Direct electrochemical black coffee quality appraisal using cyclic voltammetry

From the lab of Christopher Henson at University of Oregon. They've done lots of work on coffee.

Doran and Chris also host a podcast called Coffee Literature Review, where they invite a guest from the coffee industry and discuss a scientific paper connected to coffee somehow: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coffee-literature-revi...

At the SCA Expo a few years ago, they were doing electrochemistry on brewed coffee to measure caffeine content, and also change the flavor in weird ways. This paper seems to come from a similar vein.

>Here we show that cyclic voltammetry can be used without any additional sample preparation to directly measure the strength of a coffee beverage and, separately, how dark the coffee has been roasted; these two properties are implicated in the sensory profile of the beverage.

those two properties do not even touch on the quality of the beans, nor how those flavors are developed and maintained through roasting. measuring the darkness of roast does not tell you how dark the coffee should have been roasted for optimum flavor profile.

I'm not aware that it can be done analytically, it requires trained tastebuds, and in my experience, tastebuds trained on many coffees over time (a sort of 10,000 hours type idea, probably needs neuroplasticity); most roasters have a sort of narrow "tunnel vision" based around their own coffees which they taste relentlessly.

to actually taste delicious coffee it needs to cool down quite a bit, below 130F 55C which is not very hot. I understand the pleasure of a hot cup of coffee, but that pleasure is not flavor pleasure.

How long before James Hoffman finds out about this.

Waiting for him to appear in the YouTube shorts Brooklyn Coffee shop now I think about it.

I suppose this might be useful for making full-auto coffee machines that can self-adjust parameters like grind size, water:coffee ratio, tamping strength (for espresso style machines) etc. Although there's plenty of things to measure already, they don't really directly check correct brewing. This could help improve a lot.

I suggest "black coffee electrochemical quality appraisal"; as-is, it made me wonder what "electrochemical black coffee" is.

I sent this to our electrochemist at work, maybe if we have some time we can test the coffee in the breakroom.