SCA guru Peter Giuliano discusses new perspectives driving the boom in research.
Coffee is improving because its science is getting more ambitious, investigating not just the qualities within coffee itself but, increasingly, the myriad processes, people, and perceptions around coffee.
Helping rally this quest is Peter Giuliano, whose storied career in coffee and lifelong passion for science drive his current role as chief research officer of the Specialty Coffee Association and executive director of its research arm, the Coffee Science Foundation. He is co-author of the SCA’s Coffee Sensory and Cupping Handbook.
Since starting out as a barista in San Diego in 1988, Giuliano has become a master of all trades in coffee — roaster, cupper, manager, buyer, entrepreneur, and educator. He served in leadership positions at the Specialty Coffee Association of America and its Roasters’ Guild. As co-owner of Counter Culture Coffee, he helped pioneer direct trade coffee, a philosophy aimed at ensuring quality, equity, and transparency in the value chain.
STiR spoke with Giuliano about cold brew, global warming, rural livelihoods, AI, and more.
Which of the research projects undertaken by Coffee Science Foundation stand out?
At the moment, we’re very excited about a project investigating espresso quality, sponsored by Simonelli. The research takes the approach of measuring espresso electrochemically, therefore understanding its chemistry and correlating that with sensory flavor data. The research is being led by Prof. Christopher Hendon, who has a long history of using chemistry to understand espresso flavor.
Also, we’re seeing outputs from our cold brew research sponsored by Toddy. The idea was to understand the chemical and sensory differences between hot-brewed and cold-brewed coffee, but the research resulted in many interesting insights about acidity in coffee and how full-immersion brewing works. That’s the cool thing about scientific research — you wind up learning things you didn’t anticipate.
The Coffee Science Foundation's new literature review project studies results from interventions to help producers. In a world tilted to reward owners of assets, should the coffee sector hope do much better by farmers?
I think that most specialty coffee people are sincere in their desire to make coffee more prosperous for everyone in the supply chain. And I think the consensus is that improving coffee agriculture and trade can be an effective way to improve rural livelihoods. The literature seems to suggest that this is possible, but not automatic.
In other words, some kinds of sustainability interventions and programs will be more effective than others at “doing better by farmers,” as you say. The goal here is to better understand these differences, so coffee people can invest more in the most effective techniques and programs.
You’ve said that roasting at origin is workable and that expanding this business would lift producer income. But don’t green beans need to be roasted just before consumption? Would roasted coffee really stay fresh on a long journey through logistics and sea freight?
I think roasting in coffee producing countries is a reasonable way to keep more of the value-additive processes like roasting in the countries where coffee is produced. Just as you say, the biggest material obstacle is freshness. That said, much of our food is produced internationally, and between faster transportation and freshness-preserving technology, it seems more and more possible to ship great-tasting roasted coffee internationally. That said, recent disruptions in overseas transportation make it clear that challenges will continue to exist, at least in the short term.
Regarding SCA’s new cupping protocol and form, what might be the impact?
A team at SCA has been working on a new thing — the “Coffee Value Assessment” — that seeks to be a more comprehensive way to understand coffee qualities than the previous cupping protocol. The goal is to better document the whole picture of a coffee in all the ways it is valued in the marketplace.
I think the biggest impact is that a more flexible tool will allow people to celebrate coffees of various different styles, recognizing the diversity of quality coffees in the world. A major new element is the differentiation between descriptive attributes — those flavor notes we are familiar with —and affective “impression of quality,” the cuppers’ subjective assessment of a coffee’s quality. Just breaking these two concepts out is itself a powerful thing.
As specialty coffee culture takes deeper root across more and more of the world beyond North America, should the industry do more to localize its sensory lexicons and flavor wheels?
The current SCA flavor wheel is designed to be a universal language for the coffee trade, so that actors from various geographies can communicate with each other about specific sensory attributes. It was not intended to be consumer-facing, but instead to be a common language for the industry.
As specialty grows in various cultures, it’s very clear that this isn’t the right tool for communicating with consumers, or even within every specific culture. For that reason, it’s awesome that many coffee communities have developed specific lexicons and wheels intended for their specific cultural context. I’ve seen these from Japan, Korea, India, and Brazil. And I hope to see more as specialty coffee grows.
What about the resurgence of interest in coffee blends?
Blends have long been a part of the specialty coffee scene, as you say. For a while, there was an emphasis on single origins, which fit in with other culinary concepts like “eat local” and “know your farmer.” These ideas are still relevant, of course, but there is a current rising emphasis on flavor diversity and complexity, and blends are great for that.
Among the various intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of coffee, what do you see as the best opportunities for innovation and advancement?
Intrinsic attributes are mostly about flavor, and we are in a period of innovation on flavor development through creative processing and new varieties. This is so exciting! I am especially interested in the potential for new varieties to both secure our future against climate change and to intensify flavor in coffee.
In terms of extrinsic attributes, this pertains to the information that goes along with coffee. Technical solutions that do a better and better job at tracking coffee will make it even easier to identify and celebrate extrinsic attributes in coffee, particularly in light of new conditions like Europe’s recent deforestation regulation. Consumers care about this stuff, and I look forward to seeing the creative ways our industry integrates information about a coffee into its identity in a coffee shop or store shelf.
Any comments on new coffee sampling technology, like analyzers that create digital profiles using artificial intelligence?
AI approaches generally rely on rapid chemical analysis, correlating chemical profiles with known cupping scores. This has amazing potential, particularly in screening coffees for defects and getting a rough idea of quality.
However, AI will always struggle with the idiosyncratic complexity of the coffee market, where coffees can find specific “homes” that celebrate their individual flavor profile and extrinsic attributes. I think AI will drive powerful screening technologies, but the creative, insightful cupper will remain relevant for many years to come.