With the development of Artificial Intelligence that can determine the quality of coffee beans, we could soon see the end of experts who sip coffee, inspect and judge the colour and quality of its beans. Demetria, a Colombian-Israeli company developed an artificial intelligence (AI) data platform that can determine the quality of coffee beans when used with hand-held sensors, reports Bloomberg.

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The AI machine needs a human to enter inputs, which set the quality parameters. After that, the machine will be able to sort coffee even before it is completely roasted. The company completed a pilot program with one of the largest coffee traders of the world called Carcafe, the Colombian division of Volcafe. 

This shift to computerised way of grading coffee would be interesting to observe how it compares with the traditional human way of grading, which is called cupping. The Q graders are well-trained examiners, and they gather in New York at the ICE Futures U.S. exchange to determine the quality and values of various coffee beans.

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“It’s the human that establishes the sensorial part,” said Oswaldo Aranha Neto, a Demetria as a board member. “You need to teach the robot what to do”.

Demetria, earlier in the year, wrapped up a $3 million seed funding round, which was initiated by Latin American-Israeli investor Celeritas, along with some other private investors.

 Felipe Ayerbe, Demetria’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), felt that the tool would also help the coffee growers prepare coffee the buyers would want the characteristics in a coffee.