8 | May 2014 • www.specialty-coffee.com
T
he coffee industry continues to grow and now it's captured
the attention of the academic world. e University
of California, Davis is a renowned teaching and research
institution that has long focused on the study of food and
beverages. Recently UC Davis announced its latest initiative;
which is linked to the institution's Foods for Health Institute.
e new UC Davis Coffee Center aims to bring scientific
inquiry to the quality, health and sustainability of coffee. By
partnering with industry leaders, the center hopes enhance
quality, safety and education measures of coffee across the globe.
We chatted with J. Bruce German, Professor and chemist at UC
Davis, who is also the director of the Foods for Health Institute.
SCR: How did the idea to launch an official coffee center
come about?
German: We've done a lot of research on coffee at UC Davis
and it's been spread over various focus areas. In the past year,
we realized that there was a lot of overlap in research to justify
the center. We formally began the process of forming the
center in fall 2013, and are still in the initial launch phase.
SCR: What are the primary goals of the coffee center?
German: We want to provide a more supportive research
environment for a variety of initiatives including coffee
genetics, sustainability of the enterprise, the role of coffee in
social interactions and coffee as a vehicle for education.
SCR: What are the center's current coffee projects?
German: It all started two years ago with one of our
professors, Bill Ristenpart, who was teaching a freshman-
and sophomore-level chemical engineering class at the
university. Shockingly, college students today are not exactly
beating down the door to learn about chemical engineering.
Bill decided to use coffee as the medium to explore some
principles in the course.
Students study variables of time and temperature as they
roast the coffee, they study physical homogenization as
they grind the coffee, etc. At the end of the class, students
compete to produce the best cup of coffee with the least
amount of input energy. It basically changed the way
students view chemical engineering. The last time Bill
announced he was teaching that course, it filled up within
two hours.
We have many other coffee research projects in the works.
We have people who are researching the genetics of coffee.
We'd like to establish a project exploring the genetic division
of various coffee lines to assist farmers in managing strains of
diseases that affect crops worldwide.
Some people are looking into sustainability in coffee. So
much product is wasted during the harvesting process. It's
the loss of viable food products and a lost opportunity for
sustainability and potential revenue. People are also looking
into various aspects of the microbial environment of coffee
that affects the quality of the final product.
THE
SCIENCE
OF
COFFEE
BY M E L I SSA N I K SI C
COFFEEBREAK Q&A
08-9 coffeebreak SCR0514_new.indd 8 5/14/14 9:39 PM
