Direct Electrochemical Appraisal of Black Coffee Quality Using Cyclic Voltammetry
Robin E. Bumbaugh and researchers from the Hendon Coffee Lab at the University of Oregon and from Drexel University published this paper in Nature Communications in 2026, with support from the Coffee Science Foundation, underwritten by Nuova Simonelli. Refractometers measure coffee strength but can’t tell what a coffee contains. The authors tested whether cyclic voltammetry, which measures how a liquid responds to a changing electrical voltage, could measure both strength and roast level directly in brewed coffee.
The paper will interest roasters and quality-control professionals looking to understand methods for fast and accurate chemical analysis of brewed espresso.
Read the article in Nature Communications.
Dialing In, Decoded: How Electrochemistry Helps Us Understand Espresso Extraction
The SCA’s Content Development Manager, Laurel Carmichael, speaks to researchers at the Hendon Coffee Lab about their chemistry lab that looks like a café and about how they use electrochemistry and design of experiments to better understand the complexities of espresso extraction. Electrochemistry allows the researchers to measure the chemical composition of espresso in real time, and advanced statistical modeling means the beverage chemistry can be correlated with different variables manipulated during extraction.
This article is valuable to trainers, manufacturers, and readers who want to understand the future of espresso extraction beyond the metrics of TDS and extraction percentage.
Access the article free with an SCA Portal account (choose Associate Member).
Chemical Strategies to Mitigate Electrostatic Charging During Coffee Grinding
Joshua Méndez Harper, Robin E. Bumbaugh, and Christopher H. Hendon published an article in iScience in 2024 discussing CSF-supported research into static electricity generated during coffee grinding. They investigated four strategies to mitigate electrostatic charges, assessing their respective impacts on practical outcomes—such as retention of grounds—and on espresso extraction, including evenness and concentration of brewed coffee beverages.
The findings are valuable to anyone wanting to optimize extraction workflow to improve efficiency and manipulate sensory outcomes.
Towards a Deeper Understanding of Espresso Extraction
In this lecture from Re:co Symposium 2023, Professor Christopher H. Hendon of the Hendon Coffee Lab at the University of Oregon outlines the CSF-supported project—underwritten by Nuova Simonelli—on understanding espresso extraction. Hendon covers how his team is measuring espresso chemistry, correlating those measurements to sensory attributes, and laying the groundwork for science-based, usable tools for the coffee industry.
The lecture is interesting for trainers, researchers, manufacturers, and anyone wanting to build a deeper understanding of coffee chemistry.
It’s Electric: Understanding—and Reducing—Static Electricity During Grinding
Dr. Joshua Méndez Harper and Dr. Christopher H. Hendon discuss the chemistry and physics of how static electricity occurs during coffee grinding. They explain how triboelectricity (the type of static electricity generated when two different materials touch) affects espresso extraction and outline strategies to mitigate it.
This plain-language version of their academic article on the same topic is useful to baristas, trainers, competitors, manufacturers, and anyone designing a workflow to extract espresso in ways that optimize sensory characteristics, reduce mess, and reduce unwanted electric shocks!
Access the article free with an SCA Portal account (choose Associate Member).
An Electrochemical Appraisal of Coffee Qualities
Robin E. Bumbaugh, Doran L. Pennington, and colleagues at the University of Oregon and Drexel University, led by Christopher H. Hendon, report CSF-funded research, underwritten by Nuova Simonelli. The research asked whether an electrochemical test, conducted on brewed coffee, can measure a coffee's strength and roast color, something a refractometer alone can’t do.
The researchers found that the test’s signal rises with strength (TDS) and is weaker for darker roasts. In a blind trial with four batches from a UK roaster, it identified the batch the roaster had rejected, even though TDS readings for all four were statistically identical.
The article is useful for roasters and quality-control teams interested in faster, instrument-based ways to check batches beyond refractometer readings.
Amped Up: Using Electricity to Detect and Quantify Molecules in Brewed Coffee
Christopher H. Hendon shares the electrochemistry theory that underpins the Coffee Science Foundation research project, supported by Simonelli Group, toward deepening our understanding of espresso extraction. When we think of coffee brewing, we think of water contacting solid coffee particles. Temperature, brew time, brew ratio, pressure, and all the other variables allow us to modify flavor. Electrochemistry offers us a way to “probe” which molecules have been extracted, how many there are, and how they’re affected by different variables such as brew time.
This article is useful for researchers and anyone keen to understand innovation in coffee science.
Access the article free with an SCA Portal account (choose Associate Member).
University of Oregon in Eugene Awarded Grant for New Espresso Brewing Control Chart
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has chosen the University of Oregon in Eugene for a four-year espresso extraction research project, supported by the Simonelli Group, "Towards a Deeper Understanding of Espresso Extraction."