Chris is joined by Dr. Alex Murray to discuss chlorogenic acid. We talk about how plants make it, what it does, what it tastes like, and how we might make it. We discuss a variety of papers, book chapter, and so forth. Check the library link on instagram for some of them.

Then, Alex and Chris spend some time on the year-end awards.

End of year awards: 23:52

Libation prize. 28:57

Spurlock award. 32:35

MTG tool of the year. 36:10

Fruit of the year. 39:49

Beast of the year. 45:03

Then, we shift to discussing movies of 2024 with Prof. Carl Brozek. Did anything released this year compete with Prof. Brozek or Chris' top three movies of all time?

About Dr. Alex Murray: He is from Hull, UK, and received his PhD from Bath. After a brief postdoc at MIT, followed by a professorship at Kent, he joined a startup Boston-based startup, Daqus. They specialize in creating novel battery materials. Chris and Alex lived together during their PhDs. and have been doing annual awards for a long time, but its the first time we put it on record.

About Prof. Carl Brozek: Prof. Brozek leads a materials chemistry research group at the University of Oregon. He is from Chicago, with a PhD at MIT and postdoc at Washington. Chris and Carl collaborate a lot.

Introduction preamble: Airplane 2.

Chris and Doran are joined by Emilee Bryant to discuss a pair of papers that probe whether latte art a) is perceived as more valuable and b) affects the perceived flavor of the drink.

Ordering a cappuccino is delightful. But is it more delightful with a rosetta? Would you be somehow compelled to pay more for it if it had one? Does it taste sweeter?

The papers are:

J. Sens. Stud., 2015, 30, 305

https://doi.org/10.1111/joss.12159

Br. Food J., 2021, 123⁠, 1931

https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2020-0612

About Emilee: Originally from Houston, Emilee moved to live in a hippie tree house before finding her way to Brooklyn where she lives now. She is a latte art champion, YouTube content creator, and film maker. Check her out on instagram (emstagrim), and YouTube (EmileeBryant).

Introduction preamble: Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes

In this episode Chris and Doran discuss the age-old question of whether dark or light roast brewed coffees have more caffeine. The discussion was inspired by a paper published recently in Scientific Reports titled, "Caffeine content in filter coffee brews as a function of degree of roast and extraction yield".

So, do light and dark roast coffee extracts have different caffeine concentrations?

The paper is open access and available from the publisher:

Sci. Rep., 2024, 14, 29126

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80385-3

Introduction preamble: Captain Janeway.