I'm around halfway through, just getting to the actual atlas portion.

I would definitely recommend the book to anyone looking for a broad overview of coffee. Hoffmann explains a lot of things with good detail, and I learned a bit here and there. Fortunately, the second portion - the actual atlas - is really in-depth, and I'm picking lots up. This portion will reward 2-3 read-throughs. So there's something here for any level of coffee enthusiast.

Around three hundred hardcover pages on coffee for around $20 is a really great deal.

Just started reading my copy last night. Looks very good. Very nicely illustrated!

Reading this today and really impressed, congrats to James on this wonderful book!

Not sure if this is kosher to post pics of the book, but wanted to show some low res pics to just give an idea of the content for those interested in how the book is laid out and the quality of the material. I would definitely recommend picking this up, it is full of great information, photos, and illustrations.

Glad you like it! (I'm totally fine with posting pics from it)

Alright! I'll buy it already!

Looking forward to reading this. Thanks Jim!

King Seven wrote:Glad you like it! (I'm totally fine with posting pics from it)

Jim, thank you for writing this! Will be a great resource for us.

I finished my first read through of this over the weekend and I must say that I was very impressed. The pictures were simply gorgeous, and although I could quibble with a few details here and there, the overall scope of the book, and its average level of accuracy and detail, were excellent. I loved getting information about the history of coffee production in some of the less-well-known coffee producing nations, as well as a regional breakdown within each country. This volume should be on every coffee lover's shelf.

I picked this up on Amazon a couple weeks back and I have to say, it is a very, very nice book. Very fun book for a quick browsing or a long, detailed read.

Lovely pictures, and all-around high quality.

Two big thumbs up.

Hi
Just bought this. It has not arrived yet. Looking forward to it.

regards

Just finished reading my copy, which I received a few weeks ago. I read this book slowly, savoring it like a really good cup of coffee. Here's an unsolicited review:

This is a wonderful book and a must-have for anyone who loves coffee and/or wants to learn more about it. I think the book is of particular value to beginner and intermediate baristas (home or professional), and I'm sure even experts would benefit from having a copy on the shelf, if only for the comprehensive treatment of growing/producing regions and the gorgeous photos. The writing style is concise, yet friendly and approachable. Sometimes it felt like I was having a conversation with James, yet the educational nature of the book was never lost. Further, while It's clear that James has certain opinions and preferences, they remain appropriately in the background.

The first section covers the coffee plant, its many varieties, how it's harvested, how it's processed and how it's traded. Before reading the book, my knowledge of these subjects was incomplete and disorganized. Hoffmann's thorough and well-organized presentation has given me a much better understanding of the material. I'm sure there's a lot more detail that could be presented in every part of this section, but it would probably slow the reader's progress toward the real gem of the book, which is the atlas.

The second section covers roasting, buying, tasting/describing, grinding, brewing and so forth. I had a better handle on this material going in (due in no small part to what I've learned on HB), but reading through it was enjoyable nonetheless and the photos are very nice. Home roasters will probably be a little disappointed that there's not more information for them here, but again I think the overview presented in this section isn't the main mission of the book and there are other more comprehensive sources to be found.

The third section, which is the atlas itself, covers the different growing regions of the world, country by country. Prior to reading the book, I only had sketchy information about the major growing regions and the taste profiles of the coffees they produce. I knew very little about coffee production and taste profiles of coffees from individual countries. This part of the book really filled in the gaps and brought me to a whole new level of detail. Hoffmann does a great job covering the history, current status, internal regions, climate, geography, varieties, taste profiles, processing and trade issues for each country, complete with maps for more most of the countries showing where Arabica or Robusta are grown. And to top it off, the section for each country contains one or more beautiful photos of the scenery, coffee farms, processing facilities, or the people who work in the local coffee industry.

Now when I buy coffee from a specialty roaster I can compare the roaster's information about terroir, varieties, harvest date and processing with the atlas. That's really helpful for someone like me who is still somewhat bewildered by the huge variety of coffees available to us. I tend to gravitate to coffees from countries that I've already sampled, and the atlas has inspired me to go further afield and try more coffees from different places. For example (and James might not like this one), I decided to order some Jamaica Blue Mountain from a reputable roaster to compare with the taste profile in the atlas and to see how it compares with my recollection from the last time I had JBM in the 1970's, decades before I got serious about coffee, to see if it's really as good as I remember.

The only thing I would suggest for the next edition (and I hope there'll be one) is more detail on the taste profiles for each country and region. The existing profiles are somewhat short and use general terms like acidity, body, juiciness, creamy, delicate, complex, etc. While I agree with all of the taste profiles for countries whose coffees I've tried, the terms are general enough that in most cases I probably couldn't use them to distinguish the coffees from two different countries or regions within a country. It would would be nice to see more specific flavor descriptions for the best coffees that have come from a particular country or region. For example, when some natural processed coffees from a given country have distinct berry overtones, that should be noted as a distinguishing characteristic. I realize that there can be a lot of variation from one season to another that can make such notes obsolete, and producers sometime come and go, but I still think another level of detail would be good. Perhaps this information could be put on a website referred to in the text so it can be updated more easily. I'm not sure my suggestions are the right ones, but what I want to communicate is a desire for a lot more detail on taste profiles.

There are very few edits I would suggest for the next edition. The section on Coffee Varieties could be more complete. There's a confusing photo caption at the start of the Processing section (the book does a good job describing the various processing methods, but I'm still a little confused by terms like "wet mill".) As I recall, a map or two didn't show a location mentioned in the text. The section on Costa Rica doesn't list the varieties for each regions. The phrase "Dialing In" is misspelled as "Dialling In" in the Glossary. Otherwise, I found the book remarkably free of defects -- like a bag of really good beans.

My thanks to James Hoffmann for writing this brilliant book. Go buy it! It's a great Christmas gift for yourself or someone you know who loves coffee.