Monika Fekete

taste coffee

How do we taste coffee?

Dr Monika Fekete dissects sensory pathways and how taste molecules bind to receptors, one at a time, to give us the ultimate sensory experience in the cup. Coffee is not only a feast for the senses, but one of the most complex beverages we consume, from a chemical point of view. Dissecting this multi-sensory experience in order to identify distinct flavours in your brew can be a difficult task, even if you have worked with coffee for many years. Understanding how the human body receives and processes chemical signals through smell and taste can be helpful towards getting a grip on those elusive flavours.
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coffee roast

Inside a coffee roast

Dr. Monika Fekete explores the evolution of a coffee bean under an electron microscope and uncovers how roast levels affect grinding. Watching green beans turn into aromatic roasted coffee is something of a magical experience. 
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temperature coffee machine performance

How temperature effects coffee machine performance

Dr Monika Fekete looks at temperature-dependent variables and their consequences on grinder and espresso machine performance. On a chilly winter morning, hot cup of coffee in hand, I’m once again thinking about the many ways temperature has influenced the liquid I’m drinking.
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grind temperature extraction

How grind temperature impacts extraction

Dr Monika Fekete explores the impact of grind temperature on extraction temperature and why shots tend to speed up over time.  Dialing in a delicious espresso shot is great way to start your day, be it at work or at home. As the day goes on, you might find that shots speed up and you need to adjust your grinder a bit finer to get the same result. It seems like your grind profile has changed.  Does this sound like a familiar story? It might be a common observation, but to date I’m unaware of a viable explanation backed up by solid data. 
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perception in coffee tasting

The power of perception in coffee tasting

Dr Monika Fekete investigates the role of minerals in brew water, asking whether they influence extraction or if it’s just our taste buds. “You must realise the power that water has,” explains Yanina Ferreyra, the recently crowned Australian Specialty Coffee Association Australian Brewer’s Cup champion. Reflecting on her journey, she stresses “water plays a gigantic role, but there is much left to discover. Working with water opens up lots of questions”.
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water temperature espresso extraction

How brew water temperature effects espresso extraction

Dr. Monika Fekete investigates the chemical and sensory effects of different brew water temperature on espresso extraction. Do you feel like a refreshing cold brew in the summer heat? Or what about an iced latte? Whichever you prefer, there are a range of factors that contribute to their unique tastes, and the temperature they are prepared at is certainly a big one. While it’s easy to appreciate the difference between cold and hot brewed coffee, it takes careful investigation to dissect how fine-tuning brew water temperatures can affect physical and sensory outcomes. 
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coffee science

How minerals modulate taste and their role in extraction

A truly outstanding brew depends on many factors falling into place at once. Carefully chosen and roasted beans need to work harmoniously with matching water and a strict brew method to extract and highlight desired flavours. Increasingly, brewers are focused on the impact water has on taste outcomes. According to 2017 World Brewer’s Cup Runner-up Sam Corra, one of the most important factors to brewing an amazing coffee experience is having a brew water that will best represent a coffee’s attributes. He notes, however, that one water formulation will not necessarily suit other coffee varieties, processes, and origins.
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Coffee Science Lab

Coffee Science Lab to host Water Workshop at Bureaux Collective

Dr Monika Fekete of Coffee Science Lab will host a Water Workshop at Bureaux Collective in Abbotsford, Victoria on 6 February. This four-hour workshop will explore how water dissolves coffee solids during extraction on a molecular level and how minerals in water affects coffee taste.
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Coffee science

Proteins with purpose: why milk curdles and how to avoid it

If you regularly make soy coffees for your customers, you have probably noticed that soy milk is often harder to work with than dairy milk – it tends to curdle more in coffee, especially when steaming hot. With some coffees it behaves well, with some it doesn’t.  The delicate protein structures in milk are to blame for the curdling effect.  Proteins are long, folded chains of amino acids. Humans only use about 20 different amino acids, and they can be linked after one another in any order. Most proteins contain hundreds of them.
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