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Dedicated to the bean: Students research coffee at US university

HISTORY: On the campus of the University of California, Davis, students take their coffee very seriously. The academic research facility here boasts of being the first in the United States dedicated to the bean. “I started with the coffee kinetics project, so we were looking at roasting the coffee beans…” Students like Kylie Umeda roast, brew, taste and proof their cup of coffee as recognition for her chemical engineering degree. The 650-square-foot facility recently officially opened after a $6 million renovation. Its facilities include a tasting room with red lights, which Umeda says is designed to prevent bias in tasting. “When people look at the samples, they can’t tell the color difference between the different samples they’re tasting.” // “When people taste the coffee, we want to determine if the sensory notes in it – so if it’s a little sour, if it’s a little earthy, if it’s a little burnt, and we use that to determine the flavor profile of the coffee beans, and then that could be related to the roast profile when we made the beans.” William Ristenpart, professor of chemical engineering and director, said coffee is under-researched in academic spaces. “Given the importance of coffee to our culture, our economy, our society – coffee needs to be studied academically. It needs an academic pipeline.” He added that professors of food science, plant science and agronomy, business administration, law, religious studies and sociology bring their expertise to the center’s ongoing work. RISTENPART: “We want to help elevate the world of coffee.”