Feb. 24, 2020
Coffee is science, and we have the studies to prove it!
This year, two Sweet Maria’s team members had the chance to attend the Sensory Summit at UC Davis. Organized by the Coffee Roasters Guild with support from the Specialty CoffeeSpecialty coffee was a term devised to mean higher levels of green coffee quality than average "industrial coffee" or "commercial coffee". At this point, the term is of... Association (SCASCA is the newly formed global coffee association for Specialty Coffee. The former organization called SCAA was incorporated into the new group. The main commercial coffee group is...), this event allows folk like us from the coffee industry to connect with the scientists behind the most cutting-edge research in the coffee world. After two days of smelling and tasting, and lots of statistical jargon, we walked away with a boatload of new knowledge and the objective data to back it up.
Now, we want to share everything we learned with you! Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for new blog posts, demos and tasting events – our first event in the series covers basic sensory evaluation of coffee and will be held on Wednesday, 3/18 . To reserve a spot, send an email to [email protected].
QuakersA quaker is an industry term to describe under-ripe, undeveloped coffee seeds that fail to roast properly.: A quaker is an industry term to describe under-ripe, undeveloped coffee... in Coffee
One of the most illuminating lectures of the weekend concerned quakers. Quakers are immature beans that have a higher concentration of amino acidsMany acids contribute to coffee flavor: acetic, malic, citric, quinic, tartaric, phosphoric, etc.: Many acids contribute to coffee flavor; malic, citric, quinic, tartaric, phosphoric, etc. See Acidity or... and lower concentration of sugar. They are resistant to roasting; a quaker does not have the chemical compounds to have a proper browning reaction in the roaster (MaillardAn important reaction in coffee roasting that results in the browning of the green coffee seed.: The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and... reaction, caramelizationA reaction involving sugars that occurs during coffee roasting. A caramelized sugar is less sweet, but has greater complexity of flavor and aroma. Caramelization is slower than Maillard...) and as a result will remain pale in color. Quakers are associated with unpleasant bitterness and astringency, or the flavor of burned popcorn.

So how noticeable are quakers? Mariane Rabelo, a PhD student at the Federal University of Lavras in BrazilBrazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra sang, "they grow an awful lot of coffee in Brazil".: Brazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra..., decided to find out. Quakers are a particular issue in Brazil for a few reasons; Brazil is one of the only places where coffee is harvested and sorted mechanically rather than by hand, which can lead to a higher percentage of unripe beans. The popularity of dry processingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural... in Brazil also leaves these coffees vulnerable to quakers, which are more prevalent in dry processDry process coffee is a method for taking the fruit from the tree to an exportable green bean. The whole intact coffee cherry is dried in the sun... coffees. Why are dry process coffees more likely to have quakers? Unripe cherries float in water, so it’s easier to remove cherries that contain quakers during channel grading in wet processing. Wet processWet-processing starts by removing the outer skin of the coffee cherry with a machine called a pulper, then fermenting the remaining fruit (with green bean inside) in water... coffees also go through a depulping machine that can remove unripe cherryEither a flavor in the coffee, or referring to the fruit of the coffee tree, which somewhat resembles a red cherry.: Either a flavor in the coffee, or....
Rabelo assembled a panel of trained quality graders and had them cup several samples of the same coffee with an increasing percentage of quakers. She also broke quakers into three categories based on color: classic, brownish yellowish, and brownish. Amazingly, the brownish quakers had no significant effect on the sensory attributes of the coffee at any threshold. The brownish yellowish and classic quakers did lead to perceptible increases in astringency and bitterness, as well as decreases in sweetnessSweetness is an important positive quality in fine coffees, and is one of five basic tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Savory (Umami). In coffee, sweetness is a highly... and acidityAcidity is a positive flavor attribute in coffee, also referred to as brightness or liveliness. It adds a brilliance to the cup, whereas low acid coffees can seem..., but these effects were not noticeable until quakers constituted ~9% of the beans in the sample. That means the probability of perception is actually surprisingly low!
Given the high concentration of quakers necessary for off-flavors to be noticeable in the cup, is it worth taking the time to sort out quakers after roasting? Timothy Hill, now a trader with Atlantic Specialty Coffee, used an optical color sorter to find out. Hill sorted the quakers out of both washed and natural coffees and had folks taste each version of the coffees, sorted and unsorted. In this test, surprisingly, there was no preference for the sorted vs. unsorted coffees. Turns out, Hill’s existing profiles had already factored in the presence of quakers with regard to the desired final product. Before he could see a perceptible preference for the sorted coffee, Hill had to reverse engineer his profiles for the quaker-free coffee.
Our takeaway at Sweet Maria’s? Don’t stress out over quakers in your cup. We always list the the defectIn coffee, a defect refers to specific preparation problems with the green coffee, or a flavor problem found in the cupping process. Bad seeds in the green coffee... count under “Appearance” in our coffee reviews and our coffees fall well below the perceptible threshold for quakers – that includes Sumatras, which often have a more varied appearance. Our cuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest.... notes take into account whatever small percentage of defects or quakers may be present. If you still want to sort through your coffee after roasting, go for it – but sortingCoffee is sorted by size, density, and color in its preparation for export.: Sorting refers to several steps performed in the preparation of coffee for export. Coffee is... probably won’t make a huge difference in the final product.
To drive this home, we tried our own experiment. We brewed three pots of KenyaKenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both in the cup, and the way they run their trade, everything is topnotch.: Kenya is the East... with an increasing number of quakers had our staff give each brew a taste.

You might wonder why we used a high grownHigh Grown, or HG, is a coffee designation that can mean different things in different countries. : High Grown, or HG, is the highest quality Mexican coffee designation... Kenya rather than a Brazil. We initially tried to use a Brazilian coffee, but there were too few quakers in the coffee to generate a high enough percentage for the experiment! We were only able to extract a high enough number of quakers from the Kenya because we had roasted well over 100 lbs of this coffee for our roasted coffee subscription.

In our (very loosely constructed) trial, we found that even the pot with about 10% quakers tasted good. There are a few reasons why quakers might make less of an impact in a Kenya compared to a Brazil – the higher scores in sweetness and acidity, for one, can mask some of the off-flavors associated with quakers. As the cup cooled, the quaker flavor became more pronounced – even so, a surprisingly quaffable brew!

Based in part on lectures by Tim Hill (Atlantic Specialty Coffee) and Mariane Rabelo (Federal University of Lavras)