It seems a lot of baristas, roasters and others in speciality coffee are looking to do research too. I’m posting this to ask where they are looking and how they are going about it.

Most don’t have access to published papers, and there isn’t a great deal of stuff online – everyone finds coffeeresearch.org pretty quickly but I think coffee has probably moved faster than that particular website has. ASIC is certainly a valuable resource, but perhaps inaccessible to those without a science background.

In their hunt for knowledge, I’m wondering how many people have grabbed the literature review published by the GCQRI, or have grabbed any of the resources on their site. What are people looking for? Bearing in mind there are no easy answers – are we just talking about wanting to do more research, and learn more about coffee rather than having a specific plan of action or a goal to our learning?

In the future there will be more information to share, mostly from the GCQRI, and I think it would be beneficial to understand how people do their research (honestly), to make sure information ends up in the right place. I’m not trying to catch people out here, I certainly spent a long time putting phrases into google and hopefully hunting through the mixture of garbage and occasional information nuggets it produced. I didn’t know a better way.

What about you?

However, this is definitely worth a read. Written by Sebastian (of Phil & Sebastian) about his experiences in Colombia recently, I think it offers a new perspective on things there and is impressively informative without being dry.

Reflections on Coffee in Colombia

Comments are closed on this page, as any responses should be left on their blog.

A shift in production away from diversity

Currently about 60% of the world’s coffee comes from just 4 different producing countries. I hadn’t realise the distribution was stacked that way, but these are countries that are able to apply new technologies relatively easily that will allow even greater yields without expanding the area given up to grow coffee.

My prediction (in between 10 and 20 years) would be that 60% from 4 becomes 80% from those 4 countries. Right now there is a lot of incentive to grow coffee in Brazil. Not only are prices high but exchange rates make their currency even more valuable. This will spur greater investment and a significant bump in yield. The majority of this coffee will be poor to average. Variety/genetic research will focus on palatability of product, rather than excellence.

Coffee is chased up the mountain

Climate change means that coffee growing at current altitudes will be decreasingly possible and rewarding. Farmers at lower altitudes will likely switch crop to something more stable and less affected by disease and temperature (palm oil etc). Those that can grow coffee higher up, where temperatures remain cooler, will continue to do so. However, this reduction in planted area for coffee (as well as a hopeful focus on quality in order to make a sustainable living) will make coffee grown at altitude increasingly expensive.

Climate change figures (esp likely temp changes) seemed to vary at Symposium, but I hope Dr Peter Baker’s presentation will be made available as it was both informative and compelling. No one seems to be arguing the base fact that less land will be viable for speciality coffee in the future.

Diversity in speciality coffee

Throughout Central America, some of South America and East Africa I expect to see less total coffee being produced – especially less speciality coffee. This will drive up prices further but I think we’ll see some truly exceptional stuff as we learn more about producing higher cup quality on purpose. (Looking to the GCQRI on that one….)

If you retail coffee then start thinking about how you’ll see it when it doubles in price. I think it will, and will be sustainable there too. The gap between speciality and commodity will widen significantly. I think genuine speciality (some would say high-end speciality) will also break away from the broad church that we cover with the term “speciality coffee” today.

GMOs

We’re going to see GMOs in coffee. I don’t like it, you probably don’t like it, nobody wants to talk about it, but I think these will likely appear first in the big 4 producing countries where there is greater need for economic stability from the coffee trade.

I hope that speciality works contrary to this to start to mine the genetic diversity in nature to see if we can’t find what we need there.

In summary

I don’t think fantastic coffee is going to disappear despite the challenges it faces. It is going to become increasingly scarce and its cost of production on top means that we’ll see a much bigger divide between C-market (which will likely drop back) and Speciality. You’ll have to fight to find it and buy it.

Whether you can plan that far ahead about how to be effective in a market that different, I don’t know. It is certainly worth some thought.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone else who was at Symposium, or who is interested in this sort of thing, about how wrong they think I am!

In this podcast:

- What is fermentation in coffee?
- What can a coffee being “washed” mean?
- Some experiments with fermentation
- Peter’s favourite coffee books
- Variety Vs Varietal

There is more stuff in there too. I think it is a really helpful listen if you want to better understand this incredibly important part of the process. I just couldn’t chop this one down – so if you hate the longer podcasts I’m (sort of) sorry!

You can do stuff like subscribe or leave some sort of rating or comment on iTunes here, or you can subscribe to the podcast feed here.

Feedback always welcome – really hope people enjoy this one.

To give a quick idea of its impact:  It is estimated to cause losses of over $500 million USD per year, and affects 20 million coffee producing families worldwide.  Despite this there seems to be a lack of funding in research to provide solutions.

A quick primer on the beetle

Coffee Berry Borer, also known widely as Broca, is technically a small beetle native to Africa – though its effects are now global.  It destroys crops by using the fruit as a home for its young.  The female beetle burrows into the fruit and lays eggs inside.  These eggs hatch and the larvae eat the coffee seeds from the inside out.  By doing this they massively reduce income for coffee producers by reducing yield, as well as quality.

drawing by Gonzalo Hoyos, CENICAFE

Pest Control

There are a few different ways to control the pest – some to prevent attack, and others to deal with damaged fruit.  Pesticides are only useful before the fruit has been infested.  I found a few different suggestions for pesticides online, only to later find that they had been banned in some countries for the unsustainable and negative impact on the environment.  (Pesticides like endrin)

Traps

Probably the most common solution are traps. These are pretty easy to make yourself, though they can be purchased. These work by luring the beetles into the traps (often using pheromones), where they are captured and drown.

CIRAD claims that traps can increase affected yields by 10-16%, and cost less than using insecticides. You still have to use some form of chemicals. There is more information about traps here (pdf), and a guide to making one yourself here.

 A control that is considered more sustainable (and acceptable under organic farming certifications) is the introduction of a natural enemy of the beetle.

Thrips

Enter Karnyothrips flavipes which are a species of thrips, and quite possibly a natural predator of berry boras.  Dr Jaramillo’s latest paper¹ looks at whether this is a viable predator that could introduced to help suppress the coffee berry borer.  Obviously introducing a species into a new environment comes with a whole new set of issues, though it may already be in various countries and simply needs an increase in numbers and concentration.

The thrips follows the borer into the cherry and lays its eggs, and then eats the borers undeveloped young.  Obviously it doesn’t prevent initial infestation and damage, but can limit the size of the borer population.

The other organic option was similar – to introduce a parasitoid.  A parasitoid is very much the same as a parasite, with the exception that it will ultimately kill the the host.  In the past various wasps have been used, with limited success.

Global Climate Change

I don’t think we can really question this is happening.  We’re seeing its effects and there is plenty of data to support it.  Below is a graph from a paper titled “The impact of climatic variability and climate change on arabic coffee crop in Brazil”, which can be found (in English) here.

The effects have also been studied in Mexico.  In a paper titled “Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture: A Case of Study of Coffee Production in Veracruz, Mexico” (abstract available here) one conclusion is that by 2020 the model projects that the increase in temperature would result in a 34% reduction in crop, meaning that growing coffee would no longer be financially viable there.

I also found this interesting little graphic showing the change in coffee producing area with temperature in Uganda.  I know it is concerning robusta but I still think it is relevant.

Added to the fact that climate change is already causing problems for coffee in places like Colombia, specifically with a substantial increase in leaf rust, it is also worrying to read Dr Jaramillo’s paper from 2006 ((.  To quote from it:

“In the case of H.hampei, average daily temperatures of 26°C could lead to a reduction of the maximum intrinsic rate of increase, and, consequently, reduced pest activity in coffee plantations. Over the last three decades, the average daily temperature per year ranged between 17.3–22.3°C for Ethiopia, 18.7–24.5°C for Kenya, 22.3–29.8°C for Tanzania and for Colombia 15.5–29.3°C (data from 1989 to 2007, as H. hampei was introduced in 1988 into the country). The potential number of H. hampei generations per year was in average 3.4 for Colombia, 3.1 for Kenya, 3.1 for Tanzania and 1.3 for Ethiopia. According to our predictive model, in regions where the actual average daily temperature has not yet reached 26.7°C, every 1°C increase, would also increase the actual rate towards the maximum value by an average of 8.5%.”

Many coffee growing regions are below the temperature threshold that sees a reduction in broca. Global warming will push many regions into the temperature zones that will see a significant increase in the rate of reproduction – which is obviously a concern.

So we’re looking at an increase in borers in many parts of the world.  Not good.  I’d be interested to hear from people, especially those with an interest in organic and sustainable growing, about how they feel about introducing predators from outside the specific ecosystem to deal with the problems.  

Combine CBB with leaf rust and other issues, and there are certainly some serious challenges for coffee ahead due to the effects of climate change. I’d love to hear more from people who are travelling and dealing with lots of producers on this subject. Tom Owens briefly mentions some issues in this post (which you should all have read!). I also feel like I’ve skimmed this topic slightly – so if people have good links they want to share do please post a comment!

1. Juliana Jaramillo & Eric G. Chapman & Fernando E. Vega & James D. Harwood (2010) Molecular diagnosis of a previously unreported predator–prey association in coffee: Karnyothrips flavipes Jones (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) predation, on the coffee berry borer

However, the possibilities for widespread devastion from disease – be it natural or an act of agroterrorism – are somewhat disconcerting.

Click to embiggen

A few people have recommended Simon Mawer’s “Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics” as a good introduction to the subject, but any other suggested reading is welcome!

For those who want to have a look through the GCQRI presentations the info is up here. I hope most people have also seen this announcement from the GCQRI concerning the potato defect. Getting a little closer to erradicating this particularly upsetting defect is a very good thing!

The other chart is the result of me digging through some old International Coffee Organisation (ICO) data on their site. I had been there because I wanted to better understand the International Coffee Agreements from the past. I think most of us are aware the coffee industry doesn’t have a golden reputation for economic ethics. Some of that is linked to the massive price crash when the ICA’s dissolved, and I think many coffee people of my generation lack an understanding of coffee’s history from a trade and economic perspective. We’re quite familiar with the ideas of modern ethical sourcing and trade, but these new approaches to sourcing are rooted in ideas that were the result of coffee’s past.

I’m getting off topic. I was looking at production data for the world from 2000 to 2009. This number is absolutely everything produced, good and bad, arabica and robusta ¹. The average price of all coffee is a difficult thing, and I was curious about the potential turnover of producers worldwide. In the end I used the ICO indicator price ², multiplied by pounds of coffee produced to get a figure. While initially turnover and production seem to match (as logic would dictate), this figure didn’t really seem to continue to track and they sharply diverge. What is hard to figure in, along with production and demand (in terms of price) is consumption. The bit of data that did seem to correlate more turned out to be stocks of coffee at origin.

Click to embiggen

I’m not really sure if I have a point to this – other than to accept that the above is a gross simplification.  However, I hope this marks a jumping off point for me where coffee trade starts to make more sense and my understanding of the wider world of coffee gets better.

Again, if people have some good suggested reading on the subject I would be very grateful! (Also – suggestions of any OSX software for producing better looking graphs and charts would be nice…)

1. I had to use pounds of coffee produced to get the numbers to work, instead of the usual “000s of bags produced”
2. In their own words, “The ICO composite indicator price, a historical series which can be extended back to 1947, provides an overall benchmark for the price of green coffee of all major origins and type, considered to be the best available measure of levels of green coffee transactions on a global basis.”

I think we can accept as fact that the growth in consumption of high quality coffee is not being matched by growth in production. At some point in the not too distant future there will be a tipping point where total demand starts to comfortably exceed total production and this will result in a dramatic price spike.

How dramatic that price spike will be it is hard to say. It will certainly be more dramatic than the one seen in commodity coffee right now due to the competitive nature of the speciality industry, combined with free market supply/demand economics.

Great coffee is going to get a lot more expensive. This is, from an ethical point of view, no bad thing. We’ve talked, as an industry, for a long time about the price of coffee being too low and that is going to change. What we really need to start thinking about is how we plan to deal with that change when it comes. It is going to affect absolutely everyone in the industry.

Most obviously coffee roasters – and there will be two choices: keeping buying speciality (and end up paying 2-3x what you are paying now for a lot you want) or buy lower quality commodity coffees. Buying more expensive coffees means your wholesale and retail prices will have to increase dramatically. How will you approach this? Will it cause a dramatic loss of business? Are you going to be able to deliver value for money on higher priced product?

It will affect cafes too. If you want to serve better coffee than your competitors then you’ll have to pay dramatically more for it. This will push up prices for coffee you brew and retail. Will you be able to communicate why a customer should pay more? Will you be able to compete against other businesses buying and brew top quality? Will your drinks still be good value for money when their prices have to increase in a more dramatic fashion than any previous price changes you might have brought into effect?

The theme of the above is, of course, value. If we’re struggling to deliver value for money now – how successful will we be when prices jump?

While I do want to see coffee prices increase and growing sustainable, excellent coffee to be an increasingly profitable business – I’d like to see these changes occur at a pace that the whole industry can keep up with so that Speciality continues to grow healthily. Equally I’d like to see more coffee producers earning sustainable prices for great coffee – rather than have an ever widening gap between speciality producers and ‘the rest’. I don’t want to see Speciality hit a wall or even start to shrink back again.

So what can we do?

I’ve mentioned the Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative (GCQRI) on here before. We understand an embarrassing fraction of what we need to when it comes to growing better coffee. We need to increase production of great coffee, but we don’t really know how to do it effectively – be it planting in new areas, or increasing quality of coffee already being produced. This initiative aims to work on that problem. It isn’t just nerding out over coffee science – this is important work with huge potential impact. Next week I go to Texas to take part in the Congress there, and I will try and share as much as possible. I’m not fund raising or anything like that – but I do think this program needs as much support as possible globally – not just from US companies – as it is relevant to all of us.

They have set up a simple website here, and as the project gets going I am sure the online presence will grow as well. Do get in touch with them, do please support this. If people have questions, ideas, thoughts or anything to add – please do leave a comment.

Before having a look at recent changes in global climate, rust resistant varieties and the conflict of crop vs cup we should probably start with exactly what coffee leaf rust is:

Leaf Rust (Roya) is the fungus Hemileia vastatrix. It is likely to originate in East Africa, first documented in 1861 though not studied until it began to affect plants in Sri Lanka in 1869. It likely spurred an increasing preference for tea as a crop on the island as it pretty much destroyed the coffee plantations there over the following ten years.

It didn’t really appear in the Western hemisphere until 1970 when it was spotted in Bahia, Brazil. Articles speculate that it was accidentally brought over from Africa along with cacao seeds. From there it spread quickly into Central America and is an issue in every coffee producing country around the world.

Leaf rust takes its name from the orange coloured lesions visible on the leaves, and the fungus attacks the leaves. The results of the attack are first impaired photosynthesis, then defoliation, followed by decreased yield and ultimately the death of the tree. In terms of crop loss figures range from 20% to 80%.

Certain factors can influence susceptibility to leaf rust. Some varieties are naturally more resistant, and there are some varieties created to have increased resistance to leaf rust (we’ll come to these in a moment). Trees in direct sunlight are more susceptible than those in shade. ¹ The age of the leaves also matter – though whether the younger or older leaves are the more resistant varies with the variety. High yielding varieties are generally more susceptible. The environmental temperature is also directly related to the severity of infection.

I’d been aware of leaf rust from my (limited) visits to producing countries. I remember being shocked as I walked through the section of a farm in Costa Rica that had been affected, seeing the trees stripped bare of all their leaves. It appeared on my radar again over the last year due to its influence on crops – most notably in Colombia and Kenya. The recent increase in crops being damaged is likely linked to the weather – global climate change seems to be the likely reason for increased rain across more of Colombia, and the occurrence of rain in months expected to be dry.

Rain is important because moisture on the leaf helps the fungus spread and infect. It provides moisture for spore germination and also aids in dispersal. Once infection takes hold it is difficult to remove, though there are some options for prevention. The change to the environment means that leaf rust is suddenly appearing in areas that had not previously suffered. You’ll probably be aware that as I write this the price of coffee on the commodities market is very high.

This price spike was initially driven by a significant drop in production in Colombia, caused by weather. The reduced yield wasn’t the result of leaf rust but it seems likely that the effects of leaf rust are likely to continue to damage future production and yields.

Prevention has generally been done by spraying fungicides several months in advance of the harvest, and the most popular appear to be copper fungicides. (I should note again that prevention is very different to a cure.) Spraying should be done during the dry months – the problem is when expected dry months become wet months and the fungicide is washed off.

This brings me to the other solution on offer within the industry: rust resistant varieties. Colombia has recently been promoting a variety called Castillo to its producers, as the new rust resistant variety to come out from its research centre Cenicafe. There has been some debate about the cup quality of Castillo – though I’m told that the winning farm at CoE this year (with one of the highest scores on record) produced a lot of 50% Caturra and 50% Castillo. How a separation of just the Caturra from that farm would taste is a separate and interesting question!

In other countries rust resistant varieties definitely have their detractors – varieties like Riuri 11 or the arabusta hybrid Timor (and its children varieties such as Catimor) often have correlations with poor cup qualities and many remain sceptical about the release of a new rust resistant variety called Batian in Kenya last month.

I’m not sure where we’ll end up, how coffee varieties grown – and the preservation of heirloom varieties – will change and most importantly (and deserving of another worringly serious post) how it will affect the already terrifying growth trend of speciality coffee demand easily outstripping production capacity. I don’t mean to monger fear and doom but I can’t help but be extremely concerned about speciality coffee in the next five years.

*Please note: I wrote this blog post to drive me to learn more about coffee leaf rust. I’ve tried to make sure that I’ve gotten my facts correct – but if you spot a mistake please do post a comment. I will try to update and include any corrections quickly. I hope this helpful and not too dry. If people would like I can post some links to further reading.*

1. I couldn’t find the explanation for this, but I would conjecture that trees in direct sunlight need to open their stomata (pores) in order to cool and prevent damage. Leaf rust infects by entering the stomata. Furthermore – plants that see more sunlight have more stomata, especially in high moisture areas.

The internet is quite talkative at the moment.  The coffee sliver of the internet anyway.  Lots of talk about seasonality, which is a good thing.

This does beg the question – how long is coffee good for?  Green coffee I mean – we’re still arguing about roasted coffee’s shelf life and a great deal more time and money has been spent on that topic in the last 100 years.

If anything, and we are getting into the realm of personal opinion here, green coffee is trickier because green coffees don’t age the same way.  Each lot is an individual little time bomb.  As much as we can look after it as well as we can in storage/in roasteries – we are still working with an individual fuse whose approximate length was determined before the coffee left the producing country.

I hate it when people talk in general terms about the entire production of one country.  However, in my experience, coffees from Kenya have held up a great deal longer than many Central American coffees.  Regardless of packaging method, and stored in the same environment for the same amount of time.  I know there is a lot of stuff out there on storing coffee (check Roast Magazine for some good articles), but let’s say this isn’t the main issue.

You could argue that they have such pronounced un-coffee like coffee flavours that, while they fade, they continue to be easy to spot.  This may be the case, but it is also the absence of baggy flavour which I find interesting.

We should probably find a better word than baggy.  Mostly because we can no longer blame jute as coffees that are vacpacked can end up tasting as “baggy” as coffees stored in jute.  They may take a little longer to get there, but they get there.  Cupping some very old pre-ship samples (that have likely never even seen jute in their lives) was a pretty definite moment for me.

What I want to know, and this is probably a bit of a list, is the following:

- Exactly what creates the jutey/baggy flavour?  Is it the breakdown of something, oxidation, some other reaction?  I went through Flament’s “Coffee Flavour Chemistry” and came up empty.  I will keep looking!  I am sure R.J.Clarke knows!

- Is it linked to processing?  Geoff Watts once told me a little theory he had, which I won’t repeat because a). I was a touch inebriated when he told me so I might get it wrong and b). It is his theory to tell, not mine and c). He may well have changed his mind.  It was, however very much linked to the results of processing before being stored in parchment.  Please Geoff, if you ever read this, correct me if I am wrong.  I know I am being a bit general there.

- Are we, as an industry, prepared to vary our window of seasonality depending on the coffee’s capacity for youthfulness?  Is this even more confusing to the customer, upon whom we probably thrust a dizzying array of information?

- If we can identify the length of fuse on a lot of coffee, should we store it differently?  Is there one perfect storage environment for all coffees, or should we customise a bit more?

Finally – how much of this stress would be saved if we could just move coffee from origin to roaster a bit quicker?  That, however, is another discussion altogether.

Back in 2006 I published a recommended reading list. Since that time my collection of books has (worryingly) increased so I thought I should probably update it. I could easily write a list of coffee books that one should avoid (having learned the hard way) but I suspect that would get me into rather a lot of trouble, so I shall leave that for now. I’ve broken it down into two parts and then down into sections, and have indicated which are nice to have, and which I would consider are essential on that subject.

I will try and keep this one updated – if you think I’ve missed something obvious then let me know.  I haven’t recommended books I don’t own, so this means some books may be missing that you would expect to see here.

This is quite a large post so if you want to skip down just click on the relevant section:

Part 1:

Espresso Preparation
Coffee History
Coffee Science
Coffee Origins

Part 2:

Coffee Growing
Coffee Roasting
Coffee Equipment
Hard to find/Rare Books

Espresso Preparaion

The Professional Barista’s Handbook – Scott Rao [Essential]

It often feels like no one is writing books on coffee any more, but this was a breath of fresh air. Detailed information on technique and theory, some new ideas well presented and written with an open mind.

Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques – David Schomer [Essential]

I don’t think I know many coffee professionals who haven’t read this book. Whether you agree with some of his ideas, or his strict opinions on espresso preparation, you have to acknowledge the influence of both Schomer and his book. I read it twice through in one sitting when it first arrived, and it felt good to finally have a book that went some way to quenching my thirst for knowledge.

Technique may have moved on, but I think this will be a good and useful read for many more years.

Espresso Italiano Speciailist – Luigi Odello [Nice to have]

We often, as an industry, romanticise Italian Espresso while trying to do something totally different with our espresso set up. This is a great book for understanding where Italian Espresso is now, to get an idea of how it is seen and defined in Italy. There may be lots to disagree with, but there is also a lot of what we do put into better context.

Coffee History

Black Gold – Anthony Wild [Essential]

I will admit that this isn’t the liveliest book on coffee, and its approach to coffee trade and Fair Trade in particular are somewhat frustrating. To some extent it is a product of the time it was written in.

What makes this book valuable is the quality of research that went into it. This wasn’t a case of the author just spouting and regurgitating coffee’s history. Myths are debunked, accurate dates and events are given. This was particularly useful for me when trying to understand the real timeline for coffee’s spread across the globe – as both drink and crop.

Heavy reading but worth it.

Uncommon Grounds – Mark Pendergrast [Essential]

Very much a US-centric history of coffee, but nonethless still very interesting. Valuable again due to the quality of its research and the fact that the author came to clearly know and love his subject.

The Coffee-House: A Cultural History – Markman Ellis [Nice to have]

There are a number of good books on the coffeehouses of old – I also particularly like Anthony Clayton’s london centric one, as well as Ulla Heise’s more general book on European ones. This is a great overview, even if there is a little bit more detail in other texts. The coffee house society is something I find particularly fascinating, perhaps because I’d like to see a lot of that culture make a return!

Also recommended:

The Devil’s Cup – Stewart Lee Allen

Coffee – H.E. Jacob

Coffee Science

Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality – Viani & Illy [Essential]

No great surprise here, but then no one has published anything that is both as broad and concise. A great wealth of information on coffee and espresso, from agronomy to roasting to tasting. And this is just the stuff the chose to publish – have no doubts that there is plenty they aren’t releasing. An amazing company, no matter what you think of the coffee. (Assuming you’ve had it fresh!)

Coffee: Recent Developments – Clarke & Vitzthum [Essential]

Following on from the Illy book, this is a pretty hardcore text but I consult it often when looking for specific research. It covers everything from instant coffee to espresso (though is woefully light on other brewing methods). It briefly appeared on Scribd but I think it has disappeared since.

Coffee Flavor Chemistry – Ivon Flament [Nice to have]

The title is at once completely accurate and slightly misleading. This book is essentially a reference text cataloguing the individual aromatic compounds found in both green and roasted coffee. It should be deeply boring, and I suppose it is. I am amazed, however, at both the range of compounds that smell similar as well as the baffling complexity of coffee. Sometimes the extra detail on how they identified which compound, or in which coffee it is often found is very interesting. If pictures of aldehydes sound like a terrible thing then this book is best avoided.

Coffee Volumes 1-6 – R.J.Clarke [Nice to have]

I spent a very long time looking for the complete collection of these 6 books, and if you see anywhere for under £300 then I would advise buying it for no other reason than it would be a great investment. (I am grateful to a blog reader who kindly sent me a link to a scandalously cheap collection). A huge collection of information on just about every aspect of coffee (the volumes are titled, in order: Chemistry, Technology, Physiology, Agronomy, Related Beverages & Commercial and Technological Aspects)

It is perhaps a little outdated, but I still find a great deal of valuable information inside them and I’ve barely dipped a toe.

Coffee Origins

Cafe De El Salvador, Land of Coffee [Essential]

I had to debate whether to put this one in under essential, but as it is my favourite book on origin then I think I have to. I am not sure of the best place to buy this – if anyone has a link please let me know.

I may be a sucker for El Salvador but I think this is one of the most beautifully photographed books on coffee growing, as well as the most detailed. It covers each of El Salvadors growing regions well – in a way that makes me wish I had a book like this for every producing country.

The History of Coffee in Guatemala – Regina Wagner [Essential]

Much like the previous book I wish there were one of these for every producing country.  The level of detail in the history of Guatemalan coffee is superb.

Brown Gold – Andrew Uribe C. [Nice to have]

This probably belongs in the rare and hard to find section, but I do think it is a great book. Written over 50 years ago it offers amazing insight into the world of coffee at that time. The photos are pretty amazing too, but you can ignore the recipes thrown in at the end – I assume they were to make the book more saleable at the time.

Look for Part 2 before new year.  Comments, recommendations or thoughts welcome!