By chance, I bumped into Scott Rao on the floor of the SCAA in Anaheim last week. He was crusing the show floor with copies of his newest book in hand, Everything but Espresso, and was gracious enough to hand one off to me. I read his book at the LAX airport as I waited for my delayed flight, and decided that we will soon sell these books in our stores and online, and that I should write a quick review of his latest work.
Let me first say that Scott's generosity towards me was in no way ever expressed in return for a quid pro quo. My motivation for writing this brief review is solely based on my constant reminder of our customers' demand to learn more about brewing coffee at home. While this book is sophisticated enough to engage any and all baristas, it is also accessible and thoroughly readable so as to prove a great resource for any home brewer who simply desires to produce a better and more consistant cup at home.
This book is all about brewed coffee, and does not address making espresso. If you want to learn more about espresso, I highly recommend Scott's previous work, The Professional Barista's Handbook.
This new book is an enjoyable balance between technical instruction and information, all while remaining eminantly readable. I read Scott's book from cover to cover in just under two hours. Having said that, I know that I will return to this useful work, as a reference, many times in the future. So whether you are a professional barista being challenged by the emerging single serve revolution, or you are a coffee enthusiast who wants to understand how to brew coffee better at home, this book is for you.
Scott has divided his most recent work into twelve concise chapters.
- Introduction to Coffee Extraction
- Grinding
- Filters, Fines, and Flavour Clarity
- The Coffee Brewing Control Chart
- Reading the Shape of Spent Grounds
- Automatic Drip
- Manual Drip
- French Press and Eva Solo Cafe Solo
- Steep-and-Release Brewing
- Vacuum Pot (Siphon) Coffee
- Water Chemistry
- Bean Storage
Without getting too detailed, let me say that each of these chapters is concise, well written, and full of useful information. The Coffee Brewing control chart might be a bit much for casual readers, but nonetheless, it is critical information which aids in understanding why coffee tastes the way it does, and more often than not, why coffee served at cafés tastes as bad as it does.
For anyone who has wondered about the correct techniques for making coffee at home in a French press, or a coffee siphon, Scott's book provides not only a step-by-step guide, but is complete with full colour photos which bring life to his simple recipes. Rao's hard cover manuscript is 70 pages long, and includes a glossary, with more information packed into its pages than you can hope to process in one reading. In short, if you are a home brewer, this book should go on the shelf right beside the coffee supplies as a ready reference when brewing our beloved black nectar. If you are a cafe owner, and are serving single serve or drip coffee, this book should be required reading for you and every one of your employees. I highly recommend this book and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
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