Tag: consumerphysics

If you’ve ever bought whole coffee beans, chances are good that there was all kinds of information on the bag that led to your decision, like the origin, the roast type, and the flavor notes. Traditionally, coffee grading — that’s judging the aroma of both dry and wet grounds and slurping the coffee evenly across the tongue to determine the flavor profile — is done by humans in a process called cupping. To call it a process is too clinical — it’s really more like a ceremony performed with the grave sincerity that coffee deserves. Read...

Berry giant Driscoll’s will use handheld near-infrared (NIR) spectrometers to measure the sweetness of its berries starting this month. The SCiO Cup spectrometer, made by Consumer Physics, can rapidly measure the sugar content of berries without damaging them. NIR light penetrates tissues and containers well, allowing operators to gather data from intact and sealed samples. Driscoll’s says all its quality-control tests in North America will be done using the SCiO Cup by the end of 2021. Read...