Coffee Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide [Paperback]

Put your local coffee bar to the test with Coffee Basics!

With thousands of coffee bars and restaurants serving an endless variety of blends, roasts, and brews, ordering a specialty coffee drink has become as daunting a task as selecting a fine wine. How can you distinguish between great coffee and great hype? Read Coffee Basics.

Kevin Knox and Julie Sheldon Huffaker have filled this handy reference with hundreds of industry truths and trade secrets. You′ll learn the fundamentals of coffee buying, brewing, and tasting; and develop an aficionado′s ability to see beyond the expensive trappings of today′s coffee explosion. You′ll discover:

• The basic coffee facts: its origin, history, and many varieties
• Step–by–step methods for selecting, roasting, blending, and flavoring coffee "to taste"
• A coffee taster′s glossary
• Simple charts showing grind progression, relative grinding times, and regional characteristics
• The scoop on decaffeinated, organic, and espresso beans
• Specialty coffee recipes
• Lists of the best sources for beans and professional equipment

Whether you make coffee at home or at a fine restaurant, Coffee Basics offers a bottomless cup of brewing knowledge and drinking pleasure.

Perspective of full-time roaster & taster
The title is perhaps a bit deceptive, since besides the "basics" this book includes more specific detail on what is truly excellent in coffee (versus what's marketed to consumers purely to make money) than any other coffee book. It is the only coffee book written by a full time hands-on roaster and taster, with two decades of experience at the highest levels of the fine coffee trade. My goal was to help consumers enjoy the truly great coffee experiences professional tasters tend to keep to themselves. For example, you'll find out why Kenya and Yemen Mocha Mattari are highly prized, while coffee pro's avoid Hawaiian Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain. Why the vacuum pot and plunger pot make great coffee, while $100 home drip makers ruin it. It's a quick, easy and provocative read.

Put your local coffee bar to the test with Coffee Basics!

With thousands of coffee bars and restaurants serving an endless variety of blends, roasts, and brews, ordering a specialty coffee drink has become as daunting a task as selecting a fine wine. How can you distinguish between great coffee and great hype? Read Coffee Basics.

Kevin Knox and Julie Sheldon Huffaker have filled this handy reference with hundreds of industry truths and trade secrets. You′ll learn the fundamentals of coffee buying, brewing, and tasting; and develop an aficionado′s ability to see beyond the expensive trappings of today′s coffee explosion. You′ll discover:

• The basic coffee facts: its origin, history, and many varieties
• Step–by–step methods for selecting, roasting, blending, and flavoring coffee "to taste"
• A coffee taster′s glossary
• Simple charts showing grind progression, relative grinding times, and regional characteristics
• The scoop on decaffeinated, organic, and espresso beans
• Specialty coffee recipes
• Lists of the best sources for beans and professional equipment

Whether you make coffee at home or at a fine restaurant, Coffee Basics offers a bottomless cup of brewing knowledge and drinking pleasure.

KEVIN KNOX, Vice President and coffee buyer for Allegro and former coffee specialist for Starbucks, is the country′s leading coffee expert.

JULIE SHELDON HUFFAKER is a writer and editor who works with the specialty coffee industry.