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QuickTake:
A University of Oregon professor’s research has led to new ways of making great-tasting espresso while using less coffee.
Dr. Chris Hendon, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, is applying his expertise to an unexpected subject: your morning espresso.
As coffee prices have doubled in the past year and are hitting historic highs, due to climate disasters and new tariffs, cafes are scrambling to control costs without sacrificing quality.
One option that Hendon discovered is remarkably simple.
“Just one drop of water makes a massive difference,” Hendon said, holding up one finger.
When coffee beans are ground, the beans break into a mixture of dust and chunks. Static electricity causes the tiny particles to clump together, blocking water flow and creating bitter, over-extracted espresso mixed with weak, under-extracted portions.
Adding just one drop of water to coffee beans before grinding eliminates the static electricity and allows for even extraction. This technique allows coffee shops to use up to 25% less coffee without sacrificing quality.
Lewis Webb, who has been general manager for seven years at Tailored Coffee Roasters in Eugene, has been trying Hendon’s suggestions for using less coffee and getting more flavor out of smaller amounts of grounds.
At a time when the shop is paying more than double for green coffee beans, and is trying to figure out how to not pass it on to the consumer, Hendon’s techniques are a “win-win,” Webb said.
The solution in action
Some cafes around the world have implemented what they call “turbo shots,” an espresso extraction method based on Hendon’s research. The shots result from a coarser coffee grind, lower pressure, and a shorter extraction time.
A typical espresso shot uses 18 grams of coffee, 9 bars of pressure, and 25 to 35 seconds of extraction time. Webb said Tailored Coffee uses 15 grams of coffee, 6 bars of pressure, and 12 to 17 seconds of extraction time.
By using lower pressure and a coarser grind, water rushes through the larger particles while spending just the right amount of time extracting flavor from the finest particles.
“You can use less coffee, because those super-fine particles are getting extracted better,” Webb said.
More important, the flavor profile shifts in a way many coffee drinkers find preferable, with turbo shots tending to be both sweeter and brighter.
“It’s almost impossible to get too much of the bitter flavor profile,” Webb said.
However, these benefits come with a trade-off — losing some of the viscosity that is typical in espresso, with a little less crema (the reddish-brown foam that forms on top of an espresso shot).
But it helps that Tailored is using slightly less coffee with every shot than the baristas normally would, saving enough grounds for an extra shot of espresso every fifth or sixth shot.
“And then it’s just an added bonus that it tastes great,” Webb said. “We wouldn’t do it just to save on coffee costs if we didn’t think it also tasted better.”
The research
Hendon and his team study electrochemistry, or how electrons move through chemical processes. Every type of molecule responds to voltage differently. Hendon’s lab uses the same techniques you might use to measure batteries to precisely measure caffeine, acidity and other characteristics in coffee.
Hendon started working to create a better cup of coffee while earning his doctorate in Bath, England, where he befriended espresso shop owner Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood. The two went on to win international barista championships and co-write a book, “Water for Coffee.” Hendon’s reputation as the “coffee chemist” was born, which only strengthened after he came to the Pacific Northwest, a stronghold of coffee culture.
The measurements his lab takes are important, Hendon said, because the coffee industry lacks quantitative methods to assign quality and price to coffee.
“If I’m telling you that I’m going to pay $4 a pound for that coffee, why?” he said. “We don’t have that in the industry right now. It’s all predicated on how people perceive it.”
In 2020, Hendon and his team reported that coarser grinding with water creates very high-quality coffee extracts.
“Which is sort of counterintuitive,” he said. “But when the process is more even, you get a cup that doesn’t have negative flavors slowly making their way in while you’re waiting for the positive flavors.”
Too fine a grind means the water can no longer access the surface area due to the creation of a static charge which makes the dust particles clump together. Hendon says they don’t completely understand why the water works, but they know it does.
“As you grind super fine, the pieces actually recombine and make a bigger piece again, and the water doesn’t flow through,” he said. “We wrote that you could use 25% less coffee grinding coarser and using less coffee. Cafes in Eugene started using the method, and then it became widely accepted.”
Hendon is quick to explain that his research has complex implications. While it helps cafes save money by using less coffee, it could hurt coffee farmers, who will sell less.
“In times like this when you see the coffee price double, that’s a time where this research really matters,” he said. A coffee shop owner “can’t afford to buy the same amount of coffee … and there’s also not the same amount in the market. Let’s find a way to use it more efficiently.”
Hendon’s next paper will quantify coffee quality by measuring strength and the darkness of the roast, which accounts for about 80% of a coffee’s flavor profile. His research could establish industry standards beyond how humans “think” a cup of coffee tastes.
His lab hosts a free weekly Coffee Lab from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Thursday in the atrium of Willamette Hall on the UO campus, where samples from roasters around the world are prepared and served to anyone who walks in.
Shifting coffee supplies
With a newborn son at home, Hendon is currently on paternity leave. And he’s preparing to launch The Overpotential Co., a startup using electrochemistry technology to alter flavors in any liquid such as coffee, tequila or vanilla extract.
The technology, which uses a series of carefully controlled electrodes, could make Robusta coffee, which is the easiest to grow and a higher-yielding coffee variety but traditionally considered lower quality, taste like more expensive Arabica. That’s significant in an industry facing long-term shifts in the global supply of beans.
Back at Tailored, Webb is watching the global coffee crisis unfold in real time. Brazilian coffee, once a staple, is now more expensive than the most expensive coffee was before.
“Now there’s a cascade effect, where everything else gets more expensive because there’s less Brazilian, and everyone’s looking,” Webb said.
Prices continue to climb. But if they can use a little less coffee while still satisfying customers at the same price point, it’s a start.
“It’s not going to solve everything,” Webb said. “But when you’re trying to figure out how to keep doing what you love without pricing people out, every little bit helps.”