PODcast #31 : Espresso Pods News

Welcome to The PODcast, PodMerchant's newsletter of espresso pod tips, news, education, and deals. Back issues of The PODcast are available online. This newsletter is published in HTML with images and styled text. If you are reading the "text only" version, you are missing much of the content.

Espresso Elucidations

Nestlé's Deep Blue?

As espresso enthusiasts, many readers of this newsletter are probably familiar with "cupping," the process of evaluating coffee by trained professional cuppers who sip, slurp, and sniff coffee under controlled conditions in order to evaluate quality and to categorize coffee. Cupping is an important activity in the Specialty Coffee business. Without the abilities of these trained tasters, roasters would have great difficulty in maintaining continuity and repeatability of the flavor of their coffees — as yearly growing seasons naturally produce varying quality beans each year. And then there's the quality aspect — how to make the best cup of coffee — and how to recognize it? How does changing the roast affect the flavor of the coffee? This evaluation has always been done by trained cuppers, but in the future, it may be preformed by machines.

Nestlé Research Center scientists in Switzerland, led by Christian Lindinger, have developed instrumentation and processes that reasonably replicate the findings of trained cuppers.

The aroma of roasted coffee is composed of more than 1000 Volatile Organic Compounds. However, less than 50 volatile organic compounds are needed to accurately characterize the overall sensory mapping of coffee aroma. To establish a connection between the verbal descriptions given by cuppers and the chemical analysis performed by equipment, Nestlé researchers compiled sensory profiles for 11 different espresso coffees by asking cuppers to score each one in 10 different taste/aroma categories, such as flowery, winey, bitter, woody, cereal, butter toffee, etc. From that, the results of olfactometry were correlated to the cupper's scores, resulting in a means for the machine to describe the coffee aromas in human terms.

Below are sensory profile charts comparing Nestlé's "machine" scorings (Predicted Profile in color) vs. that of a panel of trained cuppers (red band). The further out from the center, the stronger the given quality.


The researchers then used this data to predict the sensory profiles for eight new espresso samples. The machine's aroma profiles closely matched the evaluations of cuppers. The three descriptors — flowery, winey, and cereal — were not used because these aromas were not found to be significant.



Comparing the cuppers to the instrumentation, I am struck by the skill of humans to consistently grade these aromas (this is certainly a skill that I do not have). While the birth of Nestlé's "Artificial Nose" doesn't seem to have the significance of Deep Blue vs. Kasparov, the genesis of "robotic smelling" is certainly an interesting development. As a coffee lover and coffee businessman, it strikes me as a good development towards making good coffee even better.

Images courtesy of Analytical Chemistry. Information from Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 80, No. 5, March 1, 2008.
 

Espresso Tips

For your maximized espresso enjoyment, we present this issue's tip:

Tip No. 17:

Short Version: Don't leave pods in your machine.

Long version: This tip comes from a request for advice by a commercial customer. I was asked for my input regarding an argument as to whether pods should be removed right after the shot is pulled, or whether to wait until the next shot to eject the spent pod — the logic here being that whenever you open the portafilter it is subject to cooling. For best results you want all parts that come in contact with the coffee to remain constant in temperature. Since one has to open the portafilter to put in a fresh pod, why not wait until then to remove the old one, thereby keeping the temperature of the components as stable as possible?

Good idea, except that a pod sitting in the grouphead will soon dry out and start to roast or even burn, leaving smelly, burnt coffee on the shower screen and filter basket. I think this potential downside far outweighs any minor benefits of temperature stabilization. I'd go so far as to say that you can harm your machine doing this, and certainly you'll ruin the flavor of the coffee if you let this happen.

PodMerchant News

The HandPresso Wild continues to sell well and we get very positive feedback from HandPresso owners. Everyone loves them.

We ran out immediately of the unboxed HandPressos. From time to time we may have more, but this depends upon product arriving with damaged boxes. Don't expect any for a long time.

PodMerchant bids a fond "Aloha" to Aloha Island Coffee. Aloha Island is being dropped from our store because, as expensive as the retail price was, our cost was so high that we could not make any money selling it.

Missing from our shelves for a while now, Compagnia dell'Arabica is no longer being reliably imported by their US distributor. Until we can ship in stock directly from Italy, we will be out of this line. It will probably be about 3 months before we have stock again. If you Compagnia fans go looking for your coffee elsewhere, please be aware that at this time there is very little fresh inventory of this brand in the US. If you find any, it might be wise to ask for the "sell-by" dates before purchasing.

The price increases have begun. As mentioned in the last PODcast, coffee prices are going up, up, up. The weakness of the dollar and the high price of oil have given the "one-two" punch to good prices. illy increased the price of their coffee by one dollar per tin.

Here's one decrease in price. If you purchase Lavazza capsules from us, you should receive in the box a coupon for use on Bristot capsules. We have increased the coupon discount on Bristot capsules from $5 to $10 per case.

PodMerchant Coupons

PODcast subscribers get a 10% discount coupon with each issue. Just enter the code below on the Shipping Selection screen during checkout.

• Only one coupon per subscriber per issue.
• Coupon expires when the next issue is published, or at the end of the next month following publication of the issue, whichever comes first.
• Coupons are only valid for PODcast subscribers — we check use of coupons against the subscriber list.
• For more information, please see our PODcast Coupon FAQ.

For 10% off your next order — Enter code: XXXXXXX (note, that is "P-C-Zero") and please press the "Redeem Coupon" button or the coupon will not be entered.

That's all for this issue of the PODcast.


Kevin Garrett, The PodMerchant.