doesn't involve maniacal laughter and placing electrodes on poor, defenceless beans. It does, on the other hand, involve employing expert scientists to get us closer to the perfect cup of coffee.

For example, we've worked to understand the science of freshness -discovering that newly roasted beans have flavour characteristics of their own. Or unearthing the compounds responsible for making stale coffee taste, well, stale.

When we say "lab", we really mean it - we're serious about the science. We've even got a machine to finely chop (not grind) the beans for our filter coffee. After, of course, the blades have been introduced to some liquid nitrogen at -180 degrees centigrade.