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!

The voting is now closed and I think we have a clear winner. You guys picked the mouth shot but I have to say thank you to everyone who voted and entered, it was wonderfully silly and I will have to think of another absurd challenge of some sort soon.

So congratulations to the guys involved at Intelli LA, Espresso Warehouse will be sending you your prize (they are gonna send me a photo what they are sending that I’ll post up later).

Thanks again to everyone – it was very silly!

They were chosen for originality, quality of the pour and plain silliness. Please rank them with that in mind. The one I poured is being entered as Arthurs. In cases where ideas were done by two people the first to submit went in. If I have missed anything let me know!

Here they are:

Vote:

If I have forgotten something (because I put this together quite quickly today) then nominate it for the pole – though do double check that it isn’t there before adding it please.

Anyone who feels ignored – sorry! It wasn’t on purpose!

Just to warn you – IP tracking is on, so that should stop people voting repeatedly. I will close the voting when I get back from Russia on the 8th of October. Vote now! Get your friends to vote! Family! Coworkers!

I will see if I can add to the stuff Espresso Warehouse are giving away as the prize.

Second of all – this is a big post. It looks huge but it is mostly pictures – honest!

This was my second Nordic Barista Cup and I enjoyed it a lot. I spent the first day catching up with people, which is a crucial part of the whole thing for me. I missed a few of the lectures (The Nespresso one on sustainability for example – more on their presence later) though I enjoyed listening to Roberto Bendana from Cafes de Nicaragua, who talked with Stephen Hurst.

That evening was a boat trip, champagne for all of course, and then dinner. Was nice to catch up with Anne Lunnell and to catch up with Klaus on the Coffee Collective’s progression.

After the dinner the fun began with the first and last Coffee Olympics. Hosted by Alex in absurd shorts I was granted the high honour of lighting the Olympic Flame (a candle) and things didn’t get much more sensible from there. I did enjoy the team’s coffee commercials acted out for an inebriated and amused audience, and human tic-tac-toe is as silly as it sounds.

Spent the dinner with Chris and M’lissa and it was great to see them again, having first met them last year at the NBC in Copenhagen. They were there as volunteers and I will says this now – all the volunteers were absolutely amazing. They worked incredibly hard – with barely a break and coping with never ending lists of tasks and chores. I think next year they may need a few more because these guys were doing at least two persons work each. Amongst them were a few people I knew from the interweb community but had never met like Scott and Justin, and Will from Matthew Algie was also working his arse of with them. When you see people crashed out on benches in the afternoon you know they’ve worked hard!

I hope the organisers made them feel as appreciated as they were by the attendees.

So – Day two:

The Day started with a new idea becoming tradition: Nordic Roaster

Roasters were asked to submit a filter and an espresso blend. 10 roasters submitted so each team was given four coffees to brew. For the filter coffee the roaster could choose their dose and were informed how the Bunn Brewers would be set. For the espresso again all they could input to the baristas was the dose, assuming a rough brewtime of 25 seconds to white out.

All tasting was done blind, and filter coffee was done first – 10 cups to sip. Number 6 shone at first for me, but I didn’t like how it cooled so picked number 2. As for espresso we did it in two rounds of five. I tried to take notes on the back of my card, and it was interesting to taste different styles.

It is hard to taste coffee in paper cups, but still a lot of fun. Results would be announced later that evening…

A few lectures this day I enjoyed – having the World Sommelier Champion was interesting. He talked about using descriptions to better communicate with the customer and about common language and avoiding esoteric terms. I would like to have heard more about using his skills to more effectively sell to customers, but it was good to hear him speak.

That evening was the White Party. We were sent away and the volunteers went to work on the tent. We arrived that evening and all those not dressed in white were given some nice white overalls so we all matched. When we were allowed in everything was filled with fog, strobed light and it was crazy. Eyebrows were raised over the white sous-vide food, but I had more fun throwing popcorn at Ken from BaristaMag.

Then the tempation became to much for Klaus and I and many a helium balloon was commandeered from the plastic flamingos that held them on the tables, until one flamingo had enough to take flight. It was a proud moment.

Day three started with a very brief cafe crawl with Chris and M’lissa before they had to start working. Linus from the Coffee Collective had kindly texted me a couple of places to visit (though I am not sure 4.30am is the happiest time to recieve this kind of thing – their ability to keep going late and be up early makes me feel an old man…)

The first place sounded intruiging…. Caffe Mauritz is a tiny little shop on a busy street. They have a four group Linea and a couple of Mahlkoenig R2D2s on the back bar. However it is their roasting that draws the most interest. All the coffee is roasted in an oven on a baking tray, seemingly for 12 minutes. I kid you not. The owner wasn’t there when we were in but others visited and apparently he is a great character, and likes to start the day off by having a staff meeting and telling the stories and fables.

We had an impressively generous single espresso (about 3 ounces?!) and then headed over to a little cafe, very Italian in style from start to finish for a much cheaper and much, much shorter little espresso.

The tent/event was open to the public on the final day and they could change their Kroner for Barista Dollars (B$) and spend them at the team’s cafes. This would seem, while quite late in proceedings, to explain briefly the theme for this year’s competition (though Barista Mag have been doing a much better job of all this over on their blog). It was all about The Future Coffee Shop… The finale involved the five different shops competing to make the most money. Iceland went all Clover, no espresso…. Norway bought in baristas to do guest slots…. They chose their food offering, their service style and had previously bid for the coffees they would serve having cupped them first.

I was bought in by Norway to do a half hour guest slot, sandwiched impressively by Scott Lucey and Tim Wendelboe. Norway’s espresso was very lightly roasted, and Scott piled the pressure on me by serving me as good a shot as I think was possible from that coffee 10 minutes before I was to follow him on. It was a lot of fun, and now isn’t the time to go into worrying about your shots when you can’t quite get a fix on the coffee and dealing with people’s expectations of how the shots I serve will taste.

I bought coffee drinks, bags of beans and many a tasty treat from the different teams and I think Norway even managed to sell their K30 grinder! There were cuppings, chocolate tastings, Troels roaming the floor selling his goods and Soren with an odd drawn on moustache. No one bats an eyelid. I was annoyed to miss a tasting run at the Iceland Cafe where they used different sets of grinder burrs to brew one coffee several times on the Clover – I think the results from that will pop up somewhere soon, but in synopsis: coffee specific burrs really do work best.

Next came an item in the program I was a little skeptical about. The World Record attempt with Nespresso. I am not a huge fan of Nespresso, nor their daddy company especially when it comes the world of coffee. The idea was to use 2 domestic Nespresso machines per team to make as many cappuccinos as possible in 10 minutes. Didn’t matter how they tasted, just had to look ok. My initial anger over this absurdity was calmed by idea that if Nespresso want to throw money at an event like this, then who are we to refuse it when it can improve the event for everyone. No one in the coffee community really takes it seriously, so no harm done.

The problem was that this wasn’t about the coffee community – this was a day open to the public and it seemed such an appalling shame that the public were not given the uniform message that the craft of the barista is something worthwhile and skilled, instead they also saw what we are trying to fight again – the person pushing buttons, disconnected from the coffee making passable drinks. These are some of the best baristas in Scandanavia/Europe/The World and they are forced by the machinery and coffee to produce drinks like this for the public to watch (but thankfully not taste):

If we’d done it behind closed doors it would have seemed very funny, though I guess it wouldn’t have been as good a day for Nestle. A bit of shame….

After auctioning off loads of stuff to public and eager barista souvenir hunters everyone eventually made their way over to the Gala dinner, where the annoucements would be made. There were some odd extra awards and I won Best Attendee (I owe this entirely to Mr Lucey) and Anette and David Craig (his kilt wearing may have had something to do with it!) missed out on Cutest Girl to Ave Pilt. I laughed a lot and then they got the five WBC winners up to the machine to make coffee – Me, Klaus, Troels, Tim and also Martin stepped up. It was cool to see Martin working the machine because he won long before I got into coffee and I’d never seen him churning out drinks. Again the coffee being used maybe wasn’t the perfect roast for an espresso but I think most of the crowd wanted photos of Troels, Tim and Martin (because they did most of the hard work!) than they wanted any more coffee….

The speeches were mercifully short and we were informed that the event had raised over $10,000 US towards a school charity project in Nicaragua. Then the winners were announced and I think everyone was delighted with the result. To further continue the NBC mantra of learning together, acting together, and being together the winners of the trip go to Nicaragua but also one member of each of the other teams goes along too which I think is a great idea.

I love the NBC, it makes me jealous that I can never compete in that competition because I think being on one of those teams is very special indeed and is a great experience. I hope the UK and the rest of Europe can continue to learn from their example and that team competitions continue to grow. I guess I shall soon find out as I head to Moscow in a week to compete in the UK team for the European Team Challenge.

I was delighted for Anne, Costas et al. Again – huge congratulations to Sweden.

But the night didn’t end there….. Before we managed to sneak off into the night Scott had invaded the stage and started a latte art smackdown.

About 20 baristas threw in their money (all went to the charity project – we competed for the honour/pride/hilarity). Chris, M’lissa, Scott, Justin, Lukasz and many others including myself poured under a tirade of healthy and entertaining heckling and endless camera flashes. In the end it was Scott that would make the final two and win in the head to head battle.

Right now I am really tired and probably will come back to this and tidy it up a little bit, and I suspect it is already a massive post. Thank you to everyone that organised it and thank you to the London School of Coffee who paid my ticket.

In a final smug moment I had a quick look through my case at all the coffee I picked up:

1 kg Solberg and Hansen espresso

750g Coffee Collective espresso (can’t wait to try this!!!)

5 x 250g Nicaraguan CoE and other speciality coffees

250g Finca Vista Hermosa (Coffee Collective again)

250g Guatemala CoE Winner

Add to this a little Eva Solo and a new and very sexy tamper from Lars at Xpressivo (will post pics – it really is very cool), lots more coffee t-shirts and limited edition NBC stuff and also the coffee I picked up in Canada (1kg Discovery espresso blend, 1 pound Black Cat, 1 pound Kid-O and some Yirg from the guys at Transcend) and I think I will have no trouble keeping caffeinated in the next few days (though I should probably be worrying about my vodka tolerance in the run up to Moscow!)

It has been a great couple of weeks!

Hanging out with Arthur today the opportunity came up to mess about with Arthur’s ears.  These are the results:

There isn’t much space to pour and this is the best I managed.  My rosettas didn’t really work out that well:

Stephen almost nailed a great heart a couple of times but the fear of pouring milk all over Arthur’s face meant the pull through suffered:

I think the look on people’s faces seeing us doing this in the middle of a trade show, while people were setting up made it all worth while….

Except maybe for Arthur:

(Whilst this is for the Absurd Latte Art comp we obviously aren’t eligible to win).

EDIT – we now have a sponsor!  The nice people at Espresso Warehouse stepped up!  Will announce the prize in the next related post.
So – more, more, more! (please)

In other news Ola’s part three is up, and I hopefully have a really cool project to post about soon.

Tim Styles (Tropical Saloon):

Perrys Karavas (Flickr page):

Grendel (Cafe Grendel):

Conrad (Flickr page):

And of course there is Anette, Stephen, Jenny and I and our art in hands:

All of this is great, but I want more! MORE!

So please, if you can, find an odd vessel and pour some art in it and leave me a link or message in the comments.

(I am still gutted our plan to pour something through Arthur’s ears in Tokyo never came off – Arthur, if you are reading this then you have to get someone to do it!)

(If I have missed anyone out let me know!)

I’ve been thinking about this for a little while and was inspired by a few amusing pours like these:

Tonx:

Owl3:

If enough people get into it then maybe there will be some sort of pointless prize suiting the silliness of this. I challenge you – pour somewhere stupid!

UPDATE: A rather excellent first offering from Tim Styles in the comments.

We went up to Elysian Brewing for some beers and some food, which was pretty good, suffered a terrible mojito on the way home and were up and raring to go the next morning.

First stop was the newer Victrola up on Pike.  It is a lovely old building, formerly an garage for car repair (I refuse to lower myself to the American terminology!).  I love the colours on the outside and it looked great in the sunshine.

We went in and had a few shots that were pretty good and then introduced ourselves to the manager Sarah Jane and Keith and Perry who were doing the roasting in the space through the glass.  Sarah Jane then made us a press of their Yirg that was really great, and sitting in the wide open space at a massive table with the sun streaming through the large windows it was a great coffee experience.  We had a little look around the roastery and around their training rooms and it really is a good place to be on a sunny day.

Just up the road was Caffe Vita and we snuck in for a quick espresso and also to press our faces up to the glass wall into their roastery.  Their Probat looks beautiful and you can see a little up into their offices where the sample roaster is.  It is beautiful.  The coffee was interesting – mine had an odd parma violet note that I’ve never had before.

By this point my camera battery had died and my charger was in a car with Anette and Alistair stuck at the border in a big queue.  Which was very frustrating – hopefully Stephen will upload a few.

The final serious cafe moment of that day was up at Vivace Roasteria on Broadway.  I gather they are tearing the building down to make way for a light rail station which seems a shame.  Vivace seems to have a very strong identity and the roasting room in that store, whilst clearly now barely used, is very pretty.  Apart from the obvious espresso and capps in there I also tried a Cafe Nico.  It was pretty good – orange zest, a little syrup, coffee and milk in a small cup with some spices on top – nicely balanced and not screamingly sweet.  Interesting to see someone basically offering a signature drink, especially a cafe that doesn’t have a strong interest in barista competition.

Whilst in Seattle it would seem criminal not to go over and catch up with the guys at Clover.  It was great to see David and Zander again, and to meet (the now infamous) Tatiana.  Despite being extremely full of tongue tacos and burritos al pastor, I had room for coffee.  They had some of George Howell’s coffee up there and whilst it isn’t my place to say how or what they were doing they were finding innovative ways to get his coffee to really sing in the cup.  We tasted the Mamuto and it was stellar, really clean strong fruit in the cup that remained loud and balanced as the coffee cooled.  We tried a couple more and then went to meet up with a few people from Zoka and other places that were planning to go and roast on the beach.

Beach roasting was memorable.  It was also very hot and having to slowly rotate the metal ball roaster by hand over a very hot fire pit was challenging (in the good way of course).  All the roasts I got involved in were a little uneven but the last one before the light completely went was great and surprisingly even.

Trish from Zoka and Chris from Atlas (who owns the roaster) led the way and it was great to meet Dismas and a load of other people and to get a feeling of the community down in Seattle.  It was also nice to see Anette freshly allowed into the States and we went and had more amazing Mexican (it has become the official cuisine of the trip!) food with Bronwen to celebrate.

The next day we went back to Victrola so Anette could see it as well the newest Vivace.  We were all sat down at a table and one of the guys with us went off to order 4 capps.  He asked for them to be wet in his very Irish accent and the looked pretty good when they arrived.  The first sip was a confusing experience.  They were sweet, but not ordinary sweet – more like someone had stirred 2 sugars into every drink.  I know their milk is well textured and sweet but it was just ridiculous.  Turns out wet had been misheard and instead we had order white – as in 4 white chocolate capps, which explained everything.  We went back for a load of espressos and I have to say that the taste of their coffee is very distinct and consistent store to store.  (Anette is visible in the spoon).

A little later that day word had gotten out and David from Clover was on the phone (rightly) mocking us drinking white mochas in Vivace.

From speaking to a few people they recommended we try and find a new start up called Seven.  Its a small neighborhood shop near Greenlake and they are roasting in the back on a little 2 kilo Ambex.  The feel of the store was great and Carl (or maybe Karl) made us feel very welcome.

I recommend dropping by if you are in that area and have a little time.  Some nice details in the place.  Afterwards we popped over to the Zoka store in Greenlake.  We wanted to swing by the roastery but (typically) time got the better of us.  The Zoka store was totally different, bigger and pretty much packed out.  By this time I had had a lot of coffee, and at that point yet another cup (no matter how good) was going to be hard.  I hate leaving behind half finished cups of coffee, but they dose quite heavy with their Clover and it was a 12oz cup – I am just not man enough I guess.  However, just around the corners is the masterful Hiroki who does rather splendid desserts.  Naughty but nice.

Breakfast the next morning was a chance to see Bronwen one more time before we left as she was working over at Sitka and Spruce.  I wish I lived near a place like this – I would be happy and fat.  The brunch was amazing and the cappuccinos Bronwen made really hit the spot.

We then got a phone call from David Schomer saying he would love to meet us and make us some coffee.  This is not a call you say no to, so after a very brief visit to Trabant we were shamefully running late.

We headed back down to his new store and the bar setup means that one machine can very much look after a busy queue and yet there is still a three group available for “guests”.  David jumped on the machine straight away and started pulling some shots.  What was interesting is that his were better than his staff’s.  Maybe he just knows his coffee inside out.  Mine had a really great, light fluffy mouthfeel and whilst the actually flavours may not be what I am into I can understand why his coffee tastes like it does.

He was very chatty about his coffee and his equipment and it was clear that he really looks after his staff and there is a nice friendly, family atmosphere there.  One of the barista’s mothers was there and he was making her drinks and she was clearly proud.  Pretty soon conversation turned to latte art and a couple of his baristas started to pour.  It is interesting to watch people with a totally different style to my own – back to the whole fat leaves thing I guess.

What really surprised me was when David dragged both Stephen and I behind his bar to steam some milk and pour some drinks.  I know David is strict about who works his machines and you have to really put your time in and earn your place, so I guess I felt a little uncomfortable just jumping back there.  I also had to ask for the small cups to pour in because I have yet to get my head around anything bigger than a 12!  Both Stephen and I were a little disappointed with our pours though one of the baristas pointed out that you never pour better than when you are working the line and it becomes automatic and you stop thinking so hard.  It was surprisingly nerve wracking too and I felt very much on show and I am sure Stephen felt the same.  Still – I doubt there will ever be another opportunity to work behind the bar next to David Schomer.

Our last stop in town was a small place called Zeitgeist near Pioneer square.  They have a beautiful set up and a nice vintage GS paddle group Marzocco.  I loved the feel and theme of the place and just the building itself.  Worth a look.

And that was Seattle, Portland was beckoning and we needed to get in the car and go.  I think that every one of these city reports will have a tinge of regret for the places we didn’t see and people we didn’t get to meet despite really wanting to.  I have to say that Seattle on a sunny day is a great place to be, and it has a lovely feel to it.  That, however, was totally different to the feel of Portland….

They were brewing the Estima as both drip and french press and wanted people to taste the difference.  Oddly they seemed more interested in asking me which one tasted stronger.  This isn’t something I usually think about, as I was paying more attention to the coffee itself.  It tasted a bit flat and lacking in character.  I asked what was in the blend.  I was told the coffee was a blend and from Latin America.  “All of Latin America?” I asked, and was greeted with a confident “Yes.”  I asked when it was roasted and was told, quite confusingly, that it was roasted for at least 12 minutes.  Having asked the question again it they didn’t really know, but the bags did have sell by dates.  Turns out french press coffee is stronger too.  Still at least they are trying and the coffee wasn’t that bad.

What captured my imagination a little more today was a nice glass cup I found in Muji.  Snuck some time on a machine this evening just to see how capps looked and then it crossed my mind that making an americano in it might be quite pretty.  Turns out I was right!  If you click the pictures it will take you to a larger image on Flickr.  I took some pictures of the coffee just hitting the water, and it was a lot of fun and I am quite pleased with a few of the pictures:

The very first drop hits:

The coffee starts to mix (I like you can see the drip tray!):

I wish this one had come out a little better – it is quite cool though:

It is also quite nice to see how much foam you are really pouring without having to spoon it around…