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WORKING THEORY / RESEARCH

Research activity.

Our company milestones, grant submissions and customer discovery are listed from earliest to latest. Activity reflects information confirmed as of November 2, 2026.

  1. Company beginnings

    WORKING THEORY

    Agricultural and biological research.

    Working Theory began as a research company focused on agricultural and biological technology.

  2. Federal research grant

    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

    Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI).

    Team role
    We connected with domestic farmers and processors, consulted agricultural researchers, and developed study aims for the application.
    Documented stage
    Application submitted.
  3. Customer discovery program

    NSF INNOVATION CORPS · I-CORPS NEXT

    Successfully completed the fall 2026 I-Corps cohort.

    I-Corps Next teaches research teams to interview prospective users and buyers to test a market need and refine a business model. As Team 2056, we completed 36 interviews with green coffee buyers, cooperative quality staff, roasters, roasting equipment specialists and agricultural researchers.

    The work shifted our focus from medium-sized roasters toward larger roasting operations and specialty distributors.

    Outreach planning

    Our planning tracker separately identified 60 prospective contacts across 27 organizations.

    About I-Corps Next ↗
  4. Concept-paper submission

    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

    ASPECT concept paper submitted.

    We submitted a concept paper to DOE’s ASPECT program.

  5. Full-proposal invitation

    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

    Invited to submit a full proposal.

    DOE invited us to submit a full proposal to the ASPECT program.

COFFEE RESEARCH / PLANNED STUDIES

Questions we’re working on.

Our next coffee studies concern sampling conditions, color measurement and repeatability across batches.

01
ENVIRONMENT / PLANNED

Understand the conditions.

Explore how environmental observations can add context to the coffee record. Ambient humidity and moisture within a bean are different quantities; the instrument and method must match the question.

02
COLOR / PLANNED

Make color comparable.

Investigate green and roasted coffee color under controlled conditions. A useful comparison needs consistent sample preparation, lighting and a documented reference.

03
REPEATABILITY / PLANNED

Find a useful reference.

Plan repeated measurements alongside coded cupping records. The goal is to understand which observations help compare batches while keeping the roaster’s sensory judgment visible.

04
FUTURE QUESTIONS / EXPLORATORY

Explore what may be possible.

Flavor-profile modeling and possible caffeine estimation are longer-term research questions. They are not current product capabilities or a substitute for validated analytical and sensory methods.

SENSORY RESEARCH

The cupping reference.

We use the Specialty Coffee Association’s Coffee Value Assessment to distinguish physical observations, sensory descriptions, impressions of quality and information about the coffee’s origin.

SCA Coffee Value Assessment ↗