Episode the 47th

We’ve got something super special for you this week: after Steve and Colin accidentally blundered into a realm of cleverness and research on the last podcast, we received an incredible mail from Hanna Neuschwander of World Coffee Research that filled in some of the blanks… and led to even more questions. We said we would follow up on the WCR Sensory Lexicon and the SCAA Flavour Wheel this week, but my goodness, not even we thought it would be this thorough!

In No. 47, Hanna joins Steve and Jenn to discuss the many reasons for poor taste differentiation between varieties and the potential impact of the current—and future—WCR sensory lexicon(s) on the coffee industry. Fuelled by a mass of recent writing on the subject, we deep dive into three major research projects driving towards a brighter future of specialty coffee, how the lexicon makes this work scientifically possible, and what future versions of the lexicon could look like.

--
You can download the WCR Sensory Lexicon here or read their five-part blogpost here. Tom Owens, Peter Giuliano, and Nick Cho have also written about the Sensory Lexicon and SCAA Flavour Wheel in a fair amount of detail.

Find more information on the research initiatives discussed on this week’s podcast here: Genetic Diversity of Arabica, Genetic Verification Program, F1 Hybrids, Colombia Sensory Trial.