Product Description

A coffee lover's guide to the best brews—written by two industry insiders

Coffee Basics is a brief, no-nonsense guide to coffee products, appreciation, and brewing. It demystifies coffee's origins and history, explores the overwhelming amount of different varieties and explains exactly how to brew the best cup. The authors describe the regional character of coffee beans from around the world and discuss a variety of roasting equipment and brewing methods for both home and restaurant.

• Lists mail-order sources for the best beans, plus great coffee drink recipes, tasting tips, and a complete coffee taster's glossary

KEVIN KNOX (Boulder, Colorado) is a Vice President and coffee buyer for Allegro. As a beverage specialist for Starbucks he was responsible for appraisals, quality standards, recipes, training procedures, and brewing equipment. JULIE SHELDON HUFFAKER (Portland, Oregon) writes for Cafe Ole and Coffee Matters magazines.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #247466 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780471136170
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
Coffee industry insiders present a succinct, straightforward guide which explains just as much as readers need to know to make sense of the specialty coffee trend and increase their drinking enjoyment, buying confidence, and brewing performance. Includes mail-order sources for great coffees, recipes, and a coffee taster's glossary.

From the Back Cover
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.

About the Author
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.

Customer Reviews

THE coffee bible!
I have read a number of books on coffee, but Knox and Huffaker's book is simply the all-around reference on coffee. While other book publishers include snazzy photo plates and recipes to sell their expensive books, this book gives tons of useful information on what goes into a wonderful cup of coffee. The experience and the passion that the authors (who are industry experts) have for the bean shows throughout. Because of this book, I was able to significantly enhance my family and friends' coffee drinking experience. Whether you're a novice coffee drinker or a seasoned espresso barista, this is one book that should be in your reference shelf.

Great coffee book
This book gives a good basic understanding of what coffee is all about. I especially like the specificity of information about coffees from different areas in the Regional Character chapter. For example, discussing Costa Rica's two best growing areas and how the coffees differ. I also found the opinions of which coffees are worthy of their price helpful. I read the Perfect Cup first and am glad I did because it was a good coffee overview for me. Coffee Basics was a great second book for me because I was looking for more specific information about coffees of each area. If I hadn't read Perfect Cup first I think the break down of info. on each type of coffee/regional character would have been information overload for me. If you are new or relatively new to the coffee world and are excited about learning more and more about the subtlties and nuiances present in that cup, I highly recommend you read this book.

Covers a lot in very few words...
This is not exactly a great book, but then again, not exactly a bad book. It covers much about the industry of coffee and goes over the different regions that produce coffee. It describes what is and how to brew a perfect cup of coffee.

But I get a feeling of being rushed from one tidbit of information to the next. Just while I am almost within grasp of a certain concept or am about to form a picture of what it is trying to say it ends there without further detail. But it does repeat key information more than once throughout the book so you do walk away with greater knowledge than before.

If learning about coffee was compared to eating out, this book is best suited as either an appetizer or a desert. Appetizer to whet and get your brain ready to learn more about coffee, or as a desert, to catch up on and review over learned knowledge.

I guess that's why it is called "Coffee Basics" after all.

"A Perfect Cup" is a better selection in that it contains more information and better elaboration although that book is slightly dated being published in 1994. But coffee has been around way before 1994 so does it really matter?