Stay ConnectedA review of a recent scientific article published about or adjacent to coffee. Each episode features a guest professional who will help discuss the paper. Sometimes there will be other guests to discuss news, current events, and topical items.
Podcast by Christopher H. Hendon. Produced by Doran Pennington.
Copyright: © Christopher Hendon, Doran Pennington, and a rotating professional.
Chris and Doran are joined by Tonx (Tony Konecny) from YES PLZ from Los Angeles, CA. We discuss a paper from the Yeretzian lab out of ZHAW. The paper aims to address a common question for the home coffee consumer, "How should you store your coffee one the bag is open?".
We immediately thought of Tonx and YES PLZ, who have experimented with various packages for their subscription service. We hope you enjoy the episode.
The paper:
Food Packag. Shelf Life, 2022, 33, 100893.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fpsl.2022.100893
The article can be found in coffee literature library: https://pages.uoregon.edu/chendon/coffee_literature/coffee_lit_rev/.
About Tonx: Legend of subscription coffee, Tonx started Tonx coffee and later a coffee/restaurant venture called LocoL. Pre-pandemic he rolled out his current subscription service, YES PLZ. Good timing — home coffee consumption exploded during the 2020-2021 years.
Introduction preamble: Steve Leighton
Chris and Doran are joined by David Yardley from Moongoat Coffee out of Costa Mesa, CA to discuss a series of papers discussing the emergence of mold in coffee.
Mold is bad. Ochratoxin A is bad. But how much of it is there, and how bad does it have to get?
The three papers:
Food Sci. Biotechnol., 2018, 27, 891.
J. Agric. Food Chem., 1998, 46, 673.
Food Chem. Toxicol., 1995, 5, 341.
The article can be found in coffee literature library: https://pages.uoregon.edu/chendon/coffee_literature/coffee_lit_rev/.
About David: Coming up from the entry level job at Starbucks, David is now the leader of Moongoat coffee, a roastery and series of cafes in the southern Californian region.
Introduction preamble: Don Pettit
Chris and Doran are joined by Alex Kaplan from Cometeer to discuss an old school paper titled, "An investigation into the relationship between freezing rate and mean ice crystal size for coffee extracts", appearing in Trans. IChemE, 2002, 80, 176. The paper is part of a conference proceeding which was published in the journal Food Bioprod. Process.
This paper looks at how freezing rate determines the ice crystal size. The paper itself is really about developing a model that correctly captures how brewed coffee freezes, but we used it as a platform to understand how coffee behaves when cooled.
The article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1205/096030802760309197
About Alex: We couldn't have had a better guest, as Alex is the Head of Coffee Product for Cometeer, a company that manufactures frozen coffee extracts. Alex also has a degree in physics from Princeton, is a Q-grader, and was a pleasure getting nerdy with.
Introduction preamble: George Clooney
Chris and Doran are joined by Lance Hedrick to discuss, "A new Coffee Brewing Control Chart relating sensory properties and consumer liking to brew strength, extraction yield, and brew ratio", appearing in J. Food Sci., 2023, 88, 2168.
Today's paper is an attempt to revise and improve upon the seminal work of Lockhart: the empirical observation that coffee strength (%TDS) is related to the beverage refractive index. But do we need a new control chart?
The article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.16531
About Lance: Lance is one of Youtube's most loved coffee professionals. He is also a competitor and coach in competitive coffee, handling the launch of Onyx EU, and an up-and-coming chess player.
Introduction preamble: Heisenberg
Chris and Doran are joined by Kathie Hilberg and Bronwen Serna from the Totally Dissolved Podcast to discuss the papers that led to the development of the 2016 SCA flavor wheel.
The wheel is basically the artistic manifestation of two peer-reviewed papers, "Development of a “living” lexicon for descriptive sensory analysis of brewed coffee", appearing in J. Sens. Stud., 2016, 31, 465
and
"Using Single Free Sorting and Multivariate Exploratory Methods to Design a New Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel", appearing in J. Food Sci., 2016, 81, S2997.
The lexicon developed in the first paper may be accessed through World Coffee Research.
The articles can be found here:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joss.12237
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.13555
World Coffee Research lexicon can be found here:
https://worldcoffeeresearch.org/resources/sensory-lexicon
About Kathie and Bronwen: Kathie works as a lead educator for Stumptown in Los Angeles, and Bronwen is a consultant, and also presently a barista at Blue Bottle. The two lead a Sprudgie-nominated podcast, Totally Dissolved.
Introduction preamble: Dan Campbell
Chris and Doran are joined by Morgan Eckroth to discuss, "The Effects of Instagram Marketing Activities on Customer-Based Brand Equity in the Coffee Industry", appearing in Sustainability, 2022, 14, 1657.
The paper makes the case that instagram marketing activities are good for achieving brand equity. Morgan is one of the very best at harnessing the various facets of developing a favorable brand. We hope you enjoy it!
The article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031657
About Morgan: Morgan (MorganDrinksCoffee on TikTok, Instagram, Youtube) is an Oregon-based social media creator, a second place finalist in the World Barista Championship, and digital content specialist at Onyx Coffee.
Introduction preamble: Lance Hedrick
Chris and Doran are joined by Maxwell Dashwood to discuss, "The safety and effectiveness of self-administered coffee enema", appearing in Medicine, 2020, 99, 36.
Besides discussing the paper, we also talk about Water for Coffee, weigh lifting, and try some of the recommended enema coffee.
The article can be found here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000021998
About Maxwell: Maxwell is an established author of many books, owner of Colonna and Smalls in Bath and London, three-time World Barista Championship finalist, inventor, scientist, and my oldest coffee friend.
Introduction preamble: Samwell
Guest voiceover: K. Tobias Butler
Chris and Doran are joined by Christopher Feran to discuss, "Effects of coffee roasting technologies on cup quality and bioactive compounds of specialty coffee beans", appearing in Food Sci. Nutr., 2020, 8, 6120.
This paper has some major issues — I hope you enjoy us diplomatically deconstructing it.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.1904
About Christopher: Despite having recently opened his own roastery, Aviary, based in Ohio, Christopher finds time to be a leading consultant in the specialty coffee industry. He has a wealth of knowledge and shares some of it today, discussing sample roasting.
Introduction preamble: The Nobel Committee.
Chris and Doran are joined by Kim Elena Ionescu to discuss, "Explaining the willingness of consumers to bring their own reusable coffeecups under the condition of monetary incentives", appearing in J. Retail. Consum. Serv., 2022, 66, 102908.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102908
About Kim: She is the Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer at Specialty Coffee Association, and is heavily involved in various aspects of education within the association. Prior to the SCA she also worked for Counter Culture Coffee.
Introduction preamble: Ulf Danialsonn.
Chris and Doran are joined by Camila Khalifé to discuss, "Unmanned aerial vehicle to evaluate frost damage in coffee plants", appearing in Precis. Agric., 2021, 22, 1845.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-021-09815-w
About Camila: Camila founded Botánica in Quito, Ecuador, and is also a Coffee Quality Institute Quality Evaluation Assistant Instructor.
Introduction preamble: Roderick Mackinnon.
Chris and Doran are joined by Mark Weislogel to discuss his work over the years, neatly summarized in the paper, "How advances in low-g plumbing enable space exploration", published in npj Microgravity, 2022, 8, 16.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-022-00201-y
About Mark: Mark was a professor of mechanical engineering for over 20 years, before moving to work full time at IRPI, a company that develops technology solutions for plumbing in low gravity. He also invented that cup.
Introduction preamble: Dale Cooper.
Chris and Doran are joined by Masha Zanozina to discuss, "Impact of the human factor on the reproducibility of different coffee brewing methods", appearing in J. Food Comp. Anal., 2023, 124, 105698.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2023.105698
About Masha: Masha works for Counter Culture Coffee in Los Angeles as their regional sales and account manager, is a certified trainer, and a World Brewers Cup judge.
Introduction preamble: Jase Robertson.
Chris and Doran are joined by Carly Green to discuss, "Arabica-like flavour in a heat-tolerant wild coffee species", appearing in Nat. Plants, 2021, 7, 413.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00891-4
About Carly: Carly worked for Blue Bottle Coffee as their is a green coffee coordinator and lab manager, and is now in the Netherlands running Cherry Love Coffee.
Introduction preamble: Paulie Gualtieri.
Chris and Doran are joined by Kyle Glanville to discuss, "Development of a coffee bean certified reference material (KRISS CRM 108-10-023) for elemental analysis", appearing in Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 2024, 416, 475.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-05051-5
About Kyle: Kyle is a founder of G&B and Go Get Em Tiger, a cafe brand based in Los Angeles. He is also the US Barista Champion of 2008 — "Low" by Flo Rida and T-Pain topped the charts that year.
Introduction preamble: Dorris Lessing
Chris and Doran are joined by Jesse Han to discuss, "Prediction of specialty coffee flavors based on near-infrared spectra using machine‐ and deep-learning methods", appearing in J. Sci. Food Agric., 2021, 101, 4705.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.11116
About Jesse: He is a Ph.D. student at Harvard University studying Astronomy. He was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for Fluid Dynamics in 2017 for showing that coffee will not spill out of a cup if you walk backwards while holding it.
Introduction preamble: Richard Feynman
Chris and Doran are joined by Andrew Tolley to discuss, "Impacts of quaker beans over sensory characteristics and volatile composition of specialty natural coffees", appearing in Food Chem., 2021, 342, 128304.
The article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128304
Introduction preamble: Edward Teller
Chris and Doran are joined by Nicole Battefeld-Montgomery to discuss, "The role of fines in espresso extraction dynamics", appearing in Sci. Rep., 2024, 14, 5612.
The article can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-55831-x
Introduction preamble: Roald Hoffmann
Welcome to Coffee Lit. Rev. This is a science podcast that seeks to unpack a recent scientific article related to coffee. Each week we will have guest hosts and do our best to communicate with both the scientific and coffee communities. Please consider following us on Instagram, X, and Patreon. There, our handle is coffeelitrev.
Sincerely,
Chris and Doran
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