Yesterday Andrew MacPherson from our UK affiliate PrismTC presented a great talk on deploying design of experiments (DOE) via Stat-Ease® 360 software for Developing Optimal Espressos. He worked out a clever way to tailor the grinding and brewing conditions to his taste for specific coffee beans based on where they are grown. Brilliant!
Our team at Stat-Ease did something similar, focusing on light, medium and dark roasts with blends of all three bean types; then grinding them to a range particle sizes in varying amounts. Read all about this mixture-process DOE in the September 2016 Stat-Teaser article on Brewing the Perfect Pot of Office Coffee.
Of course, taste is of paramount importance for coffee. However, with the cost of beans skyrocketing over the past 6 months (and likely to increase more as tariffs imposed by the US government on April 5th take effect), it is also good to use less coffee when brewing. First off, going from espresso to a regular coffee machine will be a step forward by allowing a reduction in the ratio of coffee to water. Even better, if you are willing to forego automation, make your coffee via the pour over method—invented in 1908 by Melitta Bentz.
Recently a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania created an optimal pour-over process using a goose-neck kettle that achieved an avalanche in the ground coffee, which resulted in the maximum flavor extracted from the minimum amount of beans.* See photos, graphs and figures illustrating their findings at this ResearchGate post. For a translation from physics and fluid dynamics terms, see this April 8th USA Today article by Elizabeth Weise: Scientists release instructions for how to make a perfect cup of coffee.
It would be great to try reproducing these earth shaking (more accurately—coffee shaking) results via a DOE on flow rate, pour height, and amount of coffee. Mainly I would like an excuse to buy a goose-neck kettle like this Coffee Gator.
It hits a lot of hot buttons for feature freaks like me—a surgical-grade stainless steel body, “cool-touch ergonomic handle, brewing ‘golden-zone’ thermometer [I like that a lot!], precision pour spout and triple-layer induction-friendly base” (the hyperbolic bits quoted from their sales site on Amazon).
Hmmm…induction-friendly…so to take advantage of the base I need to upgrade our stove. More gadgetry—hooray! No worries convincing my wife, the expense will be made up by the savings in coffee (ha ha).