Coffee, tea, beer, spirits — how do makers of craft beverages like these measure and quantify flavor in a consistent, even standardized, way?
Analytical Flavor Systems aims to solve that problem with Gastrograph, a tech-based flavor analysis system for artisan products.
Jason Cohen founded the company in 2012 as an outgrowth of his undergraduate research at Penn State. Now co-founder and frontend developer John Dori, a junior at Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), has been awarded the David Rusenko Entrepreneur-in-Residence Scholarship, which carries a $10,000 stipend, along with support from a faculty mentor and the opportunity to earn six credits while working on the startup.
Gastrograph is based on Cohen's research “and thousands of Gastrograph reviews done in pen and paper and manually entered into a database in order to help producers of artisan coffee, beer and spirits understand their products' flavor profiles and make a more consistent product,” explains Dori.
The company currently has nine employees (including Ted Papaioannou, the other co-founder) who live and work together in State College, and four customers: Otto's Brewery, Robin Hood Brewery, DJ Coffee and Perfect Coffee.
“We've begun development on two sensors that will be used inside of coffee roasters and beer tanks as the products are made,” says Dori. “[This provides] the producer with as much data about their product as possible.”
The startup is also planning to release an iOS version of its Gastrograph Review app by September.
Meanwhile, IST sophomore Jules Dupont received the Rusenko Emerging Entrepreneur Scholarship for his startup, Mobile Library Apps, a product that provides mobile access to library catalogs.
Rusenko, a 2007 IST alumnus and co-founder of Weebly, a San Francisco-based web hosting service, donated $400,000 in 2012 to establish the scholarships.
For more on how PA colleges and universities are fostering entrepreneurship, check out this week's lead feature.
Source: John Dori, Analytical Flavor Systems; Jules Dupont, Mobile Library Apps and IST
Writer: Elise Vider