This is the mathematical formula to prepare the perfect coffee

 This is the mathematical formula to prepare the perfect coffee

Using very fine ground coffee in large quantities for a stronger and more flavorful cup is not the perfect method.

An international team of mathematicians , physicists and materials experts from the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and Switzerland have been brought together to confront a common threat to humanity: the disappearance of coffee as we know it. The truth, according to the work published in Matter magazine  , is that we have been preparing coffee badly all our lives : using fewer but larger ground coffee beans would lower the costs of the drink, it would better preserve its flavor cup after cup, and it would bejust as strong and flavorful .

- This is the mathematical formula to prepare the perfect coffee and Burr Coffee Grinders Product

"Most people who brew coffee choose to grind the bean very fine , and use a lot of beans to get a mixture of sour and bitter taste that is as unpredictable as it is irreproducible, " says one of the authors,  Christopher Hendon , chemist. Computer Science from the University of Oregon. "It may seem counterintuitive, but experiments and models suggest that short coffees can be made with fewer beans, but coarser grinding ."

There are many factors that contribute to the little glory that an espresso is , but the norm is to grind a relatively high amount - 20 grams - as finely as possible. In this way, as logic dictates, there would be  a greater surface area of ​​the product exposed to high pressure water and this will allow to improve the extraction rate, that is, the amount of ground coffee that will dissolve and go into the final cup .

But when the researchers established a mathematical model to explain the extraction rate based on the factors available to the person preparing the coffee - be it the masses of water and dry coffee to be used, the thickness or fineness of the ground grain , and water pressure - and the predictions were compared with the coffee brewing experiments, it became clear that the relationship was actually more complex. Grinding as fine as dictated by the industry standard amalgamated the coffee at the base , reducing the extraction rate, wasting raw material  and causing flavor alterations by not using all the beans equally.

Coffee with data, please
After "a lot" of data processing and short coffees, the team came up with a recipe that would maximize the extraction of bean content while producing a drink that doesn't change flavor from cup to cup . "One of the ways to optimize extraction and reduce variability is to grind coarser beans and use a little less water ; another is to simply reduce the mass of coffee used, " Hendon proposes.

The task of developing a representative model of coffee preparation was not easy. At a basic level, the extraction rate depends on how high pressure hot water flows through the ground grain mass. But that mass is made up of millions of individual grains of different sizes and shapes , squeezed irregularly against the same filter.

"We would need a greater computational capacity than Google has to adequately solve the physical rules and transport equations involved in a geometry as intricate as that of the interior of a coffee machine," says another of the authors,  Jamie M. Foster , a mathematician from the University of Portsmouth (UK).

To get out of the quagmire, the researchers turned to an unexpected source, electrochemistry , linking the way in which caffeine and other molecules dissolve from coffee beans with the movement of lithium ions across the electrodes of a battery. Borrowing methodologies for battery models, they developed a "rigorous" model to work from.

At the current price of roasted coffee beans, they say, reducing dry coffee mass from 20 to 15 grams would save a few thousand dollars for a particular coffee shop, and a billion dollars for the entire coffee industry in USA. Greater efficiency in the use of coffee would also reduce waste , at a time when production in traditional growing regions is threatened by climate change .

However, they admit, the ultimate parameter to establish the perfect coffee is still everyone's palate . "The strategies to reduce waste and improve replication are clear, but the reliance on the preferences of the person who makes the coffee is tremendous, " Hendon concedes. "What we do is elucidate the variables that they must consider when navigating the parameters of preparing a coffee."