Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Coffee Basics is a brief, no-nonsense guide to coffee products, appreciation, and brewing. It demystifies coffee's origins and history, explores the overwhelming amount of different varieties and explains exactly how to brew the best cup. The authors describe the regional character of coffee beans from around the world and discuss a variety of roasting equipment and brewing methods for both home and restaurant.

• Lists mail-order sources for the best beans, plus great coffee drink recipes, tasting tips, and a complete coffee taster's glossary

KEVIN KNOX (Boulder, Colorado) is a Vice President and coffee buyer for Allegro. As a beverage specialist for Starbucks he was responsible for appraisals, quality standards, recipes, training procedures, and brewing equipment. JULIE SHELDON HUFFAKER (Portland, Oregon) writes for Cafe Ole and Coffee Matters magazines.

Average Customer Rating:

Great intro	Customer Rating:
This is a great introduction to the world of coffee for anyone getting into any part of the industry or if you just really enjoy coffee and want to learn more about it.

A solid, useful reference	Customer Rating:
I particularly enjoyed the Chapter on Regional Character (pp 47 - 71). I disagree with description of Kenya as being a "... brooding heavyweight ..." page 39. Kenyan coffee is notably light-bodied. Book has a good glossary of terms in Appendix A.

To the point -not over powering	Customer Rating:
I wanted to know about coffee. This book gave me knowledge about coffee. Easy to read and to the point. After reading this book I ended up talking to individuals in the coffee business and I was able to communicate on their level about coffee and its production.

Great source for coffee amateurs	Customer Rating:
I recommend this book for any person who wants to explore and expand his knowledge about the coffee. Its history, procedures, types of coffee, regions, recipes, etc. Good book with much information.

Great coffee book

Customer Rating:

This book gives a good basic understanding of what coffee is all about. I especially like the specificity of information about coffees from different areas in the Regional Character chapter. For example, discussing Costa Rica's two best growing areas and how the coffees differ. I also found the opinions of which coffees are worthy of their price helpful. I read the Perfect Cup first and am glad I did because it was a good coffee overview for me. Coffee Basics was a great second book for me because I was looking for more specific information about coffees of each area. If I hadn't read Perfect Cup first I think the break down of info. on each type of coffee/regional character would have been information overload for me. If you are new or relatively new to the coffee world and are excited about learning more and more about the subtlties and nuiances present in that cup, I highly recommend you read this book.