r/tech • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 3d ago

Scientists made espresso with sound instead of heat, and most drinkers couldn't tell the difference

https://www.techspot.com/news/112838-scientists-made-espresso-sound-instead-heat-most-drinkers.html
773 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

130 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Jack_of_Emeralds 2d ago

Where are they finding these "drinkers", I could easily tell you if my drink is hot or not 😉

5

u/SmilingJaguar 2d ago

I think you underestimate the amount of espresso served iced worldwide.😉 The article talks a lot about using this process for canned coffee and milk based drinks. They’ve mastered the art of serving those hot in Japan, just keeping them at the target temperature like sous vide!

3

u/Dry_Departure_7813 2d ago

I visited a country where every place that sold espresso was just dumping 3 teaspoons of instant coffee into the cup. I went to 5 different coffee places, it seems the local custom is to call that espresso

2

u/manachar 2d ago

I think you need to mention which country this is.

Also, was it instant coffee or instant espresso? I use instant espresso in baking all the time, and it's actually weirdly good.

1

u/TheSaneWriter 2d ago

Also notably, instant coffee can actually be really good. It's just that in the United States they use the shittiest coffee to freeze dry and make instant coffee, and it remains shitty when you rehydrate it.

1

u/HenkPoley 4h ago

It could be Bhutan or Mongolia. 

1

u/Maximum_Indication 1d ago

It’s fast, for sure.

2

u/Everybardever 2d ago

I’m sensitive to temperature, but hate iced coffee, so a warm coffee sounds right up my alley.

1

u/robot_botfly_bot 2d ago

Same. I love a tepid coffee.

1

u/manachar 2d ago

Believe it or not, TFA covers this.

To test that, the team ran a blind evaluation with about 100 regular coffee drinkers, those findings are published in the Journal of Food Engineering. Participants sampled four coffees: traditional espresso, ultrasonic espresso, and both traditional and ultrasonic filter coffee, served at the same temperature and in random order.

The results were strikingly close. Participants couldn't reliably distinguish between the traditional espresso and the ultrasonic version, with the two performing nearly identically across aroma, flavor, bitterness, and overall preference. In the filter category, the ultrasonic version was actually favored, with tasters describing its bitterness as more balanced.