Reddit reviews The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee: Growing, Roasting, and Drinking, with Recipes

I was a fan of the Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee.

Fun, anecdotal, and very informative. Plus the hard cover looks great on a coffee table. I often have guests flip through it when they come by.

I really enjoyed "The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee: Growing, Roasting, and Drinking, with Recipes" :: http://www.amazon.com/The-Blue-Bottle-Craft-Coffee/dp/1607741180

It is kinda specific to Blue Bottle's business, but worth a read and was insightful.

A couple of years ago I read [Blue Bottle: Craft of Coffee] (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Bottle-Craft-Coffee-Roasting/dp/1607741180/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409583577&sr=1-1&keywords=blue+bottle+craft+of+coffee+by+james+freeman). It covers growing, roasting, and drinking (including intensive info on brew methods). It was interesting and somewhat entertaining, but I can't say I read the cookbook in the back.

Hey there. I'll give you a little summary of what I think most people on here will tell you in response to your questions.

Books: Blue Bottle ,Coffee Comprehensive and Uncommon Grounds are all good books to cover most of coffee and its processes.

This Capresso Infinity is considered a pretty decent burr grinder for the price. It will not do espresso but will be good enough for most other coffee brewing methods.

Getting a set up that is acceptable for "real" espresso is kind of expensive. A Gaggia classic is considered the bare minimum espresso machine for a "real" espresso. A Baratza Virtuoso is considered bare minimum for a decent espresso grinder. Now, you can (and many people do) find these items used, which obviously reduces the cost greatly. But depending on your area, finding these items up on craigslist or similar sites can be pretty rare.

I'm not from Rhode Island, but googling local roasters will provide some results. As for online ordering, tonx, blue bottle and stumptown are favorites around here for their price and quality. Beans are broken down on what region they came from, how they were processed and how dark they are roasted. Each region has different flavor profiles in their beans. African beans are known for being more fruity than other beans, for example. A little warning, most people on this subreddit believe Starbuck's espresso roast coffee to be too dark. However, many of Starbuck's light/Medium roast coffees have been reviewed as pretty decent. Most websites that sell the beans will list a flavor profile of the beans. The basic saying on this subreddit is that if you have crappy beans, no matter what, your coffee will be crappy. If you are going to overspend anywhere in the process, overspend on quality beans.

The espresso machines that you will be using at starbucks are machines that will basically produce espresso at the push of a button. They will grind, tamp and extract the espresso without any input from you. You should just know right off the bat that there is a whole other world to espresso making that is the exact opposite, with people grinding the beans to the right size, tamping by hand, and extracting shots with a lever that controls pressure. Neither way is right or wrong, you should just know that there are many different types of espresso machines and baristas.

I'll share a little bit of advise, take from it what you will. I was an ambitious college student coffee drinker just like you. I asked for a Breville espresso machine as my first real coffee making device (even before a grinder, how silly of me). I just wanted an espresso machine because that was all I was getting from these coffee shops. Since then I've gotten a nice grinder, a melitta pour over, french press, gooseneck kettle, aeropress, V60, moka pot, and chemex. I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't turned on my espresso machine in over a year. There is so much more to coffee than espresso. There are so many methods to brew coffee that are cheaper, more complex and more interesting. If I had a chance to do it all over again, I'd buy the burr grinder I linked, and an Aeropress or any french press (Starbucks sells some pretty nice ones. You could get one with an employee discount) and just learn to love coffee on its own, without frothed milk and flavorings.

There is a ton of info on this subreddit if you stick around for awhile. Questions like yours are posted all the time and answered by very knowledgable people. Your enthusiasm for coffee is extremely exciting to see. Please don't let any of my advise subtract from your enthusiasm. Everyone takes a different path while exploring coffee. That's part of the excitement. You will learn a lot at Starbucks and you will learn a lot if you stay here. Enjoy your stay.

Blue Bottle's coffee table book about coffee is a nice introduction. It's a great prop to give to guests while you labor over serving them coffee. http://www.amazon.com/The-Blue-Bottle-Craft-Coffee/dp/1607741180

Like most subreddits, take r/coffee with a shaker full of salt. There are coffee companies leading the charge in understanding coffee, creating and implementing sustainable strategies, and making the most delicious product possible. All of that is changing fast. So on r/coffee, I frequently see cutting edge information from 2005, or 2000 or 1990. And it's upvoted and encouraged with great enthusiasm.

If you are interested in learning about good coffee, I highly recommend this book. It's probably 100% accurate to what we know about making coffee so far, it's highly accessible to someone new to coffee, and it's beautiful. Linking back in to the thread, I feel absolutely no buyers remorse about buying this book, and totally leave it on my coffee table at all times to cheer me up.

The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee: Growing, Roasting, and Drinking and some Detour Holiday Blend

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The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee sounds right up your alley. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607741180/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_o.03wb8PTNY93

Yeah James Freeman the founder of blue bottle has a unique opinion of how to describe flavors that come from coffee. From my understanding James likes to tell a story about the state the coffee puts him in or how it feels to drink that coffee (Source). If you've never read it it I highly suggest reading The Blue bottle craft of Coffee by James Freeman. It is a great read and really shows his philosophy on coffee and how it should be prepared. Plus its great eye candy for your bookshelf.

I can do books. https://www.amazon.com/World-Atlas-Coffee-Explored-Explained/dp/1770854703 https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1607741180/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5TBQC78QNAY5JDJ1SY1C

1- Light roast has the most flavour but most acidity as well,
medium roast has a balance and dark roast has lowest acidity but almost same flavour for any origin coffee you try

2- i cant comment exactly on this but what i have seem is anyone who uses whirley pot use it directly on stovetop.. you can add cast iron if you like.. its logically that it can even out the heat..

3- for online knowlegde, reddit is good but ill suggest join roasting forums, they can help you out and can anwser your queries alot better.. as for books you can buy/download pdf files like World Atlas of coffee and bluebottle ebook

4- im not from LA so cant help.. sorry.. but you can go to any local roaster and talk to them and as your questions they are helpfull.. maybe search on yelp for nearby roasts..

Gimme! Coffee's Barista Manual is good. The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee is even better.

The Blue Bottle book is good. Not espresso-specific (and half of it is recipes for food), but there's some good info in there. Looks nice on a coffee table too.

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https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Bottle-Craft-Coffee-Roasting/dp/1607741180

Also - Blue Bottle wrote a pretty freaking cool book. Lots of good photos and very specific brew methods included.

bracing for the Blue Bottle haters

You should read James Freeman's book. I don't have an espresso set up because I can't afford one and I'm not going to try and make good espresso on a bad machine. It's not possible.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Blue-Bottle-Craft-Coffee/dp/1607741180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376943354&sr=8-1&keywords=blue+bottle+coffee