The process for brewing coffee appears simple: One pours hot water over some coffee grounds, and then drinks the liquid that passes through a filter. This superficial perspective, however, belies a sequence of complicated physical and chemical processes that govern the quality of the resulting beverage.

In today’s lecture, Professor Bill Ristenpart discusses the origins of the "Coffee Brewing Control Chart" widely used to interpret the quality of drip brew coffee and how several implicit assumptions in the derivation of the chart yield questionable interpretations in current practice. Also discussed are several unanswered questions regarding drip coffee brewing that are the subject of ongoing sustained research efforts at the UC Davis Coffee Center.

Special Thanks to Softengine Coffee One, Powered by SAP

This episode of the Expo 2019 Lectures podcast is supported by Softengine Coffee One, Powered by SAP.  Built upon SAP's business-leading Enterprise Resource Planning solution, Softengine Coffee One is designed specifically to quickly and easily take your small-to-medium coffee company working at any point along the coffee chain to the next level of success. Learn more about Softengine Coffee One at softengine.com, with special pricing available for SCA Members. Softengine: the most intelligent way to grow your business.

Related Links

• Read more about this research in Issue 8 of 25 Magazine
• Read a full transcript of this episode on SCA News
• Listen to other episodes of the SCA Podcast 
• Learn more about the upcoming 2020 Lecture Series at the Specialty Coffee Expo 

Table of Contents

0:00 Introduction
2:50 An overview of the academic work taking place at the UC Davis Coffee Centre and Bill's personal journey in coffee
15:00 The results of Bill Ristenpart’s study of flat-bottomed baskets vs semi-conical baskets using discrimination testing
46:20 The results of the same study that used a sensory descriptive analysis framework and consumer preference testing
57:25 Audience questions
1:05:40 Outro