How to make your cup of coffee more flavoursome

If you are pining for more flavour in your cup of coffee, make sure the roasted coffee beans are chilled before grinding, suggest scientists.

Chilling roasted beans before grinding results in narrower distribution of small particles, which during the brewing process allows access to more flavour from the same amount of coffee, the researchers found.

This discovery by University of Bath scientists could have big implications for the coffee industry and might even allow domestic coffee connoisseurs to brew tastier beverages.

The team studied the effect of grinding beans at different temperatures, from room temperature to -196° Celsius, and discovered that the colder the beans the finer and more uniform the particles were from the grind.

That is important, because small uniform coffee grinds allow for better extraction of the flavour compounds -- allowing you to brew more coffee and get more flavour.

"It will alter the taste, because subtle changes in particle size distributions make a huge difference in rate of extraction,” said Christopher Hendon, who was with University of Bath at the time of the study, now working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The findings were published in he journal Scientific Reports.

"It could have a major impact for the industry,” Hendon noted.