How To Taste Coffee

“Build a better brew by mastering 10 manual methods, from French Press to Chemex, with this comprehensive guide.” —Imbibe Magazine Named a top food & drink book of 2017 by Food Network, Wired, Sprudge, and Booklist This comprehensive but accessible handbook is for the average coffee lover who wants to make better coffee at home. Unlike other coffee books, this one focuses exclusively on coffee—not espresso—and explores multiple pour-over, immersion, and cold-brew techniques on 10 different devices. Thanks to a small but growing number of dedicated farmers, importers, roasters, and baristas, coffee quality is at an all-time high. But for nonprofessionals, achieving café quality at home can seem out of reach. With dozens of equipment options, conflicting information on how to use that equipment, and an industry language that, at times, doesn’t seem made for the rest of us, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Craft Coffee: A Manual, written by a coffee enthusiast for coffee enthusiasts, provides all the information readers need to discover what they like in a cup of specialty coffee—and how to replicate the perfect cup day after day. From the science of extraction and brewing techniques to choosing equipment and deciphering coffee bags, Craft Coffee focuses on the issues—cost, time, taste, and accessibility—that home coffee brewers negotiate and shows that no matter where you are in your coffee journey, you can make a great cup at home. “Engaging and fun . . . I really can’t recommend Craft Coffee: A Manual enough. If you’re even mildly curious about brewing coffee at home, it’s absolutely worth a read.” —BuzzFeed

Home coffee-making authority and author of Craft Coffee: A Manual introduces you to the wide world of coffee flavor Have you ever purchased coffee based on delectable flavor notes—strawberry jam, milk chocolate, hazelnut—only to find none of it in your cup? It’s a common experience among coffee lovers. These days, high-quality coffee can taste all kinds of ways, thanks to roasting techniques that help draw out the qualities of the bean. In addition to that characteristic coffee taste, you really can find hints of fruit, chocolate, and nuts in your cup—all it takes is a little knowledge, a little practice, and the ability to slow down and savor. That’s where How to Taste Coffee comes in. With the same accessible, no-shame approach she took in Craft Coffee, bestselling author Jessica Easto explains why flavor notes are not always as straightforward with coffee as they are with other beverages, such as wine, beer, and spirits. You’ll learn how our senses perceive coffee, what creates and affects coffee flavor, and how to practice your sensory skills, using the same tools and resources as coffee professionals. With nineteen exercises designed to help you identify and talk about what you’re tasting, you’ll come away with a more developed palate, an improved ability to choose coffee you’re going to love, and a better understanding of the astounding complexity contained within these tiny beans. A must-read for any lover of coffee, How to Taste Coffee inspires readers to taste widely and sip consciously, with more appreciation, more discernment, and a greater sense of wonder.

This colorful history explores New York’s coffee culture from the brew’s initial arrival in the 1600s to today’s artisanal connoisseurs. The coffee industry was made for New York: complex, diverse, fascinating and full of attitude. Since arriving in seventeenth-century New Amsterdam, coffee held patriotic significance during wartime, fueled industrial revolution and transformed the city's foodways. The New York Coffee Exchange opened tumultuously in the Gilded Age. Alice Foote MacDougall founded a 1920s coffeehouse empire. In the same decade, Brooklyn teenager William Black started Chock Full o’Nuts with $250 and a dream. Today, third wave coffeeshops like Joe and Ninth Street Espresso offer single origin pour overs and push the limits of latte art. Through stories, interviews and photographs, author and coffee professional Erin Meister shares Gotham’s caffeinated past and explores the coffee-related reasons why the city never sleeps.

The worldwide bestseller - 1/3 million copies sold 'With his expert guidance we travel around the globe, from Burundi to Honduras via Vietnam, sipping and spitting as we go. This is high geekery made palatable by the evident love pulsing through every sentence.' - The Guardian 'The subject of coffee has never been more, er, hot, and The World Atlas of Coffee takes a close look at its history and evolution, the international range of beans and all the best ways to enjoy coffee. Great pics too.' - Susy Atkins, The Telegraph For everyone who wants to understand more about coffee and its wonderful nuances and possibilities, this is the book to have. Coffee has never been better, or more interesting, than it is today. Coffee producers have access to more varieties and techniques than ever before and we, as consumers, can share in that expertise to make sure the coffee we drink is the best we can find. Where coffee comes from, how it was harvested, the roasting process and the water used to make the brew are just a few of the factors that influence the taste of what we drink. Champion barista and coffee expert James Hoffmann examines these key factors, looking at varieties of coffee, the influence of terroir, how it is harvested and processed, the roasting methods used, through to the way in which the beans are brewed. Country by country - from Bolivia to Zambia - he then identifies key characteristics and the methods that determine the quality of that country's output. Along the way we learn about everything from the development of the espresso machine, to why strength guides on supermarket coffee are really not good news. This is the first book to chart the coffee production of over 35 countries, encompassing knowledge never previously published outside the coffee industry.

The Physics of Filter Coffee is a deep dive into the science behind coffee brewing. In the book, renowned astrophysicist Jonathan Gagné brings welcome scientific expertise to coffee making. Not only does the book contain numerous original ideas about coffee brewing, but Jonathan lays to rest many controversial ideas about coffee making.

I Know Coffee Series: Book 7 You've likely heard the coffee professionals in your local coffee shop or roaster talking about the different exciting flavor notes their beans produce--and have then found yourself disappointed when you brew the beans at home and just taste coffee. Just like with tasting wine, developing your palate to pick out the subtle notes present in high-quality coffee beans can take time and practice, but will yield delicious dividends. This book gives you a crash course in tasting coffee. It includes information on what notes you can often expect from different growing regions and roast levels, advice on how to train your palate, information on the tasting wheels used by professionals, and tips about how professional tasters brew their coffee to best taste the layers of flavors. Some coffees are quite complex, with aromas and flavors that can be both subtle and fleeting. This book will help you learn how to taste it like a barista.

"The science of taste and how to improve your sense of taste so that you get the most out of every bite"--

I set out with the goal to understand the ways in which the roast profile affects the flavor of the coffee. Through a large amount of research and experimentation, I have developed what I would consider a unified theory of coffee roasting with regards to how it affects the flavors being developed in the bean. This has helped me understand and intentionally manipulate the flavor of coffees that I am roasting since. I hope it will be as beneficial a paradigm for you as it has for me.