Building Coffee-Literate Communities through Education and Digital Transparency

Drupa aims to develop Coffee Literacy Communities, a participatory education and digital transparency model that empowers citizens to make more informed and sustainable coffee choices.

Coffee is one of the most widespread daily consumption rituals in Europe, yet consumers often have limited access to clear information about quality, origin, production methods, flavour profiles and sustainability implications. At the same time, fashion trends and large-scale commercial communication strongly influence how coffee is perceived, purchased and consumed.

Through this project, Drupa wants to create a community-based model combining sensory education, taste discovery, digital product information and data collection. Consumers would be engaged through guided tastings, short learning experiences, cafés, schools, campuses and local events. A digital coffee passport would make product information more transparent and accessible, including origin, processing, roasting, extraction methods, sensory profile and sustainability-related data.

The project has a potential academic coordination perspective through an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano, with experience in collaborative research and project development. In this structure, Drupa would contribute as a pilot and living-lab partner, bringing coffee and F&B expertise, sensory education, access to Milan-based educational and coffee communities, an initial connection with Brazil, and practical testing environments.

This combination would allow the project to connect academic research, consumer behaviour analysis, coffee culture, sustainability education and real-world experimentation between coffee-producing and coffee-consuming contexts.

We offer a potential Italy-based pilot and living-lab environment combining Drupa’s coffee/F&B expertise with academic project-development capacity through an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano. Drupa can contribute sensory education, community engagement, access to cafés and learning communities, and an initial connection with Brazil.

We are looking for partners to build a consortium around coffee literacy, sustainable consumption, consumer behaviour, digital transparency and Italy-Brazil cooperation. The project may benefit from academic coordination through Politecnico di Milano, while Drupa would act as pilot and living-lab partner.