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.
Last week I had the opportunity to pop over to Vienna for 24 hours. It was the Allegra European Coffee Symposium, and I got to dress up in black tie and go to the Hofburg Imperial Palace for the awards dinner the night before. I even got an award1 which was amazing and I am very grateful!
I wish I could have wandered around Vienna for longer, in the end I only had a chance to pop into one coffee house – Hawelka – and those places are just no fun unless you have an afternoon to kill with a newspaper and an unusual desire for large quantities of whipped cream with your coffee. They are possibly less fun if you are looking for an excellent shot of straight espresso, but I didn’t sample enough to know where local expectation lay, and how my own preferenes would fit into that.
The day after the awards was the symposium. I don’t mind confessing that I felt a bit like the odd one out again – the speakers and fellow attendees came from Europe’s larger coffee companies and manufacturers. However I am always interested in how that section of the industry views things, what is important, what their challenges are and what I can learn from them.
There was much discussion on Twitter the other day (I know, that sentence still seems awkward and embarrassing to me too) about naturally processed coffees. The discussion had started about how everyone seemed to be ignoring washed coffees from Yirgacheffe, having become distracted by the naturals – often the microlots from Beloya and Aricha. 1
The problem wasn’t so much that people weren’t excited by washed Yirgacheffe coffees – more that these new darlings of the coffee industry contained flavours that many would consider defective. Reading this I began to worry in an odd sort of way about our approach to coffee, as well as our approach to the consumer. 2
In case I don’t make it clear enough in the video – if you can do this (if you are a cafe or roastery) then I would highly recommend this simple experiment.
I should make clear now, because I don’t think I do in the video, that I am not saying one opinion is better (or more correct) than the other. I just wanted to talk about the divide in ideas out there when it comes to brewing espresso – I am not trying to upset anyone, though I suspect I might….
This post should probably start with a disclaimer – I did not pay for my ExtractMojo, it was very kindly sent to me by Vince Fedele at Terroir Coffee to use and give feedback upon. I am very grateful to both him and Andy Schecter and Scott Rao also for getting me involved.
In many ways I am surprised that this isn’t a hotter topic of conversation, especially online. Then again many of you reading this may have done the same thing as me – download the trial software, have a little play, think it is a cool little automated coffee brewing control chart. I sorely underestimated it.
I’ve really enjoyed the discussion going on after this post. One comment that stuck in my mind was Aldo’s Fazenda Kaquend COE Vs Maxwell House experiment. It definitely affected some decisions I made when I was choosing coffees to take with me to a public cupping I did in East London as part of a charity fund raiser.
I knew I would have two separate groups, of between 10 and 20 people each time. I had agreed to do a cupping, rather than a tasting of brewed coffee (which I would prefer to do with the general public usually), because they were paying for a bit more of an experience.
