The Home Barista: How to Bring Out the Best in Every Coffee Bean

by Simone Egger, Ruby Ashby Orr

For coffee enthusiasts everywhere, a charming handbook to becoming your own favorite barista

More than 100 million Americans start each day with a cup of coffee (many at no small price)! It’s a fact : We love coffee. Now, in The Home Barista , two professionals reveal the secrets to brewing coffee worthy of the priciest cafés right in your own kitchen.

Connoisseurs Simone Egger and Ruby Ashby Orr enlighten readers with insights and advice from crop to cup and beyond. Savvy, smart, and charmingly designed, The Home Barista guides you through the essentials—from understanding your bean’s origins and establishing your palate to perfecting your technique. It’s the essential coffee-lover’s guide to turning a simple bean into a sensational

Genres: Food, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Self Help, Food and Drink

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 2015

Reviews

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Utterly useless.

15-30 minutes of Googling, particularly through coffee aficionado blogs, will teach you far more.

I mean, seriously, in an illustrated book about coffee you can't even show pictures of what the ideal grinds for various brewing approaches should look like? Dozens of worthless pictures of assorted coffee beans (ooh look! a picture of a coffee bean in a book about coffee!!!) and equipment that will never be used in a home, and you can't include pictures of the various grinds?!?!

[Zen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really hoping for more from this book. I'm not quite sure what I was hoping for but definitely more. The little bits about the production of coffee was nice, but it didn't really go as deep into perfecting a brew method as I would have expected from a title like this.

It thankfully was a quick read.

[Manal · Rating 3 out of 5]

الكتاب يقدم أساسيات المهارات التي يحتاجها الباريستا
ويقدم معلومات مفصلة عن مشروبات الاسبريسو و أنواعها، والخيارات المتاحة للاقتناء كأدوات تحضير منزلية
كما ويستعرض عددًا من طرق التحميص المنزلية
الكتاب خفيف وبسيط وإخراجه جميل ومرتب

[Matěj · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was a disappointment. It is far too short to give you a good picture of the whole process of home brewing, but at least it doesn't seem to contain egregious errors.

There are other better books to give your time to and learn about brewing the good stuff at home (get Hoffman's World Atlas of Coffee or Craft Coffee: A Manual).

One thing I appreciated was the chapter on home roasting, only that made it not a complete waste of time. Oh and the photos look straight lifted from a photo bank.

[Ruth McAdoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally informative in a non-overwhelming way

This is a nice brief book—which meant there were parts I wish were longer or more detailed, but I did appreciate that it has a great spectrum of information without being overwhelming or too technical. Nice little bits of humor thrown in as well :)

Definitely made me curious to try different origins, roasts, and brewing methods, and I feel generally more equipped to make informed coffee decisions!

[Rick Yvanovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, clear and enjoyable read.
The authors write things in a simple to understand way without the shrouds of mystery and language that sometimes surrounds coffee, there's no real need to make it so complicated!
So a good book if you want to know more about coffee and want to cut out a lot of the jargon.

[Mayrald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone interested in knowing more about coffee and coffee brewing, read this! I love this book. I more so love this because of the photos that come with each topic. How I wish I had a hard copy of this book. It would really be nice. Perfect if you're delving into the world of coffee. You'll know the science and art of it, from crop to cup.

[Hellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little book that gives you an insight on the coffee's history, background, roasting, types of machines and coffees. Easy to read, non-judgemental and probably worth to buy if you are a coffee lover.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good intro: describes flavor profiles of coffee bean producing regions, various machines for making coffee, and how a bit of ‘how to.’ I’m looking for in-depth info, but this was the perfect breadth.

[Agustina · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a coffee-lover, I loved this book. An easy to read and incredibly exciting guide that will make you love coffee even more. Plus, you'll get to experiment a lot on different types of beans and its roastings, so you get out there and find your perfect cup.

[Marius · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are thing’s that I’ve heard for the first time! I’m on my way of exploring the coffee world ☺️

[Stephanie S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps a better book for someone who’s a little newer to the third wave coffee scene. Good stuff I was just familiar with most of it

[TRS · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little intro to coffee! Stephen is being a tad harsh

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light and easy to read introduction to coffee, with a nice chatty, non-judgemental, style of writing that describes a lot of the subtleties of coffee production, roasting, grinding and brewing. There is an interesting discussion on the different grower focused initiatives so that they are able to run profitable farms. Lots of interesting details - have you heard of the use of a near infrared abridged spectrophotometer to assign an Agtron number to classify roasts?

But I think the design of the book has overtaken the content. With ageing eyes I found some of the text difficult to read as there wasn't sufficient contrast between the font and the background colours. The flavor (sic) wheel was particularly hard to read - I had to go online to find the original. The book uses the same colour font for all captions but the original changed to contrasting fonts - much more readable.

A nice "stocking stuffer" for some who enjoys coffee!

[Adam Thole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun, fast, and beautiful introduction to the world of coffee. It gives a nice overview of the various aspects of coffee from farming to roasting to grinding to brewing. For what it is I give it 5 stars. If you are expecting something full of details, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a beautiful overview, this is the book.

[Elizabeth | _its_liz_reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Home Barista is a fun, brief overview of coffee. I enjoyed the aesthetics of the book: photos, fonts, layouts, and compact size. I'd say it's a good primer on coffee and can easily be read in a night. It'd be a great gift for your favorite coffee lover.

[Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super simple beginner's guide to the Specialty Coffee World. I would have loved more technical knowledge about manual brewing. It's got plenty of stock coffee pictures which isn't great or horrible. Just wanted more.
But if you hardly know coffee, this is the book to sit with and it will open your desire for more. caffeine. NOW. ☕