the cappuccino review blog

In the past few weeks, I've come across two really interesting sets of photos of coffee under a microscope. They both had me exclaiming out loud in fascination - and, in some cases, disgust - in my kitchen.


These were taken with an ordinary microscope.

(And be sure to click through to the 2nd page for sequential images of a Bolivian coffee as it roasts.)

And these were taken with a scanning electron microscope. The idea was to compare the shape of the grounds that come out of various grinders. (Those guys at home-barista.com are NOT messing around.) The findings are really interesting too: rounder particles and more fines from the conical burr grinders. Their next question: does particle shape impact taste in any way?

I love that there's someone out there with access to an electron microscope who's enough of a coffee geek to do this.