Ministry of Supply’s quest to integrate performance fabrics into every aspect of menswear entered a new phase this week with reports of their odor-neutralizing, water-resistant, coffee-infused blazer featured in Business Week and PSFK. The MIT-based startup – which, according to co-founder Gihan Amarasiriwardena, sees itself more as a “product design firm” than a “fashion company” – also recently opened its first showroom on Newbury Street in Boston.On the launch of the jacket and the brand’s approach to textiles, Amarasiriwardena said he wanted to create a second skin: the “Aviator jacket’s” recycled polyester lining, with its heat, water and odor resistant properties, is certainly a step in that direction.But even more fitting for the innovative startup is the fact that their menswear – designed to “act like activewear” – is made using the recycled leftovers of that early-morning beverage of businessmen everywhere: a “good ole cup of Joe.”This isn’t the first time the brand has put out a coffee-infused product.Last summer, it launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to support the manufacture of its “Atlas” dress socks, containing eight coffee beans per pair. The purpose of both the dress socks and the jacket is to help manage the problem of sweat and odor when dressing for business.But how, exactly, does coffee infusion help with the problem of sweat and how does Ministry of Supply make the fabric?According to Amarasiriwardena, the company starts by burning coffee beans, turning them into “carbonized coffee,” then “extruding” the coffee into a 40% recycled polyester, 40% cotton, and 20% elastane blend. The science behind the blend of fibers is that while the coffee molecules absorb and neutralize aromas, the polyester stays dry, forcing the now-odorless sweat into cotton pockets away from the skin.The result is that your body and your garment stay dry and odor-free.This all sounds deceptively simple, but in reality, it takes more than carbonization to make coffee “fabric ready.”Firstly – the easy part – the beans have to be roasted: pre-roasted beans can be collected from Starbucks coffee shops and 7-Eleven convenience stores in Taiwan. Secondly, the grinds have to be washed in sodium hydroxide to remove phenol, ester and oil. Thirdly, only the jacket’s polyester lining, the part most susceptible to odor, is infused with coffee molecules. This is then stitched inside the jacket.For the record, Ministry of Supply isn’t the only company to have latched onto the idea of coffee-infused fibers. Big name brands like North Face, Puma, Timberland and Hugo Boss are already using a coffee fabric called S.Café, a product engineered in 2009 by the Taiwanese textiles innovator Singtex.Singtex’s research and development of technical fabrics for performance apparel (as well as its commitment to low-carbon imprint production methods) have been noted in Taiwan, where they won the Taiwan Excellence Award in 2010.In fact, Singtex is just one Taiwanese textiles manufacturer currently making strides in eco-friendly, textile innovation. Just last month, Taiwan hosted the 18th Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show, where both S.Café and “Topgreen,” a polyester fabric made from plastic bottles by the manufacturer Far Eastern New Century, were on display to buyers including Burberry and Coach. The Topgreen fabric is notable for having been worn (in soccer jerseys) by Brazilian players during the 2010 world cup.So if you happen to be in Boston and want a “taste” of Taiwanese-style coffee-fabric innovation, head down to Newbury Street and check out Ministry of Supply’s new showroom.