Product Details
The Perfect Cup: A Coffee Lover's Guide To Buying, Brewing, And Tasting

The Perfect Cup: A Coffee Lover's Guide To Buying, Brewing, And Tasting
By Timothy J. Castle

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Product Description

For coffee lovers everywhere, The Perfect Cup is the one book you’ll need to appreciate coffee and it s growing status as a gourmet beverage. Coffee expert Timothy Castle chronicles the coffee revolution in America and offers state-of-the-art information on everything from the bean itself to brewing and appreciating the perfect cup. Do different brewing methods produce different-tasting coffees? What is the most common mistake people make at home with coffee? Is there reason to be concerned about “chemical” decaffeinating processes? These and many other questions are answered in this book.In a section entitled “How to Buy Coffee and Whom to Buy It From,” Castle includes interviews with more than thirty of America’s foremost coffee retailers and roasters. He also provides an overview of the regions of the world where coffee is commonly grown, and offers more than two dozen unusual recipes featuring coffee in sauces, marinades, main courses, and desserts, such as Grilled Coffee–Marinated Lamb Chops, Cappuccino Muffins, and Chocolate Espresso Souffle.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #281795 in Books
  • Published on: 1991-07-23
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 256 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Timothy James Castle is President of Castle & Company, importers of fine specialty coffees, located in Santa Monica, California. His affiliated company, Castle Communications, specializes in public relations and marketing for the food and beverage trades. Castle's articles on coffee have appeared in both popular magazines and trade publications.

Customer Reviews

Good, but needs updated4
I cannot believe I thought Folger's was good coffee for so many years. (Of course, it is made from 100% coffee.) If you're ready to enjoy a really good cup of coffee, The Perfect Cup is a good introduction to escaping from Maxwell House. I especially liked Mr Castle treating coffee like a crop, and discussing the variations in flavor that occur from variations in growing locations. I was prepared to dislike the 60 pages of interviews he had with the specialty coffee roasters, but found them to be informative (and occasionally quite entertaining).

The book desperately needs a second edition. This book was written as a general introduction to specialty coffee, and it probably still fits that niche. Specialty coffee has become even more popular than it was 15 years ago, though, and I believe coffee fans/addicts now know more about their beans and an expanded discussion would be merited. The Internet is an incredible resource for the coffee drinker and needs to be discussed in detail. And you can't ignore the 800-pound gorilla; I may buy my coffee from my local roaster, but Starbucks dominates the market and defines specialty coffee.

All-in-all, I enjoyed this book and it gave me some fresh perspective on my favorite non-alcoholic beverage.

Great for the novice or expert5
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about that wonderful bean.

This is a good solid book on Coffee5
I'm a coffee freak. I roast my own espresso and grind it with great care and pump it through a two group computer controlled professional Italian espresso machine. My wife thinks I'm obsessive about it. With that in mind, Perfect Cup provides a lot of excellent information that most people probably don't know, about how to make a great cup of coffee. It also talks about the characteristics of different kinds of coffee. If A&P 8:00 is your cup of tea...coffee, you might not give a damn, but if you really are curious...interested, passionate about coffee, you will probably enjoy reading this book.