I just cleaned out the coffee pot, and I got to thinking...

[plonq]

It's amazing how coffee can go from smelling really good, to smelling very bad after spending only a few hours on a hot element.

I need to try an (admittedly subjective) experiment some day.  I'll brew a small pot of coffee and then have some fellow coffee-lovers stop by and smell the coffee every ten or fifteen minutes, rating their impression of the smell from "delicious" to "vomitus", and noting the time.  I could then graph out their impressions to find the intersect point at which the coffee turned from good to bad.  That data would allow us to set a timer to alert us when it is time to make a fresh pot.

Comments

[pierrekrahn.livejournal.com]

I would be more than happy to host your findings on Microwaveable Babies.com for you.

I plan to completely knock-off Cockeyed.com in respect to his science experiments.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

I don't think it would work, if they smell it every 10 minutes no matter how experienced they are their nostrils would get used to the subtle changes and the change from good to bad could come too soon...

I think you'd have to repeat the experiment over a number of days, allowing them to rate it right away on the first day, 10 minutes after it's done on the second, 20 on the third and so on...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

That is so stupidly geeky. I want to marry your brain.

[branwyn.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of other factors to consider here... I would expect the deterioration of the coffee is related to many potentially difficult-to-control "thermodynamic" factors, such as how much is left in the pot... I expect a pot that is barely touched will stay fresh longer than a pot that is made, near-emptied, and then left on a burner. I would also suggest a "control sample" be made each time a smell-test is to be done (admittedly difficult and potentialy wasteful) - so that at each time period the coffee sample can be "smelled against" a just-brewed fresh pot... and also perhaps against a cold, stale, 2-day-old pot... thus giving a standard by which to rate the sample in question.

Also, just like they have in good perfume stores, put out a small bowl of coffee beans with which to "clean one's olfactory palate" between smelling different things. ;)

B.