Full Description
Named a top food & drink book of 2017 by Food Network, Wired, Sprudge, and Booklist.
This comprehensive but accessible handbook is for the average coffee lover who wants to make better coffee at home. Unlike other coffee books, this one focuses exclusively on coffee—not espresso—and explores multiple pour-over, immersion, and cold-brew techniques on 10 different devices.
Thanks to a small but growing number of dedicated farmers, importers, roasters, and baristas, coffee quality is at an all-time high. But for nonprofessionals, achieving café quality at home can seem out of reach. With dozens of equipment options, conflicting information on how to use that equipment, and an industry language that, at times, doesn't seem made for the rest of us, it can be difficult to know where to begin.
Craft Coffee: A Manual, written by a coffee enthusiast for coffee enthusiasts, is a comprehensive guide to improving your brew at home. The book provides all the information readers need to discover what they like in a cup of specialty coffee—and how to replicate the perfect cup day after day. From the science of extraction and brewing techniques to choosing equipment and deciphering coffee bags, Craft Coffee focuses on the issues—cost, time, taste, and accessibility—that home coffee brewers negotiate and shows that no matter where you are in your coffee journey, you can make a great cup at home.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
How to Use This Book
The Many Waves of Coffee
Specialty Coffee versus Craft Coffee
CHAPTER 1: Brewing Basics
Extraction
Strength and Yield
Brew Ratio and Dose
Grind Size and Contact Time
Water
Temperature
Pour
Dialing It In
CHAPTER 2: Choosing Hardware
Full-Immersion versus Pour-Over Brewing Devices
How Do Filters Factor In?
Full-Immersion Devices
Pour-Over Devices
Grinders
Scales
Kettles and Thermometers
Brewing Vessels, Servers, and Thermoses
CHAPTER 3: The Coffee
Beans
Varietals and Cultivars
Origin
Process
Roast
Decaffeination
CHAPTER 4: Buying the Coffee
Where to Find Craft Coffee
Seasonality
Deciphering the Coffee Bag Label
Storage
CHAPTER 5: The Flavor
Acids and (Perceived) Acidity
(Perceived) Sweetness
Bitterness
Mouthfeel
Aroma
How to Assess Flavor
CHAPTER 6: Brewing Methods
The French Press (Press Pot, Coffee Press, or Cafetière)
The AeroPress
The Abid Clever
The Siphon (Vacuum Pot)
The Melitta
The BeeHouse
The Walküre
The Kalita Wave
The Chemex
The Hario V60
APPENDIX: Troubleshooting, Tips, and Tricks
RESOURCES
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
