A research partnership on coffee (and why we are excited about it)

This is an incredible time. Human beings are discussing “post-humanism”, climate crisis and sustainability. The pandemic has shocked the system: socially, emotionally and on a number of other levels.

Food could be no exception: never before in recent history so much effort, investment, debate and technology have been poured into changing the way humans eat. As this happens, every player is obsessed with transforming food whilst keeping it human centric as a deeply emotional, biological and cultural experience.

The supply chain crisis and the sustainability challenges to global trade call for a smart revisiting of existing, sometimes centuries-old food traditions. Habits and culture have always been behavioral drivers: this is where the next focus in food experience design is going.

If you don’t know what people expect or are used to, there’s no way you’ll be successful with presenting them new options. Yes, it is that simple.

So you can imagine why we are so excited about announcing our latest research partnership with Le Piantagioni del Caffè.

Sure, it gives us excuses to drink more and better coffee.

However, it is the objective of this partnership that excites us.

For the first time, a company with a long history and an amazing know-how on one of the most popular products in the world, has decided to explore the deep dynamics of how humans respond to coffee-based drinks. For the first time, Thimus is in fact presented with the unique opportunity to design and carry out a year long research project on the overlapping factors that are associated with the “human coffee experience”: habit, cultural influences, neurophysiological processes.

While we dive into this exciting opportunity, we realize it will also be a journey about coffee culture: origin, roasting profiles, fermentation practices and extraction methods.

Who knows what else we will learn along the way!? Cooperating means teaching each other: so it’s great to know that the skillful People at Le Piantagioni del Caffè will be part of our team for a while. We will play around with this wonderful natural product: food pairings, exploration trips and new encounters will be some welcome “side effects” of this journey.

Maybe, this is what excites me the most: changing the way neuroscience-based research can be carried out in food and beverage applications. The goal is always to show the world we can make it human and help pushing sustainable, high quality products across different areas of the world, promoting the genuine attention to the true nature of coffee that Le Piantagioni del Caffè so clearly embodies.

Mario Ubiali, Founder and CEO.