Wake Up and See the Coffee

A group of researchers at the University of Illinois have developed an inexpensive way to visualize scent through the use of specially developed inks. The colorimeter consists simply of a card with tiny polymer film squares that hold 36 designer dye drops, and came out of the lab of university chemist Kenneth Suslick. Each dye pigment changes color when exposed to certain chemicals, and the combination of the 36 exposes a unique chemical fingerprint for certain aromas, in effect painting a scent profile of the substance being measured.

Although the device will likely realize its greatest potential in security areas such as measuring toxic gasses, Dr. Suslick’s 17-year-old son best illustrated the myriad of potential uses when he applied it to the study of coffee aromas and was able to differentiate burned batches from perfectly perked.