{"id":4998,"date":"2017-02-08T11:41:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T16:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=4998"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:00:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:00:42","slug":"carleton-bridgehead-research","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/carleton-bridgehead-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewing Better Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Brewing Better Business\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

From the Faculty of Science\u2019s Eureka!<\/a> magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artisanal bread is baking, fermented kombucha tea is being bottled and fresh coffee beans are spilling from the roaster with the rat-tat-tat of a hailstorm on a tin roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is a backdrop to a stream of laptop-toting students and shivering construction workers stopping in to caffeinate at the caf\u00e9 that fronts Bridgehead\u2019s roastery<\/a> on Preston Street in Ottawa\u2019s Little Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the glass-walled \u201cCoffee lab\u201d at the back of the 14,000-square-foot retail and industrial space, a pair of bearded sneaker-wearing coffee connoisseurs are measuring out a morning cup. Or rather, 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian Clark and Cliff Hansen are cupping, a quality grading process in which trained tasters slurp teaspoon-sized samples of fine coffees to evaluate characteristics such as acidity, aroma and body. Clark is the director of coffee at the Ottawa-based chain; Hansen is their head roaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ian Clark, Bridgehead’s director of coffee, is serious about his java.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1981<\/a> by United Church ministers concerned about the exploitation of small-scale Nicaraguan coffee farmers, Bridgehead became the first company in Canada to sell fairly traded coffee. It was acquired by Oxfam Canada and turned into a for-profit company, and in 1999 was sold to Ottawa\u2019s Tracey Clark. Today, there are 20 locations across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the moment that Ian Clark and Hansen speak, it\u2019s clear this isn\u2019t their first coffee of the day. \u201cIn a sense, cupping is inherently subjective because it\u2019s my perception of the coffee,\u201d Clark (no relation to Tracey) says in the accelerated staccato of the over-caffeinated.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThere is a pretty good level of calibration around what the different scores mean in cupping, but the subjective ultimately is <\/em>what matters, because the coffee is also being perceived by the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Still, there are unknowns. Each of the 15 cups represents 8,000 pounds of newly landed coffee beans. Five from Colombia. Five from Rwanda. Five from Congo. All smell delectable \u2014 for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAroma is the most relevant characteristic when it comes to the aging of green coffee,\u201d says Clark, who, along with Hansen, has passed the Coffee Quality Institute<\/a>\u2019s Arabica Grader exams, an advanced certification that underpins their sensory evaluations. \u201cUsually, it\u2019s the aroma that fades. If you look at this Rwanda, which is rich and toffee-like and caramel-y right now, in 12 months it\u2019s guaranteed that the same coffee will taste like stale branches and cereal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Clark nor Hansen knows when that change will occur. No one does. Coffee from the same region \u2014 even the same farm \u2014 ages differently. Different lots from the same shipment can turn stale at different times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a persistent problem that shows up not only in the taste of a cup of java, but also on the bottom line. Bridgehead pays up to four times the standard price for the finest beans, and when an exceptional coffee fades, its price point does likewise.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Bridgehead knocks on
\nCarleton\u2019s front door<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Seeking to solve this problem, Clark and Hansen checked out an open house at Carleton\u2019s Front Door initiative<\/a> in January 2016. The program links local businesses with Faculty of Science expertise and infrastructure, and provides guidance on which people and techniques are best suited to address problems particular to their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with more than a dozen facilities on campus, Front Door, through fee-for-service contracts, consulting services, R&D partnerships and other interactions, generates revenue for university researchers and, at the same time, helps companies get smarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chemistry Prof. Jeff Smith, director of the Carleton Mass Spectrometry Centre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s $6.2-billion coffee industry is big business. More than 160,000 people work in caf\u00e9s and coffee shops, and roughly 5,000 are employed on the manufacturing and roasting side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the opportunities in this industry come coupled with risk. The five cups of exceptional Congolese coffee sitting on the table in front of Clark and Hansen are a case in point.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cHistorically, we\u2019ve had problems with coffees from Congo,\u201d says Clark, who has a bachelor\u2019s degree in Law and Legal Studies from Carleton.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThis one smells beautiful. It\u2019s got a really floral character. Congos, in our experience, can be really good at first, but we have to be really careful about buying too much because they do die pretty quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey turn, and develop this bushy, woody flavour instead of the elegant floral character. So it\u2019s smelling great \u2014 right now, it\u2019s fantastic \u2014 but there\u2019s this uncertainty. How long is this going to last? We don\u2019t really know. We can use our experience and be a bit cautious, but say this is an amazing coffee that will last for six months, we lose the opportunity to take advantage of that, if we don\u2019t buy now. And we just don\u2019t know, so we have to manage the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A journey to the centre
\nof a coffee bean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are theories in the industry about why this happens. The prevailing thinking is that uneven moisture content created by drying processes contributes to ongoing cellular respiration, consuming nutrients that result in better flavours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bean is essentially a seed,\u201d Hansen says, \u201cand the point of that seed is to germinate: it wants to stay alive so it can grow a new coffee tree. It\u2019s going to do everything that it can to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you make it harder to do that, it\u2019s going to use up all of its energy stores. Those energy stores are delicious to us. Because we like sugar, and we like fruit acids, and those are the things that actually develop into coffee flavours. So when the bean uses those up trying to stay alive, it\u2019s way less delicious for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is only a theory. Very little is known about how coffee beans age on a cellular level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the ground floor of Carleton\u2019s Steacie Building, the buzz of bean roasting is replaced by the resonating hum of machines inside the Carleton Mass Spectrometry Centre<\/a> (CMSC). This multi-million-dollar lab is brewing a new approach to understanding coffee: gas chromatography techniques enable scientists to observe chemical changes that accompany changes in aroma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Barista Kyle Woods crafts the coffee at the core of this research.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Funded by a $50,000 grant from the Ontario Centres of Excellence Voucher for Innovation and Productivity program<\/a>, combined with NSERC Engage<\/a> support, Carleton\u2019s coffee project focuses on beans from Huehuetenango, Guatemala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the coffee being tested is from specific farms in this one area; all of the beans have experienced the same storage, milling and transportation conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clark and Hansen head to Huehuetenango every March to choose the best beans, but back home, the results are a mixed bag. Some will have aged prematurely while others have not, so Bridgehead has to buy a large number of small lots in order to make sure it has a few extraordinary coffees to choose from when they arrive in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“They produce some of the best <\/em>coffee we\u2019ve ever tasted,” Clark says, “but they also produce a lot of not-so-great coffee. So we have to filter through it quite carefully.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re picking through the community\u2019s coffee for the very best, and these coffees are about as similar to each other as you can get, yet they have their own flavours and their own unique aging processes that we need to understand in order to have a more reliable buying process. It\u2019s worth the risk because we get amazing coffees, but there\u2019s this uncertainty that we\u2019d like to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Overcoming uncertainty with a hyper-precise scale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chemistry Prof. Jeff Smith<\/a>, director of CMSC, thinks he can help do that using mass spectrometry. He likens a mass spectrometer to a hyper-precise scale that can identify compounds in coffee\u2019s aroma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing what compounds are present as coffee begins its downhill slide could help Bridgehead manage its inventory by selling at-risk beans sooner, while rationing sales of beans that are likely to last.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIf you had a thousand people in a stadium, and you could measure every person\u2019s mass to three decimal places, and you knew that their mass corresponded to the name, you could name every person simply by putting them on a very good scale,\u201d says Smith.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s essentially what we\u2019re doing with the coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prof. Smith and master’s student John McFarlan analyze data in the Carleton Mass Spectrometry Centre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The research design follows Bridgehead\u2019s roasting cycle. Weekly samples are received immediately after roasting, mirroring what\u2019s being served in local caf\u00e9s. What Ottawans are tasting in their morning java is what Carleton\u2019s mass spectrometers are actually measuring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the coffee is in the CMSC, it\u2019s brewed in painstaking detail. A specialized grinder ensures an identical grind. A high-end handmade Moccamaster coffeemaker measures water and temperature. Even the water comes from the same source each week<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the mass spectrometer<\/a> \u2014 a plain 1.5-metre-high box that could pass for a photocopier \u2014 a technique called gas chromatography separates molecules present in the aromas. Inert helium pushes gaseous aromas extracted from vacuum-stored coffee through a hollow fused silica coil.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Breaking complex aromas in
\ntheir component parts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Inside that slender coil \u2014 30 metres long but just a quarter of a micron wide on the inside \u2014 molecules are separated based on their mass and ability to evaporate. The technique breaks down the complex aroma of coffee into component parts, allowing the team to identify each molecule individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have data now that show upwards of 45 to 50 different compounds,\u201d says Smith, noting that about 80 per cent of what we taste are molecules with the ability to evaporate from the medium that they\u2019re in, as coffee aromas do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose compounds combined together are responsible for what makes coffee taste the way it does. You can separate each one out, and the chemistry of what\u2019s actually in there is fascinating. You see these certain molecules that, on their own, would probably taste terrible. Or you look at it and say: \u2018Why is that <\/em>in coffee?\u2019 It\u2019s all part of the complexity of what coffee actually is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study of coffee on a molecular level is an emerging field and, observed on that level, it could be obvious which molecule is making good coffee go bad. But that isn\u2019t the likeliest outcome. Luckily, it also isn\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cEven if we can\u2019t find the root cause of the problems, we\u2019ll still be able to see a problem coming before the taste gets there,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe reality is that we may not figure out what\u2019s really causing it, but we can still develop an analytical method where we can identify it before <\/em>they lose business. The consolation prize still saves them money. I\u2019m confident that can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Saving money and
\nsatisfying customers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Bridgehead, a little advance warning could be the difference between a satisfied customer and a financial loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because specialty coffees can come at a price so much higher than their more common cousins, being able to predict that an exceptional coffee will lose its finest flavours even a few weeks before it happens could allow the company to push coffee at risk of going stale before the change actually occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThis project sets us up nicely too \u2014 it\u2019s reciprocal.\u201d says Smith, who has been able to hire a graduate student to work specifically on this research.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re set up to do coffee analysis, and there may be an appetite for that from other coffee roasters moving forward. If we\u2019re able to tell a smaller company that their product is starting to go off, through the analysis of a few key molecules, that could represent a new business avenue for us as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was the vision we had right off the bat, that we\u2019d be able to interface with companies \u2014 provide a tangible benefit to them \u2014 while generating revenue that brings a benefit to us, such as having the latest infrastructure in our lab to contribute to our core work in health sciences. It\u2019s a vision that\u2019s working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Carleton University\u2019s Faculty of Science Eureka! magazine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Faculty of Science\u2019s Eureka! magazine. Artisanal bread is baking, fermented kombucha tea is being bottled and fresh coffee beans are spilling from the roaster with the rat-tat-tat of a hailstorm on a tin roof. All of this is a backdrop to a stream of laptop-toting students and shivering construction workers stopping in to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28,13],"cu_story_tag":[1919,1925],"class_list":["post-4998","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science","cu_story_tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/4998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/4998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98390,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/4998\/revisions\/98390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=4998"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=4998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}