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c People

I realized coffee is an excellent

medium for teaching chemistry.

Colonna-Dashwood detailed why we like Mg2+ and Ca2+
in our water. Following on from the came concepts of
interactions of coffee molecules with water the second
paper details a very complex analysis of why sugar addition
to coffee is likely to change nothing chemically. Rather it
probably just changes how we perceive the flavors in cof-
CTI: Which point was the most challenging and how fee (humans like sugar and are sensitive to it).
your overcame it? Water For Coffee contains these concepts, and more, and
Chris:Nothing is particularly challenging. Kyle is ex- was intended to teach the community why the chemistry mat-
tremely smart and was a great student. The key was for ters. It didn’t offer too many solutions to problems, leaving
him to get his coffees frozen, ground frozen, and then ample room for innovations like Third Wave Water, and other
tasting great. He had Lem Butler to do that with, so that products that attempt to standardize the water chemistry.
was easy!
CTI: What’s your plan next?
CTI: How to implement it into everyday productions? Chris:I am at the junction of postdoctoral research and
Will there be any course? launching my own research group. To date, the coffee
Chris:If you vacuum seal your coffee doses you can freeze industry has been fruitful for both my career and my
them forever. Whatever you want to do with that is up to abilities as a communicator and teacher. I am moving to
you. Sometimes its neat to freeze it and then keep it for Eugene, Oregon to be a professor in Chemistry. This will
a year to compare to the next crop. The applications are happen the end of June.
endless. I don’t think I will run a course, because the
concept is simple! CTI: Can we find your journals in different languag-
es in the future?
CTI: Or, still-“The question was always how does Chris:Peer-reviewed articles are never translated in science,
temperature affect particle size in grinding. What sorry! But, there is a plan to sell Water For Coffee to a Chinese
you conclude from the data is up to you”. publisher for translation and legal production in China.
Chris:This is still true.
CTI: Any plan for China tour? Seminars?
CTI: What motivates you to contribute to coffee Chris:Not this year, but I would like to get to China in 2018.
industry nowadays?
Chris:How simple chemical concepts like polarity or Dr. Christopher H. Hendon’s papers involving coffee
kinetics can be observed in real life. And, at this point,
I realized coffee is an excellent medium for teaching “The role of dissolved cations in coffee extraction” Hendon, C. H., Colonna-
chemistry. Everyone likes chemistry and coffee. Its just Dashwood, L., Colonna-Dashwood, M., J. Agric. Food Chem., 2014, 62, 4947
that the latter is much easier to get into. But honestly, “The impact of solvent relative permittivity on the dimerization of organic
I think the world of coffee has so many untapped curi- molecules well below their solubility limits: examples from brewed coffee and beyond”
osities and I am happy to explore them. Bradley, E. S., Hendon, C. H., Food Funct., 2017, 8, 1037
“The effect of bean origin and temperature on grinding roasted coffee” Uman,
CTI: Would you like to talk about “Water for Coffee” E., Colonna-Dashwood, M., Colonna-Dashwood, L., Perger, M., Klatt, C., Leighton, S.,
and your papers on coffee? Miller, B., Butler, K. T., Melot, B. C., Speirs, R. W., Hendon, C.H., Sci. Rep., 2016, 6, 24483
Chris:The first paper, written with Maxwell and Lesley

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