The Coffee Collective - Book Review

The Coffee Collective - Good Coffee. A textbook for coffee lovers

(The book is Danish. GOD KAFFE – En grundbog for kaffeelskere)

I have been reading this book made by The Coffee Collective (TCC).

It's about coffee from earth to table.

The edition I have received is a hard cover, and the quality seems really good, the pages has a good thickness and the paper holds nice quality. Also the design and the graphics gives a high quality feel, all thru the book.

The book is divided in chapters separately describing parts of coffee – from seed, handling, harvest, 
brewing etc.

I will share my opinion at the entire book - keep in mind I'm not a book reporter. I can only share my thoughts and visuals on a personal level mainly to coffee perspective.

The book is put together brilliant, from the start with a single been placed in the very right soil, till cleaning of your brewing equipment in the end.

First you are thought how to taste and explain what you experience while tasting, this is useful when you are brand new to the world of coffee, and need to explain a professional what kind of coffee you would like.  

Almost 1/3 of the book is about the farmer, and how he handles the beans, both the right and wrong way. TCC gives their perspective at what they think is good and correct, but always keep their opinions at a personal level. I found this part extremely useful in my future quest for green beans. I didn’t know much about afterharvest and handling of green beans, but I sure do now. I have many more preferences to navigate with now. With that said, the chapter is somewhat a bit long, and at some points it gets a bit too complicated and doll. When using space explaining several chemical compounds, I am out.

They give a small, bit too small for me, learning about roasting. Not enough to learn from, that you happily start roasting afterwards. But it is a subject to write entire books on alone.

The brewing section is really good. All brew methods which are up in time are explained and thoroughly shown. Everyone can use their methods and you are left with no doubts or questions. Very satisfying to read.
They finish with cleaning and maintenance of the equipment. And they also make sure to tell how important it is.

All in all I think the book is very enlightening, many first time coffee consumers will sure benefit from this.

They have a tendency to get a bit to advance at some points, at least from the fact that the book addresses to novices. But when you have finished reading you are defiantly equipped with enough knowledge to buy a descent coffee, equipment and everything else needed to make lovely coffee.

What I like very very much, is that with every explanation there are a picture, or a drawn illustration to visualize the text, and for a tool like me, that’s the best thing ever. Furthermore the pictures are beautiful and the colors are amazing.

People who know a lot about coffee, have the equipment and roast at home, properly won’t get too much out of reading this book, at least they know much of the inside already. But if you like me enjoy everything about coffee, it sure is cozy to spend some time on. After reading I now use it as an encyclopedia.

If you are brand new to coffee, you have to read this book, or a basic book like it. You will save yourself many headaches by doing so. Like I said you will be suited to go in to your local special coffee dealer after reading.

Enjoy