I don’t just want to work as a barista. I’m currently going to school for business, but I’m trying to figure out what to focus in to really sharpen my knowledge of coffee in a scientific way. My first thought is Food Science. But I know chemistry can be taxing, and I worry of being burnt out. I’m not opposed, just worried.
What do you think? What’s a good way to learn about the science of coffee?
barista hustle is about to launch an on-line coffee course called advancedcoffee making that i imagine will cover some of the cutting edge extraction science as well as other aspects of coffee production. BH has always seemed to me to be on the forefront of coffee science along with writers like scott rao who also has a very informative blog. but if you mean on a chemistry level, there have been papers published on the chemical changes to coffee during roasting, but if i am correct, a lot of the real technical chemistry of brewing is still a bit of a mystery. you will find very little about the specific compounds of coffee and their specific behavior during extraction. just general compounds like salts, acids, sugars etcetera, and the specific brewing parameters that can generally affect their concentrations in the cup. for this scott rao’s blog and the barista hustle blog are highly recommended.
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i don’t know that i’d spend my time going to university for coffee, experience is the best teacher in field so new and uncharted, but i do know that specific coffee educational classes are starting to pop up in certain academic schools.