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I meet il Professore at the bar of the Caffe Fiore in the late, starting to heat up, murky Napoli morning.  He is speaking of another taste, entirely:  "You could make a fairly complicated blend of two of the existing Gimme mantras, the French, and Leftist, equal parts. The shot I am looking for has a certain 'meta-taste', a fantasy of complexes; one I say, that is like first tier bittersweet chocolate, could be Belgian or Italian."

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Outside the Scuola di Espresso, the smell of freshly finished and brick-oven browning baguettes mingles with the smokey, golden morning.  A vineyard across the flinty valley is rusty-green.  And I am wondering if I can expose my personal confusion about:  WHAT  IN THE H. . .  IS pH, by quizzing il Professore.  He is not a morning type guy, ya know, but I stumble onward.

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. . .  and at the Scuola di, he is turning from the E 61, shot in hand:  "You have an example of another variation, which will point out yet another surprising twist of blending.  Remember the epiphany of Gimme's French Roast and an addition of Rwanda Bufcafe Epiphanie, a marvel of balance, depth, strength, and character.  But, first, try this", says il Professore, as I stand in the sun-bathed lab of the Scuola.  Lake Cuomo, out of the window, today is azure blue, calm, the temp outside is beehive warm, the air is dripping with volatiles--almond blossoms.  I'm ready for anything. . . .

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... Pulling Shots, Culling Current Chemistry for Clues to Cup By: Better Coffee Through Chemistry?

Today il Professore seems to be in top form as he pulls a shot of another blend:  "Here, my young friend is another epiphany, a blend that is a twist on Gimme's Leftist--searching for clues to sweetness.  I am about to give you an intense dose, both in the shot and in my notes to follow of the chemistry of coffee to show that inherent and developed chemical constituents can be identified, leading to discovery of sweetness in the cup."

I drink it in; the fruitiness to sweet caramel is ascending, sour and bitter are passed by.  I bet on an added slice of an Ethiopianin this version.  "In this case, you are right", says the Professore, "and now I continue to show you a path to sweetness through chemistry, in this case identified as supplemental sacharrides, namely fructose, glucose.  But read it yourself":

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I am asking il Professore of Scuola di Espresso about the cause of bitter, over a shot of his latest espresso transfiguration. 

"My friend, remember that we have been discussing the role of caffeine in particular.  It is relatively the most important toxic substance we know, the most widely consumed psychoactive drug in the world.  We find it in over 60 plants.  Think also of kola nuts, quarana, besides coffee, tea, and cocoa.  Surprisingly, caffeine (much of it from the decaffeination process itself) is part of many pain-killers, called "buffered", or analgesics, from Greek, analgesia, believe me, meaning without pain.  

"But just now, I am in the midst of a without-pain-moment, my own epiphany of taste and texture of this particular shot.  The aroma is not at all subtle either.  You be the judge of the taste."

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... 1H-purine-2,6-dione, 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1,3,7 trimethylxanthine [58-08-2], wasn't it?

Since the druggist was sayin', over a cup of "Coffee of the Year, Las Mingas", that caffeine, that trimethylxanthine, in the pharmacopeia is listed as a chemical that is odorless and tasteless, to be compounded where an increase in metabolism is indicated, I turned to il Professore of Scoula di . . , because all my references say caffeine contributes to the bitter taste of coffee as much as any other component.

Our Professore looks astonished and pulls down Flament, Coffee Flavor Chemistry (2002) to page 14.  "No chemist doubts", says the Professore,  "that caffeine is bitter, yet it's role in taste is limited to around 10% of total bitterness.  It is unaffected by heat itself, decline is modest or stable in relation to overall weight loss in roasting, but increases in solubility by 10 times at least as the temperature comes up to drinkable hot, very soluble.

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"What it was", says il Professore at Scuola di Espresso, "is the idea that you ought to change the way, the profile, at which you are roasting, depending on what?  What idea to pursue, say?  Look at Williem Boot's 'Ready to Roast' in September, October issue of 'Roast Magazine', a roast set for hard, for soft, for large."  

A new approach, right?  Not by roast outcome or cup but by green bean.  So we are gonna try what he's up to:  roasting a profile to match beans by hardness, by size; we oughta see results.

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No, what I mean is I ain't in the roasting loop anymore--my clothes don't give away that I was just roasting beans.  So my new role, new myself, is as a Gimme correspondent to be known as r. e. (roaster emeritus). . .

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