Customer Reviews

Coffee Roasting at Home (Magic Bean Coffee Books)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this 145-page booklet in less than one hour. It uses very large print (perhaps nice for readers with poorer eyesight), but it also limits the amount of information that the book contains. It is a self-published book, which clearly would have benefitted from the services of a professional editor. For example page 94 says "Vienna is in the Danube Valley in Italy". While Vienna is indeed on the Danube Valley, the city is the capital of Austria and the Danube river doesn't even come close to Italy! Page 106 says "the basic proportion for Frech press or drip brewing is two heaping teaspoons (sic) of coffee to 6 ounces of water". Every acknowledged coffee expert (T.J. Castle, Corby Kummer, Kenneth Davis) emphasize two TABLESPOONS as the correct proportion. A typo? Maybe. But if the book gets such basic, major issue wrong, what else is wrong? The reader is better off buying any of the books by the above-listed authors at similar prices.

I got the impression that the authors are nice people that decided to self-publish their coffee roasting notes in a folksy engaging style. The book, however, lacks substance. There are five coffee-related, cute and romantic short-stories that belong on a creative writing book and not on a "how to" manual. Finally most of the information is repetitive. How many times do we need to be told "to be careful, the beans are hot when coming out of the roaster"?

The book is not a total loss. Some people may like their step-by-step guides for the true beginner that is looking for a "cheat sheet" The enquiring, serious coffee aficionado looking for guide on roasting coffee at home should look elsewhere

At $17.95 I figured this book would be useful for both the beginner & advanced roaster. It is barely useful for the beginner. You can easily obtain all info contained in this book plus much more by going online, typing "coffee roasting" in your search engine, & hitting the "go" button. This book might be worth $5.00!

I never expected roasting my own coffee to be so easy. For the cost of green beans and surrendering an air pop popcorn popper to the job, I'm hooked. I'm one of those people who has been grinding beans for brewing coffee for years. Fresh roasted is even better than expensive beans from your favorite vendor...

Coffee Roasting at Home is a great little book with lots of tips. If you are a coffee fanatic, try roasting your own

I was surprised at how easy it was to roast your own coffee at home. We tried the cowboy coffee on a camping trip and it was a big hit. A good, easy to use reference.

Agree with the other reviews I saw. It's about 140 pages all in all at size 14 font double spaced (you remember that old trick from elementary school essays...?). There just is not a lot information in the book. Most people will probably learn a thing or two regardless of experience. Nevertheless, expect to sit down and read this one cover to cover and then not even NEED to pick it up again. You'll probably just know everything it has to say at that point. I'd say if you can get it used and cheap, it's not a bad one to add to a collection - particularly if you're looking for an easy learning book you could have to loan to friends on this topic.

I read this book, dusted off my popcorn popper, and using their instructions was roasting my own, GOOD coffee rather quickly. I highly recommend this book to people who have not roasted their own coffee before and I highly recommend roasting your own coffee. You can buy green coffee for 1/4 the cost of roasted if you purchase it in bulk and you will be surprised to find out how tasty and fresh your own coffee can be. This book shows 4 (of) 5 different ways to roast your own coffee, I will try the other ones in future. Very pleased to have found this book. I am now hooked on roasting my own coffee!