World Coffee Research is working to improve the genetic potential of coffee cup quality. To start this task, you first need to define the meaning of “quality.” WCR believes it is a market-driven definition and organized new protocols to assess quality from the perspective of the coffee industry. With experts and partners, WCR produced the coffee lexicon that allows an objective analytic description of coffee quality attributes. In their presentation, Hanna Neuschwander discussed these innovations and shared some lessons learned, including the latest results deriving from these methods and advances on the molecular basis of cup quality. In particular, Hanna highlights the burgeoning importance of some specific volatile compounds like Limonene. These results are not an end but a beginning; an opportunity for further studies to find out the molecular markers or genes related to cup quality in general.

Hanna Neuschwander is the communications director for World Coffee Research, a research nonprofit that works to secure the future of coffee. She writes and speaks globally about coffee science and agriculture. Her writing and commentary has appeared in the Art of Eating, Time Magazine, CNN, BCC, Portland Monthly, and many others. She is the author of Left Coast Roast, a guidebook to coffee roasters on the west coast.

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 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 Why coffee farmers are in need of high yielding varieties that also have high cup qualities
14:40 Summary of an experiment that identifies desirable flavor markers in coffee plants before they produce cherries
31:20 Summary of the current genetics-by-environment interaction research efforts
44:10 Audience questions
52:20 Outro