Grandville — In its third year of operation, the Grandville High School Coffee Club is already on its second bean grinder.
That’s because last year, someone had the idea to see what would happen if they tried grinding green coffee beans before they were roasted.
“Oh yeah, it totally broke the grinder; there was no rescuing it,” said GHS chemistry/physics teacher and club leader Chad Bridle with a rueful smile and shake of his head.
“I like providing kids a space to be curious,” said Bridle in defense of the experiment. “(Making coffee) is not a prescribed process; you figure it out as you go. And we figured we’re not going to do that (grind unroasted beans) anymore.”
That spirit of trial and error, and testing and science, is exactly what Bridle has created with the Coffee Club, a casual crew of students who thrive at the intersection of coffee culture and chemistry. They wield a combination of fancy coffeehouse tools, like moka pots and tampers, and basic science lab equipment, like beakers and scales, to put together the perfect cup.
The Science of Coffee
“I think it’s great to see the complexities of the science of coffee,” said Bridle, who used to roast coffee beans in his garage as a hobby before establishing the Coffee Club with help from the Grandville Education Foundation.
“You can vary water temperatures, and how does that affect the types of molecules that get extracted (from the coffee), versus what doesn’t get extracted? You have the Maillard reaction as you take proteins and sugars and they caramelize into all these wonderful smelling flavors. … All of that wonderful chemistry is happening.
“We nerd out on the ‘sciencey’ side of it, but coffee is something very tangible that students understand. We can explore all the factors and variables at play and how a person can optimize that to produce what they think is a great cup of coffee.”
“Meetings” of the Coffee Club are casual gatherings, with students spread out in Bridle’s classroom lab to tinker with whatever interests them — whether that’s roasting beans for future use, learning how to use a piece of equipment, testing a new brewing method or trying a friend’s recipe for their “perfect” cup of joe.
‘They think they’re just drinking coffee, and we’re really doing science.’
— chemistry teacher Chad Bridle
Most of the time, there’s at least one experiment going on. One student roasted beans from one farm at several different roast levels, then brewed each batch to figure out which roast was ideal for that particular bean. When the club got their new grinder, Bridle had them grind three cups of beans — one a super-fine grind, one super-coarse grind and one medium grind — and then compare the resulting cups of brewed coffee.
As with any good science experiment, data collection is key; students keep lab books to note details like the bean’s origin, exact settings on the roaster, water temperature, brewing method and more, in case they’d like to recreate a specific brew in the future.
Grind, Brew & Adjust
Grind size was at the forefront of junior Oliver Harmon’s latest project: making Turkish coffee, a strong, thick and sweet coffee meant for afternoon sipping. A true Turkish coffee requires an extremely fine grind, and Oliver discovered that the club’s grinder was not quite up to the task.
“We used the finest grind possible and it just did not come out like it was supposed to,” said Oliver, who is also in Bridle’s AP Chemistry class. “It turned out really disgusting, really bitter, and was like drinking sand. I spent an hour working on it and it just wasn’t successful.”
For a second attempt, Oliver used store-bought Turkish coffee grounds, the texture of which comes close to dust. After adding in the sugar and grounds, then taking the mixture through four rounds of boiling and settling, it was time for a taste test.
“This is completely different — a huge improvement compared to the last time,” said Oliver while examining the color and appearance of the brew. “The difference in the grind size made that much of a difference; honestly, it’s shocking to me. … It’s not visibly thick, but when you drink it you can tell that there’s more body to it because of how thin the grounds are.”
But there was still work to be done to perfect the recipe: “Theoretically, there should be foam after the third time that it’s boiled, and it didn’t work out that way for me. I don’t exactly know how to fix that, but I’m going to tweak little things and see if I can get it better.”
Bridle said he’s enjoyed seeing the students take ownership of their work, understand the value of data and embrace experimentation through coffee.
“They’re defining what’s interesting to them and pursuing it, and that’s what’s really cool,” the teacher said. “They think they’re just drinking coffee, and we’re really doing science.”
Read more from Grandville:
• Initiative aims to double enrollment in career & technical education
• Kent County educator awarded state Principal of the Year
