Disruptive DiningCourse 2

Columbian CoffeePercolation by simulation

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Coffee

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SCIENTIFIC NAMECoffea arabica

LOCATIONColumbia

STATISTIC 83% of Americans drink coffee

Coffee is an almost ritualistic drink that over eighty three percent of America consumes. It is the second most valuable commodity after oil and the number one commercial crop plant. The genus Coffea’s seeds are roasted to make coffee and are brought from plant to cup via a multitude of processes. Once the berry component of the fruit is removed the seeds are sent to the mill to remove their hard exterior. After, they are exported all over the world where they then undergo the process of roasting, usually done locally before consuming.

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Olfaction

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The only four commonly identified taste sensations: sweet sour bitter salty

Food identification is comprised of texture, taste, temperature, and aroma. Sense of smell plays a crucial role in identifying what we are eating. For example, “If you hold your nose while eating chocolate, for example, you will have trouble identifying the chocolate flavor, even though you can distinguish the foods sweetness or bitterness. This is because the familiar flavor of chocolate is sensed largely by odor.” The same goes for coffee. Try and imagine coffee being as appealing without it’s decadent aroma. Exactly.

DEFINITION noun

the action or capacity of smelling; the sense of smell.

The

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Climate change

2degrees will be all it

will take to eradicate coffee

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DEFINITION noun

a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

CONCERNING coffee

One point six billion cups of coffee are consumed each day. That amount of coffee should be lethal yet coffee prevails. Thanks to climate change, the eradication of coffee could be sooner than we think. Arabica, the most consumed coffee species is projected to become extinct in the wild by 2080. Arabica, originally sourced from Ethiopia has a narrow gene pool, making it very susceptible to climate change and makes the outlook for coffee very bleak. The best we can hope for is that only two-thirds of the suitable growing areas disappear by 2080 but the reality is probably worse. That estimation doesn’t even include other factors threatening coffee such as deforestation.

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Dishes and Dining

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Dish presentation

Steamed milk will be served in this sealed ceramic container along with a nasal filter that when inhaled will give off the aroma of coffee. The simulation occurs when the warm liquid with the consistency of coffee intermingles with the taste perception that is created by the coffee extract. By not seeing what one is consuming the participant is allowed to suspend their disbelief momentarily.

Milk

Steam milk and place in concealed container

Provide nasal filter containing coffee extract

Serve under the pretense of coffee

“Coffee”

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MolecularGastronomy

To give people a personal and sensory experience of this complex and loaded term ‘climate change,’ is to bring to life a problem that in actuality could change our daily routine right down to their morning coffee.That is our goal.

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SOLUTION: using molecular gastronomy we can simulate what it will be like when coffee becomes extinct at the hand of global warming and therefore topics like climate change will start to have more of a personal relevancy.

Abstract ideas like global warming and climate change seem to the average person distant and irrelevant. Most people never think that their lives could be altered by the changing environment let alone the temperature rising two degrees.

FLAVOR SIMULATION THROUGH OLFACTORY EXPERIENCE:

By taking coffee which is an integral part of the daily lives of millions of Americans and presenting it to them as if it has already become extinct simulates the experience of what drinking coffee as we know it might possibly be like in the future. Hopefully this experience is enough to create an awareness, curiosity, and a sense of immediacy about those greater issues that in the past have been discussed as if a myth created to scare children into recycling their water bottles.

2 COLUMBUS CIRCLE NEW YORK, NY 10019 PRESENTED BY THE MUSEUM OF FOOD AND DRINK

EXHIBITION BY APRIL MCMULLAN

WORK CITED

“Smell & Taste.” American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

“The Foods Forever Lost to Climate Change.” Hyperallergic RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.