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The New Art of Coffee: From Morning Cup to Caffeine Cocktail
Coffee here are recipes and inspiration for every taste, mood, and complexity, making for the perfect coffee drink for each moment of the day.
While the popularity of craft cocktails and home bartending have helped people create their own drink-driven memories, the possibilities for coffee have remained rather tame. Much more than a guide to beans or brewing, The New Art of Coffee shares how to create inspiring concoctions and flavor profiles from comforting and rejuvenating to celebratory and adventurous.
Nearly fifty recipes paired with beautiful photography will inspire and offer something for every taste and time of day—hot, iced, carbonated, post-workout, decaffeinated, alcoholic, and deconstructed. Organized by mood, the recipes range in complexity from a quick quaff to a showstopping slow build, allowing readers to match the drink with the moment.
Enjoy a Moonwater with breakfast, a Throw Em’ A Haymaker after a hard workout, or an Amuse as a happy-hour delight. The Don is the ideal after-dinner companion, and there’s nothing quite like powering down with a Windmill Cookie Steamer after a long day.
While the popularity of craft cocktails and home bartending have helped people create their own drink-driven memories, the possibilities for coffee have remained rather tame. Much more than a guide to beans or brewing, The New Art of Coffee shares how to create inspiring concoctions and flavor profiles from comforting and rejuvenating to celebratory and adventurous.
Nearly fifty recipes paired with beautiful photography will inspire and offer something for every taste and time of day—hot, iced, carbonated, post-workout, decaffeinated, alcoholic, and deconstructed. Organized by mood, the recipes range in complexity from a quick quaff to a showstopping slow build, allowing readers to match the drink with the moment.
Enjoy a Moonwater with breakfast, a Throw Em’ A Haymaker after a hard workout, or an Amuse as a happy-hour delight. The Don is the ideal after-dinner companion, and there’s nothing quite like powering down with a Windmill Cookie Steamer after a long day.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published April 4, 2023
4 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 31, 2025
I want to start by saying that I think this is an excellent book.
I bought this book for the recipes. Initially, I was thrilled by the wealth of beautiful photography and the prospect that I would be able to recreate those recipes. However, as others have noted, for most people, this is an impossibility.
I had already made the expensive investments of an esspresso machine and all the accompaniments as well as an immersion circulator and a myriad of barware, so I was much closer to having all the equipment required to effectively recreate the recipes than most. That said, I'm still miles off. Half the recipes in the book call for kyoto style slow drip. For those who don't know, that's a really high barrier for entry.
I looked for a single recipe in the book that I could easily recreate without having to prepare some obscure tincture whose sole purpose would be to make that specific drink. If there is one, I must fave flipped past it.
Other reviews praise the first 60 pages, and I can see why. Those pages give you all the building blocks to understand the recipes. The recipe section is very specific and impractical for a home cook, but if you really wanted to recreate them exactly, they are there and quite clear. Conversely, if you want to hold on to some sanity, then you can take the formulas provided in the first section and make something new. A new recipe that uses ingredients and tools that are accessable to you and fits somewhat into that second part of the book.
It is in that second use case that this book was invaluable to me. To my continued journey of inviting creativity into my kitchen and stepping outside my comfort zone of exact adherence to recipes. I think that's what Castelaz wanted.
The recipes act as a red herring without any disclaimer against this prescriptive view of recipes. However, throughout those aforementioned 60 pages, Castelaz champions the importance of playing with one's food. It really seems that he didn't care so much about our ability to recreate his recipes as he did about our ability to create our own.
This is not a recipe book. It is an excellent guide once you realise that the recipes are not to be recreated but to inspire. I struggled to get there, and I think some readers won't get much out of it because of that.
I bought this book for the recipes. Initially, I was thrilled by the wealth of beautiful photography and the prospect that I would be able to recreate those recipes. However, as others have noted, for most people, this is an impossibility.
I had already made the expensive investments of an esspresso machine and all the accompaniments as well as an immersion circulator and a myriad of barware, so I was much closer to having all the equipment required to effectively recreate the recipes than most. That said, I'm still miles off. Half the recipes in the book call for kyoto style slow drip. For those who don't know, that's a really high barrier for entry.
I looked for a single recipe in the book that I could easily recreate without having to prepare some obscure tincture whose sole purpose would be to make that specific drink. If there is one, I must fave flipped past it.
Other reviews praise the first 60 pages, and I can see why. Those pages give you all the building blocks to understand the recipes. The recipe section is very specific and impractical for a home cook, but if you really wanted to recreate them exactly, they are there and quite clear. Conversely, if you want to hold on to some sanity, then you can take the formulas provided in the first section and make something new. A new recipe that uses ingredients and tools that are accessable to you and fits somewhat into that second part of the book.
It is in that second use case that this book was invaluable to me. To my continued journey of inviting creativity into my kitchen and stepping outside my comfort zone of exact adherence to recipes. I think that's what Castelaz wanted.
The recipes act as a red herring without any disclaimer against this prescriptive view of recipes. However, throughout those aforementioned 60 pages, Castelaz champions the importance of playing with one's food. It really seems that he didn't care so much about our ability to recreate his recipes as he did about our ability to create our own.
This is not a recipe book. It is an excellent guide once you realise that the recipes are not to be recreated but to inspire. I struggled to get there, and I think some readers won't get much out of it because of that.
January 7, 2025
If I was rating this in the “makability” of any of these recipes I’d be down to 2 stars. Honestly it’s a second job to be able to make most of these recipes. Even the recipes that were supposed to be simple were complex because some things were not clear, mostly with the coffee bases. If I don’t have an espresso maker and use an aeropress for example, how much do I use per recipe? I was also really hoping for more information on making recipes that use a simple pour over or general info on brewing such coffees. The author needed a much better editor as some important details were confusing or lacking.
That said, the three stars (maybe I’d go to 3.5) is for the creativity and enthusiasm of the author. The history of coffee was enjoyable and the recipes are incredibly interesting. I’d love to drink most of these and I did get a few good ideas that I will try, such as using an atomizer to add a bit of something extra to a drink. So while not practical in any sense, it was an entertaining way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
That said, the three stars (maybe I’d go to 3.5) is for the creativity and enthusiasm of the author. The history of coffee was enjoyable and the recipes are incredibly interesting. I’d love to drink most of these and I did get a few good ideas that I will try, such as using an atomizer to add a bit of something extra to a drink. So while not practical in any sense, it was an entertaining way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
April 4, 2025
This is, of course, about coffee, but not just another encyclopedic history book about coffee. This is like the deluxe version that places the reader in a different state of mind about what coffee is, and what it can become, but without ignoring the very nature of the coffee bean itself. Part One: The Coffee Bar takes the reader into a brief history of coffee, and includes effective tools and techniques, but it’s not exhaustive, nor does it need to be. Like 15 or so pages is all. Part Two: Coffee Awakened gets into what’s new. New flavors, unique ingredients and surprisingly simple techniques introduce the creativity and unlimited possibilities of the “caffeine cocktail.” Yes, it's truly okay to play with your food. Why not make coffee fun, besides that familiar routine of downing a morning cup of liquid wake-up? And waking up is exactly what the heart of this book is all about.
December 12, 2024
I got this from the library, super excited to go home and try fun new coffee recipes, only to discover that pretty much every recipe has very obscure ingredients that no normal kitchen would have. Like tobacco extract. And pufferfish bitters… I understand the author is trying to secure his place in the fourth wave of coffee, but these recipes were too over the top.
January 8, 2025
Extremely complicated recipes. The history, enthusiasm, and photos are all nice. But unless you have an extraordinary amount of money to invest in equipment and specialty ingredients, you will not be able to duplicate the author’s results or experiment with his techniques.
March 16, 2024
This blends a scientific approach, quite a lot of special ingredients, and fussy methods and equipment. Daunting. Beautiful photos will make you want to try, though.
December 29, 2024
Wow! Genius. Absolute genius. Do I currently have the supplies to make any of these beautiful monstrosities? No. Will I be changing that soon? Yes
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews