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An Observatory Travels on Its Coffee (1Dec92)
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 32, 1 December 1992)

If you drink coffee and have been to the mountain since the beginning
of the fall semester, you probably noticed that we have upgraded the
quality of the coffee we serve in the kitchen. If you observed at one
of the Kitt Peak telescopes, you also should have noticed that we are
providing coffee makers of reasonable quality so that you need not run
to the kitchen in the middle of an exposure to satisfy your habit.

The coffee being served is Guatemalan, this being an excellent
compromise across the various flavor preferences, cost, and
availability. We chose this particular variety and a local vendor after
very careful consideration. A Coffee Advisory Committee (CAC) was
formed consisting of Taft Armandroff, Todd Boroson, Suzanne Jacoby,
Phil Massey, Karie Meyers, and me. The CAC rated each of 5 potential
coffees on a purely subjective basis using a scale of 1 to 5 (sound
familiar?) where 1 is the best. Included in the 5 choices were the Kitt
Peak "standard" coffee, and a coffee from an obscure mail order house
in Berkeley. The latter, being familiar to many on the CAC, was used to
set the "zero point" of the double-blind taste testing, but since we
contract for the coffee beans AND equipment service, a mail order
company was not eligible for the contract.

The results of the taste test were that the "standard" coffee received
an average grade of 4.0, while the mail order coffee received a grade
of 1.6.  The coffee that is now served on the mountain received a
second place grade of 1.8. The remaining two coffees were rated at 2.1
and 3.0. Clearly, the "standard" coffee will not be receiving any more
time on the mountain.

Georgee Jacoby

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