In this episode, Kenneth at Umble Coffee sits down with Professor William Ristenpart, director of the UC Davis Coffee Center, to discuss the efforts that are being made to engineer a better cup of coffee. They explore how the industry is working to reduce the level of waste generated and make better use of the byproducts. Currently, humans only consume around 3% of the coffee cherries that are harvested. That is why the industry is exploring new ways to use those waste materials and enhance the fermentation and roasting processes so that less energy is consumed.
UC Davis Design and Construction Management announced that Broward Builders has been awarded the contract to design and renovate the new UC Davis Coffee Center. Their $4.5M design builds upon the university’s existing space, a 6,000-square-foot, multi-bay laboratory facility where students and researchers explore the science of coffee from seed to cup.
Irwin Donis-González, an assistant professor of cooperative extension in the Department of Biological and agricultural engineering and Latin American relations specialist at the UC Davis Coffee Center, recently appeared on Dr. Brendon Anthony’s Environmentality podcast to talk coffee postharvest management.
The UC Davis Coffee Center is the world's first academic research center focused on coffee, aiming to do for coffee what UC Davis has done for beer and wine. Through its research, teaching and mentorship, the center plans to train the next generation of coffee professionals while improving the entire industry and making it more sustainable.
On June 25, 2021, the Coffee Center welcomed industry partners, students and friends to campus in celebration of all things coffee with a site dedication, sign unveiling open house and research symposium. The event, held at in the Robert Mondavi Institute’s Sensory Theater, Putah Creek Lodge and the Coffee Center itself, featured remarks from Chancellor Gary S. May, College of Engineering dean Jeffery C. Gibeling, Coffee Center director and chemical engineering professor William Ristenpart and UC Davis alumna and postdoctoral researcher Mackenzie Batali, Ph.D. ’20.
The UC Davis Coffee Center is proud to announce a recent $500,000 gift from Folgers Coffee. The Folgers Analytical Chemistry Lab will provide the first university infrastructure in the nation to address the unresolved questions around how certain molecules naturally present in coffee affect the final flavor profile of this beloved beverage.
The UC Davis Coffee Center is proud to announce a recent $50,000 gift from Bridge Coffee Company to support the center’s education and research in coffee science. The UC Davis Coffee Center aims to do for coffee what UC Davis has done for beer and wine as the first multidisciplinary university research center focused on coffee science.
The UC Davis Coffee Center is pleased to announce two $500,000 gifts from Toddy and John and Gina Wasson, respectively, to support renovating the Coffee Center building and name two spaces that will be used for coffee education and research.
From January 30 – February 1, the UC Davis Coffee Center welcomed the coffee industry to campus for the fifth annual Sensory Summit, organized by the Specialty Coffee Association. The event, held in the Robert Mondavi Institute’s Sensory Theater, brings together coffee professionals and sensory scientists to learn from one another to brew a better cup of coffee.
Three chemical engineers from Starbucks Coffee research and development visited the UC Davis Coffee Center for a tour led by Professor and Director William Ristenpart on Wednesday, October 16
The team toured the Coffee Center’s three facilities—the sensory lab at the Robert Mondavi Institute, the undergraduate coffee lab in Everson Hall and the Coffee Center building by Putah Creek—to learn about the center, its research and its vision for the future.
