The Professional Barista's Handbook

by Scott Rao

From Scott Rao: "When I began in the coffee business in 1993, I had read every book I could find about coffee. After reading all of those books, however, I felt as if I hadn't learned much about how to make great coffee. My coffee library was chock-full of colorful descriptions of brewing styles, growing regions, and recipes, with a few almost-unreadable scientific books mixed in. I would have traded in all of those books for one serious, practical book with relevant instruction about making great coffee in a café. After being in the coffee business for 15 years, I decided someone needed to write that book, so I wrote The Professional Barista’s Handbook."

Genres: Nonfiction, Cooking, Food, Cookbooks, Reference, Collections, Self Help

99 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Scott Rao started his first cafe & roastery in Amherst, MA when he was 22. That first cafe quickly became an institution, serving well over 1000 customers per day and tripling the sales volume of the Starbucks down the street. After selling his first cafe, Scott went on to work in the New Zealand coffee industry. He then returned to the US to open a restaurant and coffee roastery inspired by his travels down under. Scott later founded a pioneering cafe in Montreal that influenced coffee making worldwide.

Upon selling his second business, Scott began writing books about coffee making in the hopes of helping roasters and baristas become more educated and systematic in their approach to coffee. Scott parlayed those books into a consulting career and now spends his time consulting for coffee roasters around the world, teaching the world's most advanced roasting masterclasses, and designing next-generation coffee equipment.

Scott is the author of The Professional Barista's Handbook, Everything but Espresso, and The Coffee Roaster's Companion. He secretly likes Sencha tea more than coffee, is baffled about why anyone drinks naturals, and would probably do a free consulting job for you if your business happens to be located on a warm surf beach.

Reviews

[Anne Wanaselja]

I didn’t understand everything in this book, but I’m already making better espresso and coffee at home!

[Jacob Bornheimer]

Great resource, especially for espresso. It covers the process of extraction with an extreme amount of detail and backs itself up with academic sources. It's a breath of fresh air in an area where a lot of hearsay and superstition passes for expertise. Focuses more on the operation of cafés, but is still very informative for home enthusiasts. The section on drip is especially professionally focused. Still, the principles can be generalized. Other brewing methods are given short shrift. There is a two page chapter on french press, but no mention of pourover. Overall, well recommended.

[Brian]

Having done my undergraduate education at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, it's like a trip down memory lane to see this book by Scott Rao, whose Rao's Coffee House, tucked away just off North Pleasant Street, is an institution. This book was given to me as a gift a year or two ago--before I had a home espresso machine--and wasn't much use to me back then since it doesn't go into much detail about brewing regular coffee. However, I recently acquired a nice semi-automatic home espresso machine and dug this book out to try and understand the craft and skill that's necessary for brewing a proper cup of espresso. Though I'm no expert, this book provides extremely detailed instructions--and also explains the 'why'--of every aspect of espresso brewing and the techniques--grinding, dosing, tamping, leveling, et al.--required to do so. I have found it to be enlightening and very useful, especially since I always enjoy knowing the reason why something has to be done a certain way. There's a good bit of science in the book as well, which is easy to skip over and still not miss any of the good stuff, if you're so inclined. A definite must-have, in my opinion, if you're getting into home espresso brewing.

[Amir Bardo]

Great book, which mostly focuses on espresso. The book gives you a good understanding about what is happening when coffee is extracting and which things affect the process.

I haven't been able to find this nicely packed information in many places.

Still recommend in 2018

[Helen]

99 percent of the book it seems gives accurate and fruitful information on coffee (and tea) but as some of the information I have do not agree to the info in the book, I do not know if i can mark the book as completely accurate. Nor are all the types of coffee completely explained and described and how to properly work with them, but the most important info about what a barista needs to know is in the book and the book can serve as a guidline in the line of work for baristi ...

But it is never a downslide to research more, find more and more info, compare, find out on your own through experimentation, and update yourself regularly on what is going on in the world of coffee if this is the job one love.

[Bruno]

Mijn eerste koffieboek, en dan nog een boek dat heel hoog stond aangeschreven in de koffie-community. Nogal duur, 45 USD voor 100 bladzijden inclusief appendices, maar zijn geld toch waard. Vier sterren ipv vijf, toch door de prijs, maar voor wie geïnteresseerd is in espresso en wil begrijpen hoe zo'n drank (technisch) in elkaar zit en hoe men de smaak ervan kan verbeteren, is dit zeker en vast een aanrader.

[Dianne]

I am not a professional barista, though I have worked in coffee shops. I borrowed this book from a barista friend as research for a novel set in a third-wave coffee shop.

I found Rao's book informative, but I wish that he had begun with drip coffee. I really only began to understand what he wrote about espresso when I got to the drip coffee chapter, near the end. I certainly understand the rationale of putting espresso first - I am sure most serious baristas consider themselves purveyors of espresso. Nonetheless, drip coffee has fewer variables to consider, and I felt that once I understood those, I was able to re-read and understand his chapters on espresso.

A further note: if you are not yourself a barista or otherwise interested in the technicalities of professionally made espresso, this book may not be for you. It is written for the profession. You may find that you prefer one of the many excellent books for home brewers of coffee and espresso.

[Alexander]

Scott Rao manages to pack a lot of information into very few pages. Although I think it is a little outdated, you will still find lots of detailed information about particle distribution and ideal extraction, with tables and graphs that are rarely seen in other coffee books. The tea section is basically useless, so don't bother reading this if you want to improve your tea game. However, for coffee, especially espresso, this is awesome. I also liked that he mentioned how to use single baskets, as nobody else does, even though they are still used in Italy — my Italian lever machine has one, too.

If you're not interested in the graphs and tables, James Hoffmann's book is a good modern alternative that will also serve you well.

[Johannes Neuwirth]

The book contains a lot of valuable information. However, it is a bit outdated: the grinders in specialty coffee shops nowadays are mostly timed or have built in scales. An updated version would be nice.

[Meghan]

There’s some good stuff in here. I would have loved even more on espresso, especially manual lever machines because I use one, but I still found the info helpful.

Still looking for something even more in depth.

[Nguyen Tung]

Everything written by Scott Rao is worth reading. The book has a brief section dedicated to tea preparation, too.

[Oleksiy Kovyrin]

A must-read if you’re really into coffee

[Ivo Petrovski]

Must read if you are into brewing your own coffee at home and looking to improve in that direction

[Joost]

Excellent book. Will require a re-read for sure.
Dense with information, no fluff. Some measurements are in imperial units, which is unfortunate.

[Yanya Lukashova]

Познавательно, бесполезно для домашнего использования

[Dylan]

Good book, not as helpful as I'd like for helpful tips for home barista but the name literally says professional barista so I have little to complain over

[Miguel]

A great book for professionals in Specialty Coffee who want to go deeper in the science behind coffee and improve their game.

[Sarah]

Solid amount of information. Even as a person in the coffee industry, some of the advice seemed a bit extreme.

[Martini]

Very useful information

[Karrarabd]

ممتاز جدا حاليا قواعد الفلسفة الاسلامية ج١

[Emily]

Intense but helpful.

[Matt]

This seems like graduate level foods and liquid science to me. Since I don't have an undergrad degree and I turn 29 tomorrow I doubt I'll ever know for sure...
The great thing about this book is that Rao lays out the science and application logically and gradually - so that by the time you've read the first half of the book you're (hopefully) wondering things that he will dutifully explain in the last half.
Basically, I appreciate his attention to prefacing information, presenting a variety of methods and following through with recommended application based on cafe environment.
Oh yeah and the last chapter you can just rip out because it's all about tea. He said it's okay.

[Sam]

Now I know everything in the world about espresso. So that's nice.

[Bruno galati]

dose anyone have copy this book could email to me please thanks brunog027@gmail.com

[Jon McMahon]

Technically dense but quite the comprehensive reference.

[Michael Baum]

Skip those fancy coffee classes and read this instead. It'll save you a lot of money and give you the same information.

[Linh Nguyën]

Just read it.