March 2022

Coffee has a ubiquitous and unique role in our society, acting as an essential part of the daily routine of millions of people around the world. While some tend to think of it merely as a vehicle for caffeine, coffee is also a highly-traded commodity crop and the basis of a finely-calibrated culinary subfield, which draws on myriad chemical engineering approaches to generate wildly different sensory experiences. Roasting beans imparts a wide range of chemical reactions that depend on the rate and extent to which the beans are roasted. Similarly, the methods in which coffee is extracted from beans can change the ratios and amounts of specific flavor compounds that make it to a final beverage. The production and refinement of a desirable cup of coffee, therefore, applies engineering design principles in a personal and subjective context, in which the development of one’s preferences for flavor drives the necessary operating parameters for preparation. This talk will explore the parallels between coffee production and more traditional chemical engineering concepts, different roasting/extraction methods, and the means in which coffee is quantitatively and qualitatively assessed.Read more