Customer Reviews

The Professional Barista's Handbook: An Expert Guide to Preparing Espresso, Coffee, and Tea

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

YES, i paid full price for this book and have read it. My first review :)

This book is backed by the author's personal experience. It is very well researched and written. The in-depth and focused content, book (design) layout and overall flow are amazingly well-balanced for beginners as well as professionals.

If you love coffee, this is a good book for you. If you've romanced about being a barista, this is THE book.


THIS BOOK IS NOT...

* a recipe book
* about tea. The tea chapter is only 3-page long.
* about coffee roasting
* about instant coffee


THE FIRST IMPRESSION.

Before opening the cover, the 100-page "Professional Barista's Handbook" (2009 Edition) can be unassuming with a dash of textbook-like dryness. However, the robust hardcover and binding are excellent, as if the author and publisher have anticipated heavy usage on counter top. The pages are printed on superbly thick, non-reflective paper. It is also slightly more water resistant than usual.

* This solid book is expensive to manufacture.

The typography (fonts and size), design and layout gave the book great ease in casual browsing for information as well as cover-to-cover reading. Every pages or so are filled with hands-on photos, charts, hints, special in-depth notes, diagrams and illustrations. The design is nothing fancy, simple yet functional. However, i do find a few of the photos a bit too dark.

The content is very concise with minimal fluff. There are no long-winded personal stories or overly scientific explanations of coffee making. Most subtopics are kept within half a page before moving to the next. The information and ideas in this book are referenced and carefully remarked. This book has the potential of bringing many new insights to a professional barista.


THE ESSENCE

In some respects, Scott Rao wrote this book for his younger self, when he started his coffee business. He explained, 14 years ago, he read every book on coffee he could find, but none explain how to make great coffee in details.

This book is arguably like a 'God Shot' espresso, he took the best stuff from those books, coupled with more than a decade of practical experience while keeping the 'ugliness' away.

This book is most suitable for beginners as there are primers that explain the technical ideas and terminologies. Early on, Scott dives into buying espresso machines, coffee grinders and some handy equipments to have. He digested the purchasing considerations into a few simple points, and carefully explains why. There is a reasonably good Glossary at the end of the book for beginners.

While many aspects of coffee making are subjective, Scott made good arguments about getting a good grinder as a primary step before considering the espresso machine.

Of all 9 chapters, 2 to 4 are sufficient to get the reader (itching) to start pulling shots and experiment with various techniques and ideas.

In the early chapters, there are easy to understand yet sufficiently technical aspects of
* Grinding Beans for Espresso
* Dosing and Distribution
* Grooming and Tamping
* Water Temperature
* Multiple Preinfusion methods
* Pressure Requirements
* Cultural difference of US vs. Italian espresso making styles

Chapter 3 may probably be very valuable to home or professional baristas. The author dived into the science and theories about various factors that influence PERCOLATION and EXTRACTION. At the end of this chapter, Scott referred us to a chart (by Schecter) that highlights brewing ratios for various espresso types such as Lungo, Ristretto and more.

For those who loves latte art and prefer milk with their coffee, Chapter 4 is for you. It contains essential information about MILK - steaming, foaming, pouring, methods, latte art and more. There is a very interesting short story of his experience in New Zealand with regard to Cafe Latte.

The rest of the chapters about coffee talks about
* Barista Systems [5]
* Drip Coffee [6]
* French Press Coffee [7]
* Water and the Chemistry [8]


CONCLUSION

This book clearly does not tries to be everything for everyone.

I think it is reasonable and arguably so... that the book does not talk about other methods like the Clover system, Cold/Ice Drip method, the Syphon and a few more. Another substantial topic missing is Coffee Beans. Dedicating a few pages to beans, maybe on choosing beans, sun-dried or washed, bean types and sizes might (?) make the book more interesting. My instinct tells me, the author intentionally excluded the high subjective matter of beans. There are plenty of books on that. It shows the author's clarity, focus and intention.

In short, this book revolves around a barista. Hence, the book title.

And, it is VERY GOOD. It's highly recommended.


A HIDDEN GEM FOR ME

Early on, in Chapter 1 (2 pages only!), Scott casually explains about what gives coffee so much magical properties in terms of Body, Tastes and Aromas. He included an overly simple chart in page 2.

This chart can help illustrate the fundamental difference between Instant and Espresso coffee. To simplify, Instant Coffee consist of mostly Solubles, while many of the Insolubles that gives espresso more Body, Taste and Aroma are missing.

Starbucks uses Instant Coffee in a few of their standard menu items (of course not espresso). My brief conversation with their supplier, gave me an interesting insight in how Starbucks manage the lost in Body-Taste-Aroma when working with instant coffee. This chart instantly crystallize my thoughts on the subject.

After reading so many coffee books, this is the one that I had been looking for. One can learn what you need for making a espresso after reading this book. If Illy's espresso has too much unnecessary information, this handbook is just of the right dose. With this book you will save years, hundreds pound of bean, learning the skill of making a true espresso.

This book contains everything you need to know about how to prepare a proper espresso, cappucino, latte, tea. The book is very comprehensive, contains a ton of smart hints and tips and is THE bible for every coffee geek.

PS I was positively suprised about the prompt action of Watergliders, where I've purchased this book.

I recently upgraded my home brew espresso machine from a semi-auto to a more hands on machine. And, while I LOVE the new machine, there has been a relatively steep learning curve :) After a month of frustration with unsuccessful attempts to create appropriate microfoam for lattes and cappucinos, and of wondering if I had gotten a defective machine (but, pretty sure the problem was user error) I bought this book and starting hitting it hard. Within 24 hours, I was making awesomely velvety steamed milk with microfoam that was a barista's dream. Scott Rao's concise, down to earth descriptions make it very easy to follow and make it possible for even a novice to become an expert very quickly. GREAT book. His instructions are so detailed, yet incredibly intuitive. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to make great espresso drinks. Whether you're a home brewista like myself, struggling to master the art of the microfoam, or a cafe barista looking to improve your skill level and become a master of the pull, this book is the resource you are looking for.

this book is a must have if you love coffee and of course, its a real bonus if you can appreciate the science of making it. Scott explains espresso making in a very complete yet concise manner and I enjoyed every bit of it. focus of the book is on espresso techniques and be sure to learn of coffee terminology you may never have heard of.

A great buy!

This book basically tells you everything you need to know on Coffee. Its easy to understand and interesting to read. Most important is you won't falls asleep while reading it.

This guide was purchased to assist in learning how to make great coffee ahead of a new cafe opening. I found it very readable and sat and read it in one go, skipping only one of the chapters which was a bit technical for me.
I had just had training with Prufrock Coffee the day I read it and I'd certainly have found some of the terminology a bit beyond me If I hadnt done the practical first I think. However it is aimed at the pro barista anyway so this is no critisism. I had this book recommended to me by Prufrock Coffee ahead of my training.

I must say that at first I was very happy about this book. I went from cover to cover very quickly, but at the end I felt like there was something missing. I felt like there was a lot of information, but to me, it felt that the information presented was not direct and clear.
In the French Press chapter, for example, he mentions that after boiling water, before pouring, the water should be a few degrees hotter than the desired brewing temperature. Ok, so what is the brewing temperature? Then he goes on saying that you should weigh the beans. Again no information about how much coffee, in grams, should be added, and how much water to use. You have to look at another chart in a different page for the information to figure out the ratios in grams or oz (which he fails to mention). He then mentions that water at 93 C weights 28.3 grams, so is that the proper brewing temperature?
At the beginning of the chapter one of the items needed is a naked portafilter for shot evaluation, but there is very little on that. Actually the same images with the same evaluations can be found at a popular coffee forum.
The brewing control charts on pages 75 and 74 make no sense to me, and the author assumes that the reader understands this by simply not explaining it.
I think that Scott Rao has done a great effort to compress a lot of information into the book, but I feel that his mistake was to not understand his target audience. What I mean by that is that a lot of information is presented in a manner that the author assumes the reader to be a beginner at this, but then presents technical information assuming that the reader understands this, as if the reader is a pro.
On the positive side there is a lot of very useful information and techniques that will certainly improve your barista skills. One thing that was really useful to me and helped me improve my shots was his technique on tamping. Tamping lightly without knocking the tamper on the side of the portafilter DOES improve your shot consistency. Very interesting and you should read his reasons why (I don't want to spoil it for you).
Another VERY useful information is about brewing temperatures, how the mass of the coffee and brewing temperatures affects extraction temperatures. This information is a MUST for those who work with shots with different amounts of coffee. I personally like my shots in the Italian style with 7 g of coffee, brewing temps at 90 or a bit below, for a espresso normale. BUT I must now I adjust my temperature when dealing with 20 g of coffee for lattes or cappuccinos.
The Tea chapter was an eye opener! Every barista who offers tea in his menu MUST read it. Great effort by the author.
If you a home barista enthusiast this book is a must. It takes some time to digest the information, but it is all there. I honestly don't think that this book is intended for the successful pro.