How To Make The Best Coffee At Home

How To Make The Best Coffee At Home is a great little book for anyone who truly loves coffee and enjoys the process as much as the final cup. It’s easy to read, not overly technical, and makes improving your coffee at home feel fun rather than complicated. The tips are practical and approachable, with lots of small insights that actually make a difference in everyday brewing. I gave this book as a gift alongside a few coffee essentials, and it felt like the perfect companion to them. It adds context and inspiration—helping turn good tools and beans into great coffee. As a bonus, it’s also just really cute on a bookshelf, so it feels as much like a coffee-lover’s keepsake as it does a useful guide. It’s the kind of book you can flip through, learn something new each time, and put into practice the very next morning.

If you like coffee, this is a must have. Good information, good pictures, overall an interesting and informative book about specialty coffee.

The book is all encompassing for brewing coffee at home. James Hoffman is an excellent writer on top of his subject matter expertise.

Coffee has moved beyond being a luxury to being an essential part of daily life for many of us, but we often settle for lackluster sometimes downright unpleasant cups of coffee at home…just whatever comes out of the machine is what we get. This book promises to provide you insights that will up your coffee skills to have you brewing better coffees, espressos and iced coffees. There is information on buying the best beans, how to grind the coffee, how to brew pour overs, automatic coffees, espressos, iced coffees and cold brews as well as how to buy and maintain the equipment for each. What I find most useful about the book is the concepts rather than the details, because at times his details are inconsistent or conflicting. But the big ideas help you understand what is going on in the brew, which will allow you to experiment and adjust your coffee in an informed way that should have you enjoying better coffee at home consistently. He even includes a section on how to taste coffee. Overall its a worthwhile read, but at times it is pretentious or overly precious about things and even contradicts itself on occasion. So part of what you learn will be coffee fact and part might fall in the realm of coffee mythology, and it will be up to you to do a little testing to see what works and what doesn’t. Here are some things I learned: * Coffee generates a lot of CO2 gas when roasted (10L/kg beans), and the residual CO2 carried by the roasted bean affects the brew with newly roasted coffee having too much CO2 to make a good espresso (gas coming out of the grounds will make water extraction less efficient). * Fresh roasted coffee should be aged for 1 week prior to brewing, to allow CO2 gas to escape. * The staler coffee is the easier it is to brew or extract, but the worse the flavor profile is * Blooming coffee is not only about getting volatile oils to the surface of the grounds, but also to allow CO2 gas to escape so that the water extraction can be more efficient. * Crema is formed from trapped CO2 in the grounds * Apparently its unfashionable for coffee companies to advertise the roast level of their coffee? * Longer roasts (darker) will increase solubility which in general increases strength of flavor. The bitterness increases but the acidity decreases as roast time increases. * Starbucks lightest roast (blonde) is darker than anything most specialty roasters would sell * Three keys to coffee palate: acidity, fruity flavors, and texture * Plastic pour-over coffee brewers are the cheapest but also beat glass and metal when it comes to heat retention. * There are five taste sensations (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami) but there are other tastes experienced such as astringency, piquancy, spicy heat, and metallic. * There’s something called “swallow breath” where after you swallow you instinctively blow a little air in your nose which allows you to better perceive flavor by involving the olfactory sense. * The perception of flavor involves sequential activation of the taste receptors followed by the olfactory receptors so that the input from the taste receptor can then prime the olfactory sense to more readily discriminate a certain category, like detecting citric acid on the tongue might prime the olfactory sense to more readily pick out citrus-like aromas. * Your perception of flavor is best when the thing you are tasting is closer to body temperature * You don’t plunge the french press to the bottom of the carafe. * Bitterness of an espresso gets more pronounced upon chilling and upon dilution. * Surprised to learn Hoffman doesn’t own an espresso machine Here are some things I didn’t like: * Can be a little rambling * Sometimes comes across as snobbish, elitist or preachy like going off on coffee varieties without really explaining any meaningful context so it hits as “look how smart I am” rather than “here is something useful to know” or by always suggesting the buyer should spend more, for their coffee or their gear, or lecturing about how you shouldn’t use bottled water (anyone here from Flint Michigan or Jackson Mississippi agree?, or maybe you have a high arsenic well in India?) * Photos are uninspiring at best * No references provided, the information is just the word of a coffee guru * British spellings * He offers a recipe for making water, which seems to be an extreme level of preciousness for brewing coffee. 2.45g Epsom salts and 1.68g baking soda per liter of distilled water, in case you are wondering. * A good bit of filler, like several paragraphs of discussion of “smart scales” with neither a recommendation for using them or an indication of what possible you could ever need a Wi-Fi enabled coffee scale for. * You can spend “hundreds or thousands” on a hand grinder * The part of the book dedicated to gear you need for brewing coffee does not talk at all about coffee or espresso makers at all, saving that discussion for the “how to brew coffee section” which is organizationally a bit awkward * Step by step brewing instruction section is formatted oddly on kindle. The overview section doesn’t list brew times, and the detailed section has the steps numbered in both the photo and the instruction so each number appears double. * V60 instructions between pour 1 and pour 2 don’t specify at what point pour 2 starts, do you let pour 1 completely clear, or do you add pour two as soon as there is enough room? * Advice sometimes seems arbitrary, for instance the v60 and the Melitta Bentz are treated as essentially the same with respect to how you brew coffee in them, but he recommends a plastic v60 because of the “thermal retention” but for the Melitta Bentz he recommends ceramic because the plastic doesn’t ‘feel delightful to own’ even if the ‘thermal retention’ is better on plastic. * There are three flat bottom filter based units discussed, two of them so similar there is no difference in the brewing instructions, but there is no discussion at all about the Vietnamese Phin system. * He claims that the character of the chemex brew is dependent upon the filter, but in my experience switching to a metal reusable filter for this system I found it makes no real difference in quality at least for my taste. * In his iced coffee section he suggests that 1/3 of the water should be account for by ice so that you only brew with 2/3 the normal amount, but in the actual recipe he uses 2/5 of the normal water amount as ice. * His decision not to include a cold brew coffee recipe is weak given that he didn’t want to “steal” somebody else’s recipe, as if his methods for brewing some other kind of coffee are somehow highly innovative and unique to him. For reference he tells you how to use an automatic coffee maker elsewhere in this book. Weak. In case anyone wants a recipe the following one is from The NY Times Essential cookbook (newest edition blue cover): 1/3 cup ground coffee ground medium coarse, 1 1/2 cups cold water or to taste, milk for serving (optional). To brew: stir together the coffee and cold water in a jar, cover and let stand at room temperature overnight of or for 12 hours. Strain the brewed coffee through a filter, fine mesh serve or a sieve lined with cheese cloth. To serve, fill two glasses with ice, divide the coffee concentrate between them, add water to the desired dilution and stir. If desired add milk. Neutral observations: *He says you should want to pay more for you coffee for fair trade and sustainability and avoid big brands that work to minimize price. A noble sentiment which may be spoken from a position of privilege. * 40% of the book is making espresso, 60% is everything else Possible errors: * The graph of water hardness/alkalinity lists “ppm CaCO3” as units for both x and Y axis. * He claims distilled water is more “corrosive” to your coffee brewing equipment than soft water, without giving any evidence or rationale how that would be possible. * Essentials section: “Scales accurate to 0.0i g, where the last “digit” should be 1 not “i”, recurring error. Is this a British thing? * When giving ranges of water temperatures for different roasts of coffee, the values he gives in the text do not match those he gives in the inset chart. For instance medium roasts are to be brewed with 90-95C water in text and 85-95C in the figure; dark roasts are to be brewed at 80-90C in the text and 80-85C in the figure. Assuming both are discussing kettle water temperature as specified in the text, figure makes no specification. * Claims that “plastic has better heat retention than metal” seems dubious. If you’ve ever unloaded a hot dishwasher and had wet plastic items that were cool to the touch but the metal items were dry and so hot they burned your hand, you’ll know plastic probably does not have better heat retention. It may be a better insulator? IDK * “Across its different range” should probably be “ranges” in the V60 section * Text for V60 brewing table says “IMPORTANT: These numbers are the **total cumulative weights, not individual pours” but the table actually provides both per pour weight and cumulative weight. * In how to brew with the Clever Dripper section: “Clever do offer a few variations of their brewer, but I’d just stick with the classic choice” maybe this is correct grammar but it sounds clumsy and could be avoided by structuring the idea differently eg “There are a few different models of the Clever dripper but I would just stick with the classic choice” * Typo: espress-omachine cleaner in the maintenance section talking about automatic coffee makers. * The iced coffee section says to make 1/3 of the normal amount of water the ice, so you only brew with 2/3, but in his recipes he always has you use 2/5 as ice.

Great instructional and reference book.

If you are new to exploring coffee, this book will introduce you all the grind, brew, and serve methods. If you have been enjoying coffee a while and want to step up your game by trying new methods or fine tuning, this book will teach you more. If you are very experienced in a variety of methods, you might pick up a nugget or two, but I think you'll mainly benefit by having a lovely conversation starter as a coffee table book. This book is not going to get technical enough for you to learn much. I've been drinking coffee for a while. I own a pour over style, a French press, a moka pot, and a beginner cold brew set up. I'm generally pretty happy, I'm not a novice, but I was looking for some guidance on how to upgrade my equipment and fine tune my methods. I got exactly what I was looking for. The kindle version (the version I purchased) is set up very well with internal links that help you jump around very quickly (e.g., the Chemex section has a link to the v60 section because they use the same brewing technique). I think it is best read on a tablet (instead of ereader) because of the pictures. And, the less than $10 price is a deal. The hardback I feel would be worth $16. Paying an extra $6 (over ebook) for a lovely book to keep on the coffee table is worth it. (So much so that the hardcover is sitting in my cart waiting my required 24 hours to avoid impulse purchases... I think it will either be ordered tomorrow or it will be in my wishlist so someone will buy it for me. Either way... the hardback will eventually be on my coffee table, lol). I don't think this book lends itself to audio format. There are pictures that demonstrate exactly what you are looking for that are lost in audio form. If you are still trying to decide, consider this: the author is very knowledgeable on everything coffee, but he doesn't push the coffee snob line of "you should only drink this kind of coffee brewed this way, otherwise you are missing a true coffee experience." He gives you the information you need so that you can get closer to the coffee experience YOU want. You like more bitter notes in your coffee? Great, this is how you get more bitter coffee. You want to minimize bitterness? Great, here's how you do that. You want more/less acidity, here's the factors that influence acidity. I find it very refreshing when experts recognize that people deserve to experience things they consume the way they want to experience them.

Se vuoi imparare da uno dei maggiori esperti sul caffè mondiale, questo libro fa per te. Dettagliato, molto metodi trattati e una sezione molto approfondita sul caffè con espresso. Perfetto per guardare il mondo del caffè con altri occhi.

Muito bom e agradável. Sem frescuras, como muitos que tratam do café com paixão. Espero que saia logo em português para encontrar mais leitores no Brasil. Recomendo muito!

Anything by James Hoffman is excellent, and this book does not disappoint. Not too much science, easy to read and understand. Perfect for beginner and advanced coffee makers/lovers. I first bought a copy for myself, and this is my second copy I am giving as a gift alongside a bag of coffee beans.

Excellent book, great information. I learnt a great deal. Put me on the right track. Given me more confidence. Highly recommend.

Really informative insight into the science and art variation of choosing and brewing coffee. Well written with lots of clear illustrations to help you understand why you like some coffees and not so much others. Also, why some brewed coffee doesn’t taste as you’d expected! Finally, detailed descriptions of how to make coffee in different ways. I feel enlighten and a little more knowledgeable.