Originally published on thedailybeast.com.
by Carrie Arnold
As we start to understand the tiny critters that flavor our coffee, we can tailor the strains and flavors.
Many of our favorite foods, from beer and chocolate to cheese and coffee, are actually made by microbes. This microbial help in our kitchens has historically been rather slapdash and imprecise. People simply used the microbes that were available, often not even realizing that tiny bacteria and fungi were actually helping. Even now, some of the best cheesemakers and brewers still don’t know exactly how the microbial magic happens.
A new startup called Afineur wants to change all that. By using specific bacterial strains in its coffee fermentation process, they hope to create precise flavor profiles in batch after batch.
“We ferment the beans just before roasting, selecting specific strains of microbes to produce specific flavors,” said Camille Delebecque, co-founder of Afineur.
The popularity of such an endeavor is obvious: Within just a few hours, Afineur had funded the entirety of its $15,000 goal on Kickstarter. Within a week, they had raised nearly $40,000.
Cheesemakers are beginning to experiment with similar types of targeted fermentation, and so are beermakers, as microbiologists dig deep into the diversity of tiny critters that provide some of our favorite flavors and foods. By understanding the chemicals they make and the flavors these microbes produce, researchers and foodmakers like Delebecque and his partner Sophie Deterre, a flavor chemist, hope to completely transform our palates.
