Customer Reviews

Coffee Love: 50 Ways to Drink Your Java

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I was going to pass this book up -- I have too many coffee books that say the same things in different ways. Thankfully, this book deviates from the "said this, said that" and as author Daniel Young puts it, "This book takes a wide view of bean universe via close-ups of coffee subjects...."

Those "close-ups" are in the form of a brief (thankfully!) introduction/overview of coffee's origins, roasting, caffeine content, brewing, tasting, choosing a coffeemaker, and water's importance to coffee. Divided into 5 chapters:

The Espresso Bar
National Brews
Coffeehouse Culture
Coffee Milks and Shakes
Spirits and Cocktails

the chapters are full of international coffee recipes interspersed with interesting sidebars: the difference between a latte and a cappuccino, profiles of master baristas, and narrations of Young's experiences in cafes around the world.

A short book that can be leisurely read in an hour, the thick pages are colored in muted tones from tan to taupe evoking coffee's various color incarnations, each page displaying a coffee brewing method and gotta-try-it-now coffee recipes that include tiramisu coffee (the 2004 World Barista Championship drink of the year), Caffe Marocchino (unknown to the world but wildly popular in Italy), and a coffee milk recipe from a coffee syrup so good that Young writes "... I was tempted to go into the espresso syrup business."

I regard this book as highly as I do Michael Turback's Hot Chocolate" and "Mocha." If you're a coffee lover who appreciates new coffee knowledge (and recipes!) then you'll like this book.