Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality (Hardcover)

by Andrea Illy (Editor), Rinantonio Viani (Editor) "Quality has many facets and a definition focusing only on certain specific attributes may miss important aspects..." (more)
Key Phrases: espresso percolation, coffee moisture, ground coffee particles, Mundo Novo, Karl Fischer, Costa Rica (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"I have learned many things from this book. But above all I have learned thy it is scientifically wrong to order a 'long' expresso as I have always done - you cannot play around with physics and chemisty: if you interfere with important parameters like time and volume you will jeopardize the quality aspects of expresso."
--Roberto Satolli, Director of Occhio Clinico
"In my 30 years working in the food service industry, I have rarely come accross a text that so thoroughly and yet so manageably treat its topic . . . Anyone who wants to truly understand the chemistry behind the process if brewung expresso should read this book."
--Thomas J Kelly, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
"Trust the Illy family, with its decades of the vanguard of scientific research on coffee, to give us the reference book essential for anyone serious about expresso. The wealth of information seems doubly rich for being available in one source. it will guide anyone, amateur and especially professional, to the potent bliss of great expresso.
--Corby Kummer, Senior Editor, The Atlantic Monthly, and author, The Joy of Coffee
"I feel as though I have known and worked with the Illy family for years, having used their coffee and their machines in my restaurant. I also had the opportunity to visit the factory in Italy and to see the care take over quality in the whole process os transforming coffee into expresso. Their knowledge not only of espresso, but also of all culinary and gastronomic arts, is an excellant indication of the quality of this book.
--Sirio Maccioni, owner of Le Cirque, New York -- Review

Review
"Overall this book serves as a complete overview not only of espresso coffee but also of coffee in general. With its comprehensive overview of the parameters important to coffee quality and coffee consumption on human health it becomes a good reference book for both food scientists and nutritionists in the field."
- Massimo Marcone, University of Guelph, Canada for FOOD RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL (2005)

"A vital resource for anyone wishing to deepen their knowledge of coffee and its production, this book, with its industrial and historical perspectives, manages to combine the delivery of complex scientific data with pure enthusiasm for the product."
- CAFE CULTURE (July 2005)

".the book's precision with the details of coffee science is unparalleled. It balances scientific prowess and readability without overwhelming the reader, whether new to the coffee world or a veteran."
- FRESH CUP (June 2005) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Academic Press (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 012370670X
• ISBN-13: 978-0123706706
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,037,932 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than any single human would ever need to know, April 5, 2000

By	joe tomkowitz "joet498" (Ashburnham, MA) - See all my reviews

Not a casual read in any sense of the word. This book is written for chemists and physicists. However, if you have a burning need for an answer about some technical aspect of what it takes to make espresso and enough time, energy, and/or education to figure out the necessarily scientific explanations, this is the place to find it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, advanced but how relevant ?, August 27, 2006

By	P. Tellier "Boxmeer" (Monreal, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Espresso Coffee, Second Edition: The Science of Quality (Hardcover)

Unlike many coffee related books, this one goes a lot further. This book approaches coffee with a scientific approach, not a descriptive approach, which makes it harsher to read, but which provides info unavailable elsewhere.

By no means should this book be considered as your first coffee related book. Cover coffee basics through other more appropriate books. Once you've read a couple, if you really want to go deeper into the knowledge of coffee, this this book is for you. It requires that you have a scientific background though. You will see some chemistry formulas and it does discuss kinetic energy; it's somewhat technical.

I would give it a perfect 5 star rating, but I feel that some information in this book lacks relevance. In purchasing this book, I wanted to understand the science behind coffee to help me make better coffee. I felt that many passages of this book were irrelevant towards that goal.

Hope this helps !

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent coffee science book, June 9, 2009

By	Joseph A. Rivera "javajoe" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For those interested in learning more about coffee science, this is perhaps one of the best books out there. Covers everything from basic cultivation to roasting chemistry.

javajoe
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