Lecture Description

Coffee cupping has never been a static methodology. Since sensory assessment of coffee was first used, cupping has not ceased evolving, as it is adopted by more and more professionals, adapts to the industry's changes, and incorporates scientific advances. Our times are not exception to that: from a more global and diverse specialty coffee industry to the incorporation of AI or to the adoption of Coffee Value Assessment, coffee cupping will keep evolving, and cuppers will need to evolve as well, to meet the future's needs. This lecture will offer an insight into the drivers of cupping evolution and the possible future of cupping.

Learning Objective:

• What are the drivers for the historical evolution of coffee cupping.

• How is today's cupping different from decades ago?

• How will coffee cupping likely evolve in the near future?

• How will cuppers need to adapt to stay current?
  

Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025
Time: 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Location: Lecture Room W

This lecture is free to attend with a World of Coffee entry badge. Register to attend World of Coffee Geneva here.

Lecturers / Presenters

Mario Fernández (he/him)
Technical Officer, Specialty Coffee Association

Mario Fernández, is a Food Technologist with a Ph.D in Food Science. He is currently the SCA Technical Officer and former CQI Technical Director. He has a vast experience in coffee sensory training and assessment and it’s a Q-Grader and Q-Processing instructor. With more than 30 years of experience in “Cafeología” and applied coffee flavor science.

Lecture Description

Caffeine is a psychoactive substance that is consumed widely around the world, not only as part of the morning routine of many people around the world. However, since caffeine tolerance is very person dependent as well as caffeine consumption can affect sleep quality, the sector of decaffeinated coffee has grown significantly over the past years.

An important process of decaffeination is the Swiss Water decaffeination (SWD) process, where a water-based, caffeine-free green coffee extract is used to remove caffeine from green beans. The objective of our study was the comparison of pre-decaf and post-decaf coffees to understand, how decaffeination impacts the composition of the green coffee beans, the roasting as well as the Espresso-extraction and the final coffee. The results were performed on three decaffeinated coffee pairs, which were analysed before and after the decaffeination process.

Learning Objective:

• How SWD process impacts the chemical composition of green beans

• How SWD process impacts on the flavour formation during roasting independent of the coffee that was decaffeinated

• How SWD process maintains the flavour characteristics of a coffee
  

Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 PM
Location: Lecture Room W

This lecture is free to attend with a World of Coffee entry badge. Register to attend World of Coffee Geneva here.

Lecturers / Presenters

Sebastian Opitz (he/him)
Head of green coffee at the coffee excellence center ZHAW

Dr. Sebastian Opitz is the head of green coffee at the Coffee Excellence Center of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. The main research focus lies on connecting properties of green coffee with cup profile by using a wide variety of analytical chemistry methods and sensory evaluation to explore the impact of origin (coffee variety and species, terroir, post-harvest processing etc.) on final cup. As a AST in green coffee Sebastian is part of the SCA green coffee creators group that develops the curriculum of the SCA Coffee skills program and also teaching green coffee from tree to trade in continuous educations programs of the ZHAW.

Lecture Description

Coffee defects present a challenge to coffee quality because a small quantity of defect beans can drastically impact the quality of a coffee. While cause and chemicals responsible for off-flavour for some defects are well known (e.g. rio and potato), some of the physical defects, such as black and sour are less studied. Their impact is assumed to be large, but few studies that exist suggest quite the contrary.

This lecture will give an overview on the science of coffee defects and will present a pre-study to a larger study with the focus on understanding physical defects. The pre-study focuses on full black and full sour defects. The methodology behind determination of sensory detection threshold and associated aroma compounds will be presented alongside intriguing results. The findings indicate that the detection threshold of a defect depends on the coffee that is being investigated.

Date: Friday June 27, 2025
Time: 12:15 - 1:15
Location: Room W

This lecture is free to attend with a World of Coffee entry badge. Register to attend World of Coffee Geneva here.

Lecturers / Presenters

Samo Smrke (he/him)
Interim Head Coffee Excellence Center, ZHAW

Samo Smrke is acting head of the Coffee Excellence Center at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). He is leading coffee research projects in collaboration with industry partners and in fundamental research on various topics of coffee chemistry and coffee science. He is a teaching in the Coffee Excellence continuing education course at ZHAW, and in various other educational programs with partners of ZHAW. Samo is actively participating at coffee conferences, is one of the co-authors of the SCA Freshness and Water Handbooks, and has contributed to scientific papers and book chapters about coffee.

Lecture Description

Marketers have realized the value of researching human motivation in consumer behavior. We combined Netnography – the online observation of the consumer, and Means End Chain Analysis (MECA) to research the home brewing habits of coffee consumers. Trained teams of 2 or 3 observers/interviewers observed 30 coffee consumers brewing their coffee at home using their customary or preferred method (i.e., drip brew, pour over, Aeropress, French press, espresso, capsules, etc.). They then interviewed them about their brewing method and habits using a laddering interview technique that opened with the question “Why do you use this method to brew your coffee?”, and followed with a series of “Why is it important to you that…?” questions.

Netnography accessed critical innovation levers such as triggers of use (i.e., to wake up or as a break in the day), user customization (i.e., light or medium roasts preferred for full flavor expression and less bitterness; type of sweetener or creamer added if any), interactions with the user’s environment (i.e., adjusting to local water composition), intangible attributes of the method (i.e., comfort from the brewed cup), and most importantly for breakthrough innovation - unarticulated user needs.

MECA produced a hierarchical value map that included caffeine, convenience, flavor, less wasteful, personalized, social drinking, and cheaper as the main attributes associated with consumers’ brewing methods. Consequences of those methods were energy, saving time in the morning, pleasant aromatic properties, saving resources, controlling taste, desire to fit in, and saving money. In turn, MECA linked those consequences to such personal values as academic and career performance, enhanced productivity, enjoyment, environmental ethics, health consciousness, belonging, and financial responsibility.

This information can be used by coffee companies and manufacturers of coffee brewing equipment to optimize their offerings and design new brewing experiences.

Learning Objective:

• Attendees will get unique insights into the motivations of consumers when brewing coffee at home across a range of brewing methods.

• They will learn about innovative qualitative consumer research methods such as netnography (online observation of the consumer) and means end chain analysis of laddering interviews, and how those techniques can be used for product or service optimization and breakthrough innovation.
  

Date: Friday, June 27, 2025
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 PM
Location: Lecture Room V

This lecture is free to attend with a World of Coffee entry badge. Register to attend World of Coffee Geneva here.

Lecturers / Presenters

Jean-Xavier Guinard (he/him)
Porfessor, University of California, Davis

Jean-Xavier Guinard is Professor of Sensory Science and Co-Director of the Coffee Center at the University of California, Davis. His research focuses on sensory and culinary strategies for dietary change and the optimization of the sensory quality and consumer acceptance of foods, beverages (including coffee!) and other consumer products. He was an architect of the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel, the Coffee Sensory and Consumer Brewing Control Chart, and Coffee Cuality™. Jean-Xavier has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications. He teaches undergraduate, graduate and lifelong learning courses at UC Davis and consults for food and beverage companies and consumer agencies worldwide.