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Peapod Flavour Standard
The Peapod Flavour Standard is a certified sensory reference used to train coffee tasters, roasters, and quality control professionals to recognise the peapod flavour (Acetaldehyde) in coffee.
In the World Coffee Research (WCR) Sensory Lexicon, the term “Peapod” refers to a distinct, green, beany, and raw aroma associated with underdeveloped coffee beans. FlavorActiV identifies this same compound as Acetaldehyde — a key indicator of freshness or processing issues in coffee.
FlavorActiV’s Peapod Flavour Standard is packaged in individual, airtight blister capsules to ensure accuracy, safety, and consistency in sensory training.
We ship globally – shipping costs may apply depending on your region
Minimum Order: £275
What Is Peapod Flavour?
Peapod flavour is described as a green, beany, and earthy aroma that can resemble fresh peas, bruised apple, or solvent-like notes. It is often associated with immature or under-roasted coffee beans and can significantly affect cup quality.
WCR Sensory Lexicon Sensory Terms: Green aromatic that is sweet, beany, fresh, raw, and musty/earthy.
FlavorActiV Sensory Terms: Bruised apple, green apple, solvent, emulsion paint.
This flavour is typically associated with acetaldehyde, a compound that can impart a green, raw, or slightly solvent-like aroma and taste.
What Causes Peapod Off-Flavour?
Peapod off-flavour can result from several factors during coffee production and processing, including:
- – Immature Coffee Beans: Beans harvested too early often exhibit green, raw, or beany notes.
- – Improper Fermentation: Inadequate or poorly controlled fermentation can lead to the development of acetaldehyde.
- – Storage Conditions: Exposure to high humidity or improper storage can amplify musty or earthy characteristics.
Understanding these causes is crucial for identifying and mitigating off-flavours in coffee.
How Does the Peapod Flavour Standard Help?
The Peapod Flavour Standard by FlavorActiV offers a reliable and safe method for replicating the Peapod flavour in coffee samples. It helps:
- 1. Train Sensory Skills: Enables tasters to recognise and describe peapod flavour with precision.
- 2. Calibrate Tasters: Ensures consistency in sensory evaluation across teams and supply chains.
- 3. Improve Quality Control: Identifies off-flavours early, ensuring only high-quality coffee reaches consumers.
- 4. Support Research: Validated by the World Coffee Research team, it serves as a trusted reference for sensory studies.
How to Recognise Peapod Flavour: Sensory Terms
To identify peapod flavour in coffee, look for these sensory cues:
- – Aromas: Green, sweet, fresh, or beany.
- – Tastes: Bruised apple, green apple, or solvent-like notes.
- – Mouthfeel: May include a slightly raw or musty sensation.
Training with the Peapod Flavour Standard helps refine these sensory skills, making it easier to detect and describe this unique flavour.
What are the Professional Applications of the Peapod Flavour Standard?
The Peapod Flavour Standard is widely used by:
- – Coffee roasters for sensory calibration and quality checks
- – Cuppers and Q graders for training and certification
- – Coffee exporters/importers for product evaluation
- – Educational institutions teaching sensory science and flavour profiling
It is also a vital component of FlavorActiV’s Calibrating Coffee Sensory Plan, developed in collaboration with World Coffee Research to standardise flavour evaluation across the coffee industry.
Other Information
Our Peapod Flavour Standards contain 5 individually blister-packaged capsules, meaning that each capsule is protected from the environment until they are ready to be used.
‘Peapod’ in the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon is referred to as Acetaldehyde by FlavorActiV.
These coffee flavour standards are essential for anyone looking to improve their ability to detect and describe subtle flavour notes in coffee.
FlavorActiV GMP Flavour Standards
Only Pharmaceutical Quality GMP Flavour Standards provide sufficient quality for professional sensory panels to train and validate with.
We produce encapsulated GMP (Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practice) Flavour Standards that are safe to both smell and drink. The compounds within our capsules impart the aroma, taste and mouthfeel of a specific defect or positive flavour into a beverage for the purposes of taster training, calibration and quality control.
Our individual flavour GMP Flavour Standards are sold by flavour, each flavour pack contains 5 capsules, each separately blister packaged. Our sensory kits contain a mixture of flavours, each separately blister packaged, read the product description for flavour details.
We ship globally, and have over 20 years of experience at it. Our GMP Pharmaceutical Flavour Standards are produced to the highest standards, and as such, their shelf-life is strong and their quality consistent.
FlavorActiV’s flavour centre is the world’s only pharmaceutically run facility dedicated to the production of flavour reference standards. The Flavour Centre is a state-of-the-art facility housed within the campus of world-renowned Quay Pharma near Liverpool in the U.K.
The Flavour Centre was designed by FlavorActiV from the ground up at the direct request of global customers as they looked to move away from inferior food grade ‘certified flavour standards’ to GMP Pharma, a standard that ensures safe, stable, traceable, consistent and long shelf-life products.
All FlavorActiV’s industry-leading encapsulated flavour standards are manufactured following GMP at our Flavour Centre. All aspects of manufacture are overseen by Quay Pharma who are audited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory agency (MHRA). We also welcome customer audits.
Only FlavorActiV GMP flavour standard capsules bear our mark of authenticity.
We brand each of our capsules so that our customers know they’re getting the Pharmaceutical GMP Quality that only FlavorActiV provide.
Industry leading packaging and shelf-life
FlavorActiV flavour standards are blister packaged, which extends shelf-life and protects capsules from potential contamination. The average shelf-life of FlavorActiV flavour standards is 18 months to 4 years, depending on the flavour compounds.
We will never ship in pots or plastic packaging, here’s why…
Blister packaging protects capsules from the environment until they are ready for use. Blister packaging greatly reduces the amount of headspace for possible flavour escape. As each capsule individually blister packaged, making use of one capsule still leaves all others protected. FlavorActiV Flavour Standard packaging is 100% recyclable, as opposed to polypropylene which is not widely recycled.
Pots are semi-porous, they allow molecules to pass through and flavour to be lost, their significant headspace also adds to substantial flavour escape as a gas, even when using just one capsule all those remaining in the pot are exposed.
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