One of 25’s goals is to share academic research on coffee in plain language and in free-to-access formats. But we also believe that the coffee sector is full of stories and that these stories are important and influential. Research can sometimes feel abstract and theoretical, but we also know that there’s a story behind every project—even those conducted in a chemistry laboratory or by poring over data from scientific studies in something known as a global meta-analysis.

Peter Giuliano, SCA Senior Advisor of Science Communication, shares insights from research into the perspectives of coffee farm workers, and how this research has shaped knowledge building at the SCA.

Emily Pappo, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow with Smithsonian Bird Friendly Coffee & Cocoa, draws on a global meta-analysis to argue that while tree planting dominates current climate strategies in coffee, protecting existing biodiverse agroforestry systems should also be recognized as an effective climate and biodiversity solution. When incentivized, this approach can build shared value for producers and buyers.

The SCA’s Content Development Manager, Laurel Carmichael, speaks to researchers at the Hendon Coffee Lab about their chemistry lab that looks like a café, and about how they use electrochemistry and Design of Experiments to better understand the complexities of espresso extraction.

An interdisciplinary research team from Switzerland, Bolivia, and Colombia, led by Chahan Yeretzian, Nelson Gutiérrez Guzmán, and Johanna Jacobi, and including researchers Derly Lara, Daniel Castro, Sebastian Opitz, Sabine De Castelberg, Sergio Urioste, and Alvaro Irazoque, worked alongside coffee farmers, processors, and traders to examine which value chain structures improve farmer livelihoods in the Yungas of Bolivia and Huila, Colombia.

Dr. Aaron Davis, Senior Research Leader of Plant Resources and Head of Coffee Research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, shares the history of Liberica coffee, recent genomic research that has redefined it as three distinct species, and how Liberica and Excelsa’s climate resilience and unique flavor profiles offer new opportunities for the specialty coffee sector.

Neuroscientist Dr. Fabiana Carvalho explores the specialty coffee sector's perceptions of canephora and how the development of the new Canephora Flavor Wheel could help cuppers better describe and value the species' sensory potential.