COFFEE BEANS THAT RESONATE FLAVOR : T.O. COMPANY CALLS MIX OF SCIENCE, SLOW ROASTING `THE PERFECT BLEND.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Peering through the microscope of a magnetic resonance analyzer, Ronald Weinstock proclaims nuclear physics can make a better cup of coffee.

He should know. He can't drink much java unless it's treated by his Thousand Oaks company, Magnetic Resonance Diagnostics Corp.

``I get stomach cramps if I drink more than half a cup of any other coffee, but I can drink as much as I want of ours,'' says Weinstock, MRDC's chief executive officer.

Pretty soon, anyone will be able to drink as much of Weinstock's coffee as they want to.

Along with Woodland-based Puroast Coffee, MRDC is test-marketing a ``smoother tasting'' coffee derived by making a slight adjustments to the atomic resonance levels in coffee beans when roasted.

Puroast plans to start selling Resonance Roast at specialty coffee stores within two months. A price has not been set but it will be ``competitive'' with other high-end coffees.

A spokesman for Seattle-based Starbucks Corp., the nation's largest chain of coffeehouses with more than 1,100 outlets, said Starbucks has no plans to sell Resonance Roast. ``We would never sell any coffee that we didn't roast ourselves,'' he said.

Four-year-old Puroast uses a slow-roasting process, which can last up to five hours per batch instead of the conventional ``flash-roasting'' which lasts less than 15 minutes. The slow roasting - a technique used by Venezuelan Indians in the Andes - leads to a 40 percent reduction in the acid content of coffee.

Puroast has annual sales of $1.5 million and can be found in Bristol Foods and Whole Foods outlets in Southern California.

``Joining forces with MRDC takes us to the next level in producing the smoothest and best-tasting coffees,'' said Kerry Sachs, Puroast's president and CEO. ``We're getting a lot of interest in Resonance Roast, particularly in Japan.''

Better coffee was not Weinstock's goal when he founded MRDC in 1987 with Sigrid Lipsett. Instead, he wanted to find ways to make adjustments in the ``signature'' resonance of atoms to develop pain treatments for injured tissue.

``We found that if we inversed the resonance, the pain disappeared. Resonance Roast isn't quite what we originally had in mind, but we're very excited by the feedback we're getting,'' Weinstock said. ``Sometimes the least obvious ideas turn out to be the biggest.''

Weinstock said magnetic resonance is an emission resulting from the positive and negative charges in each atom. Under its agreement with Puroast, MRDC's equipment first analyzes each batch of coffee beans and then slightly adjusts the resonance pattern of the beans to match the pattern with the best flavor.

Before the Puroast deal, the company spent its time developing medical diagnostic instruments, therapeutic and pain control devices, drinking water treatment equipment and metal fatigue analysis devices costing at least $50,000 each. The 10-year-old company has 20 employees and annual sales over $8 million, with Japan representing its biggest market.

The deal with Puroast comes at a time when the privately-held MRDC has several other new products about to percolate into the marketplace if it can find licensing partners.

It recently installed magnetic resonance machines for pain relief at three U.S. Olympic training centers and plans to file later this year for marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the devices.

Also in the development stages are applications to control bacteria in beef processing; to increase seed germination and plant growth using MRDC-treated water; to improve the efficiency of yeast in brewing beer; to control the sediment in water reservoirs; and to market a ``Hado Music'' compact disc, based on a musical representation of the magnetic resonances used for pain relief.

In the last case, the CD generated more than $500,000 in sales when test-marketed in Japan as a health aid through pharmacies rather than through music stores.

``We've planted a lot of seeds over the years and now we're starting to harvest them,'' Weinstock said.

Although some of the developments may take many more years to catch on in the marketplace, he remains inspired by biotech giant Amgen Inc., a company located a few freeway exits down Highway 101 that generates well over $2 billion in annual sales.

``We want to become to biophysics what Amgen is to biotechnology,'' he said.

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Photo: (Color) Resonance Roast Coffee is finding its niche on the molecular level.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News