Re: Oxygen, CO2, homebrewers and homeroasters

On 24 Jan 2006 12:23:20 -0800, "Alan" <munter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>With beer and wine, in the food science world, loads of companies have
>done extensive analysis like HPLC to determine exactly what chemicals
>make up the various flavor components and what different fermentation
>temperatures do to the finished composition. Has that kind of research
>been done with coffee beans to tweak the final result?

A great deal of research has been done, and about 1200 flavor
compounds have been id'ed in roasted coffee. The problem is that the
research is mostly financed by the big four, and the emphahsis is
always on how to get very cheap, very lousy coffee to taste
acceptable, rather than on what distinguishes great coffees from
merely good ones.

Although science is science; the engineering involved to prevent
steamed robusta from staling to the point it becomes "unacceptable to
the average R&G (roast and ground) consumer" is rather different from
that involved to keep the bloom on an yrg or hue-hue. The
parenthetical tirades in Sivetz's book from the 70s, "Coffee
Technology," which is a guilt ridden manual on how to produce R&G and
soluble (instant) coffee, underlines the distinction (and provides
some insight into why Sivetz is so ornery today -- former smoker
syndrome).

--
jim schulman
<jim_schulman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Do home-roasters achieve top drawer results?
    ... What is the absolute best coffee for making espresso ... standards of evidence used in one science do not apply to any other, ... of life has its own standards of evidence. ... objectivity, no science would have gotten off the ground. ...
    (alt.coffee)
  • Re: Science fields for coffee industry
    ... The science of roasting, the science of ... What are fields of science that are most applicable to coffee? ... "Joseph Rivera ... Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). ...
    (alt.coffee)
  • Re: Gravity Probe B results
    ... dictating the direction of science otherwise we'd still be using leeches. ... Sacred keeper of the Hollow Sphere, and the space within the Coffee Boy ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Science fields for coffee industry
    ... coffee industry on some level. ... The science of roasting, the science of ... What are fields of science that are most applicable to coffee? ... for espresso destined coffees. ...
    (alt.coffee)
  • Re: Coffee going off overnight
    ... Coffee is quite a complex area. ... all those chemicals get affected in different ways by degree of roast, ... And then - temperature of water, fineness of grind, ... time of water in contact with ground coffee and what you ...
    (alt.coffee)
Loading