-based Franke Group for manufacturing, distribution, and service of the BKON Craft Brewer (BCB). That same year, the BKON TX, predecessor to the BKON Craft Brewer was awarded “Best New Product” at the World Tea Expo.
2014 marked the point of commercialization of the BCB with industry recognition in “Product of the Year” at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Expo and the “Kitchen Innovations Award” at the National Restaurant Association Show. BKON had turned a basement innovation into an industry recognized marvel.
In 2018, BKON opened a state-of-the-art 14,000 square foot facility in the brother’s hometown outside of Philadelphia, PA which houses the STORM™ brewer. This large-scale production facility produces cold brew concentrates and extractions.
In 2019, BKON discovered a new innovation by combing the exclusive benefits of RAIN® with the scalable opportunity that shelf stable UHT BiBs offer. BKON’s laser focus on cold brew production resulted in its discontinuation of the BKON Craft Brewer.
By 2023, BKON’s early vision for a packaged cold espresso was realized with the launch of Coldstretto®, the only shelf-stable, ready-to-use extraction that delivers the real flavor of a coffee brand’s established espresso offering. Coldstretto is poised to transform the future of coffee, and it’s only made possibly by BKON’s RAIN® brewing technology.
As our footprint in cold coffee evolves and our patented process (23 of them to be exact) continues to drive innovation and growth, BKON isn’t losing sight of our overarching goal to apply RAIN® technology to multiple beverage platforms with a network of solutions across the globe. We envision a future where our innovation continues to enhance flavor, advance new product development, for us and our customers, and build on production efficiencies.
WE ARE BKON
We challenge the current methods of beverage creation to craft the finest tasting cold coffee for brands that value flavor-conscious consumers.
Follow our journey on Instagram @bkonbrew.