Minneapolis based roaster, Peace Coffee has a reputation for what I call "stunt-innovations" which are basically gimmicks. I call them gimmicks because they often do not impact the industry or serve any more purpose than grabbing attention for the sake of attention, hence "stunt". Some past stunt-innovations include: Coffee Toothpaste and Dog Coffee
The latest breaking attention-grabber is a microwave coffee that actually allows the consumer to roast their own coffee using their home microwave.
At first I was intrigued and I will likely buy one to try out of morbid curiosity, however, I don't quite understand who the target customer would be other than the same people that buy giant Pez dispensers or oversized pencils that don't actually write.
You would assume the target audience is the convenience driven coffee consumer because it comes in the same wrapper as the convenience popcorn except, that doesn't make sense either. It's not convenient. You still have to grind and brew the coffee and that's after you've done the major step as advertised, the microwave roasting.
If you are not convenience driven then you might think it is for the home culinary enthusiast. The same crafter that likes to smoke their own meats and bake bread from scratch however, that doesn't track either. If you're a home enthusiast then you want to engage in the process and learn or gain some skill through the doing. Microwave coffee offers no reward on either front.
All the same, its a novel idea wrapped in a fun package that may deliver some joy...once.