Students use science to brew the best cup of coffee

University students making coffee on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)

Chemical engineering students put the knowledge they've learned in class to the test to try and make the best cup of coffee.

Making coffee is simple: grind the beans, add hot water, wait a few minutes, strain the grounds and you're done.

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But coffee isn't necessarily as simple as it seems.

"There's a lot of chemical engineering that goes into coffee and it's a complicated process," said Daud Ibraham, a University of Alberta (U of A) student.

Students at the university used what they learned in the Chemical Engineering of Coffee course in a competition Thursday.

The competitors used several lessons to win:

• heat transfer - the best way to get the heat to the beans;
• process control - how to control the chosen roast profile;
• sensory analysis - how it will taste; and
• water chemistry - how to decide the best water for brewing coffee.

"Before I signed up for this class, I was not expecting much," said Ibraham.

"When I actually joined the class, I learned much more than I expected. I learned about alcohol processing and things of that nature, things I've never expected."

Students began with green beans and had 10 shots to roast them as best as they could. From there, they had five minutes to brew a cup using a coffee press and serve it to the judges.

"You want something that brings out the natural sweetness of the coffee that's not too acidic, which would mean it's just under-roasted or under-extracted," said Avram Sanders, one of the judges and the head roaster at Aspen Coffee Roasters.

"I'm looking for the overall roundness of it. I don't want it to be super heavy with roasting notes, or super over the top fruity."

There are three rounds, with the winners from the first two competing against one of Canada's most celebrated brewers and roasters, Ply from Rogue Wave Coffee.

As intense as this sounds, the idea is for students to be able to make mistakes and learn from them in a safe place, while having fun.

"If we're, say, trying to model a refinery, you don't get any mistakes, you can't blow it up," said William McCaffrey, a professor of chemical materials engineering. "Whereas here they can make as many mistakes as they need to while applying what they've learned from all their other courses.

"And then you get to drink a cup of coffee at the end."

The course has awakened a passion for coffee in current and past students.

Ibraham said he doesn't look at coffee the same and has become a bit of "a coffee snob."