Morten Munchow — 3 in 30: SCAE Research

All CoLab: Paris 'coffeetalks' - by speakers such as Klaus Thomsen, Katie Carguilo and Morten Münchow - were produced by our content partner Tamper Tantrum. We'll be releasing the videos of these talks over the next months so we keep fuelling discussion and building an inventory of knowledge. Don't hesitate to share your comments, thoughts or any additional reading links.

Number five in our seminar series from CoLab: Paris is Morten Munchow, a lecturer on Food Science at the University of Copenhagen and co-founder of Coffee Mind an education, consultancy and research company. Morton's thirty minute presentation is broken into three mega interesting research topics with a focus on sensory science the projects detail sensory analysis of brewed coffee on different water, roasting defects and Mortens’ first published project, cappuccino foam analysis.

Munchow cut his teeth at Copenhagen coffee shop Cafe Europa before his first roasting job at Kontra Coffee in 2005. He now focuses on a range of different research projects and is the lead in developing the roasting module for SCAE coffee diploma system.

Up first is sensory analysis of brewed water as Morten explains how to conduct a proper evaluation using numbered replicate samples - the results show a distinct and consistent difference between tap water and reverse osmosis confirming the importance of water for cupping and brewing. Using data analysis Morten is able to test sensory performance and map out an individual tasters sensory skills which could prove invaluable to a coffee professional with the primary job of sensory evaluation.

The second segment of the presentation bounds head first into roasting parameters and how we might identify the differences between abstract and concrete descriptors. Issues surrounding the Gold Cup Standards are highlighted as a result of the choice to use a technical definition of the parameters and not a population reference.

Finally, after being told in 2004 that no one knows anything about "milk in coffee" Munchow went on to secure funding for a foam analysis project in 2009. Here he identifies the difficulty of working with foam in a lab due to its instability and the limited time frame on measuring quality when using a camera. We bet this kind of analysis could do wonders in barista training and we look forward to seeing all aspects of Morten's research in more detail as it filters down into the Coffee Diploma System. 

Love varied coffee research like this? Don't forget to have a glance at the CoLab: Antwerp program and bag yourself a ticket to our first event for 2016! In the meantime enjoy watching or listening to Morten's presentation and join in further dialogue by reading the links below.

Further Reading

Event LecturesSpecialty Coffee AssociationCoLab Paris, Coffee Science, Coffee Research, Milk