Coffee Culture

Coffee Roasting at Home Magic Bean Coffee Books

This book contains easy, step-by-step instructions and recipes which enable you to roast coffee at home using household appliances. Includes instructions for a hot air popper method, stove top method, oven method, and for home roasting machines. Roasting coffee at home is easy and fun to do. Using high quality green beans you can quickly create a roast to surpass specialty coffee roasts.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Disappointing…to say the least
At $17.95 I figured this book would be useful for both the beginner & advanced roaster. It is barely useful for the beginner. You can easily obtain all info contained in this book plus much more by going online, typing “coffee roasting” in your search engine, & hitting the “go” button. This book might be worth $5.00!

5 Stars A Fun and Informative book for the First time coffee roaster
I was surprised at how easy it was to roast your own coffee at home. We tried the cowboy coffee on a camping trip and it was a big hit. A good, easy to use reference.

5 Stars Great for Beginners
I read this book, dusted off my popcorn popper, and using their instructions was roasting my own, GOOD coffee rather quickly. I highly recommend this book to people who have not roasted their own coffee before and I highly recommend roasting your own coffee. You can buy green coffee for 1/4 the cost of roasted if you purchase it in bulk and you will be surprised to find out how tasty and fresh your own coffee can be. This book shows 4 (of) 5 different ways to roast your own coffee, I will try the other ones in future. Very pleased to have found this book. I am now hooked on roasting my own coffee!

5 Stars Great home roasted coffee
I never expected roasting my own coffee to be so easy. For the cost of green beans and surrendering an air pop popcorn popper to the job, I’m hooked. I’m one of those people who has been grinding beans for brewing coffee for years. Fresh roasted is even better than expensive beans from your favorite vendor…

Coffee Roasting at Home is a great little book with lots of tips. If you are a coffee fanatic, try roasting your own

2 Stars Not worth the price. Romatic, repetitive, without substance
I read this 145-page booklet in less than one hour. It uses very large print (perhaps nice for readers with poorer eyesight), but it also limits the amount of information that the book contains. It is a self-published book, which clearly would have benefitted from the services of a professional editor. For example page 94 says “Vienna is in the Danube Valley in Italy”. While Vienna is indeed on the Danube Valley, the city is the capital of Austria and the Danube river doesn’t even come close to Italy! Page 106 says “the basic proportion for Frech press or drip brewing is two heaping teaspoons (sic) of coffee to 6 ounces of water”. Every acknowledged coffee expert (T.J. Castle, Corby Kummer, Kenneth Davis) emphasize two TABLESPOONS as the correct proportion. A typo? Maybe. But if the book gets such basic, major issue wrong, what else is wrong? The reader is better off buying any of the books by the above-listed authors at similar prices.

I got the impression that the authors are nice people that decided to self-publish their coffee roasting notes in a folksy engaging style. The book, however, lacks substance. There are five coffee-related, cute and romantic short-stories that belong on a creative writing book and not on a “how to” manual. Finally most of the information is repetitive. How many times do we need to be told “to be careful, the beans are hot when coming out of the roaster”?

The book is not a total loss. Some people may like their step-by-step guides for the true beginner that is looking for a “cheat sheet” The enquiring, serious coffee aficionado looking for guide on roasting coffee at home should look elsewhere

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I Love Coffee Over 100 Easy and Delicious Coffee Drinks

“A powerful link between the coffee professional and the coffee consumer. The technical information is presented clearly and “smartly,” the humor is professional…and the recipes and photos are extraordinary.” — Miles Small, Editor CoffeeTalk Magazine

“Coffee recipes or references, coffee facts or fun – whatever your reason for pouring into the vast world of coffee, Susan Zimmer teaches it all in this “how-to” coffee handbook.” — SAECO Canada Ltd

“Indispensable new coffee book…filled to the brim with 111 recipes and a wealth of information from bean field to barista.” — The Gourmet Retailer

“Susan Zimmer shares information about exotic coffee drinks…for all occasions, with easy-to-read instructions. Her knowledge and passion for the drink are evident throughout.” — Library Journal

“The BEST book on coffee on the market, for all occasions. Susan’s profound knowledge…makes it a very interesting and a most enjoyable coffee read. It’s a must for everyone who likes or loves coffee!” — Espresso Canada Inc.

“The definitive resource for anyone who loves coffee. This book explores the intricacies of serving the perfect cup; enjoying the various flavors, textures and aromas of coffee in all of its glorious forms.” — P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars good recepies with pictures for coffee lovers
Me and my husband love coffee, and we like trying out new recepies. It is a nicely presented book with good recepies. It has nice pictures as well. you may find the information about coffee and beans in most of the coffee books, but since the writer has been in coffee bussiness for years it also gives hints.

Nice book, worth it.

5 Stars More information than I could have hoped for.
Tons of facts about the origins of coffee and different types, along with the different methods used to prepare it and their advantages and disadvantages. The recipe section at the end has a lot of great recipes that span just about every type of coffee drink you could imagine.

5 Stars coffees
I love coffee and I love this book. Lots of great history and recipes–regardless of the type of coffee maker you have.

5 Stars home brew
This was a very good and informative book on the ins and outs of making a great coffee, and other coffee flavored drinks. The author did a lot of research on coffee’s and the history of making the perfect cup. This book is a must read for anyone wanting to master the art of becoming a home Barrista.

5 Stars Great at home resource for the coffee afficianado
I work part-time as a barista, and I picked up this book to get some ideas for flavor combinations that we could introduce into our cafe. Certainly, this book has tons, featuring unusual flavor combinations- think chocolate/orange/hazelnut- and also holiday ideas (eggnog for Christmas, creme de Menthe for St. Patrick’s etc.) as well as the classics. Even more importantly, it gives you the know-how to make your favorite latte combinations at home. As odd as it may seem, one of my favorite things to do at work is to steam milk- I love the look and feel of the foam. Zimmer explains how to do that almost perfectly using a pan, a whisk or handheld mixer and your stovetop. (Sadly, this doesn’t work as well for me with soymilk, but with practice I’m sure I’ll get it.) She also explained how to do a stovetop espresso with the classic Bialetti espresso maker. Since it retails for about $35, that’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a souped up espresso machine and would almost definitely pay for itself after about ten lattes; you may never need to go to your local cafe again.

However, I disagreed with her instructions for many of the flavored lattes and mochas. She advises pouring in the milk first and then the syrups and espressos; I find the flavor is distributed better if the shot and syrup are in first and then followed by the milk. But that’s probably more a matter of preference than anything else- your results may differ.

This is also a comprehensive reference for beans and roasting, and she even gives instructions for roasting your own beans at home. Seriously, she leaves the reader pretty much no excuse not to have the best cafe-level coffee in your own home.

Highly recommended.

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