For Lesley
First published in the United States in 2017 by Chronicle Books LLC.
First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Octopus Publishing Group.
Text copyright © 2017 by Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood.
Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Tom Jay.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4521-6678-0 (epub, mobi)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
ISBN 978-1-4521-6665-0 (hc)
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Aerobie and Aeropress are registered trademarks of Aerobie, Inc.; Brita is a registered trademark of Brita, LP.; Chemex is a registered trademark of the International Housewares Corporation.; GrainPro Cocoons is a registered trademark of GrainPro, Inc.; Le Nez du Café is a registered trademark of Éditions Jean Lenoir, SARL.; Nespresso is a registered trademark of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.
Contents
7 Introduction
13 A–Z
12 A
13 Acidity | TASTING
13 Aeropress | BREWING
15 Agitate | BREWING
15 Agronomy | GROWING
16 Agtron scale | ROASTING
16 Altitude | ORIGIN
18 Arabica | SPECIES
23 B
23 Barista | BREWING; ESPRESSO
23 Basket | BREWING
24 Bean to cup | BREWING
27 Bicarbonate
27 Blending | ROASTING
28 Bloom | BREWING
31 Blossom | GROWING
31 Body | TASTING
32 Bolivia | ORIGIN
32 Boston Tea Party | HISTORY
35 Bourbon | VARIETY
35 Brazil | ORIGIN
36 Brew ratio | BREWING
38 Brix | GROWING
38 Buffer | WATER
41 C
41 C market | TRADING
41 Cafetière
41 Caffeine | STIMULANT
43 Cappuccino | DRINK TYPE
44 Capsules | BREWING
47 Carbonic maceration | GROWING; PROCESSING
48 Cartridge filter | WATER FILTRATION
48 Cascara | COFFEE BY-PRODUCT
51 Castillo | VARIETY
52 Channelling | BREWING
55 Chemex | BREWING
55 China | ORIGIN
56 Clean | TASTING
56 Climate change | GROWING
59 CO2
59 Coffee futures market
59 Cold brew | DRINK TYPE
60 Colombia | ORIGIN
60 Constantinople | HISTORY
63 Costa Rica | ORIGIN
63 Crema | ESPRESSO
64 Cup of Excellence | COMPETITIONS
65 Cupping | TASTING
67 D
67 Decaf | PROCESSING
67 Defects | GROWING; HARVESTING
68 Democratic Republic of Congo | ORIGIN
71 Density table | SORTING
71 Development | ROASTING
72 Dose | BREWING
72 Drum roaster | ROASTING
75 Dry aroma | TASTING
75 Dry distillates | TASTING
77 E
77 Ecuador | ORIGIN
77 El Salvador | ORIGIN
79 Espresso | BREWING; DRINK TYPE
80 Ethiopia | ORIGIN
83 Eugenioides | SPECIES
84 Europe | COFFEE CULTURE
84 Evenness | HARVESTING; ROASTING; BREWING
86 Extraction | BREWING
89 F
89 Fair trade | CERTIFICATION
90 Fermentation | PROCESSING
90 Fika | COFFEE CULTURE
93 Filter
93 Fines
93 First crack | ROASTING
93 Flat burr | GRINDING
94 Flat white | DRINK TYPE
97 Flavour notes | TASTING
97 Flow rate | BREWING
98 Flower
98 Freezing | STOR AGE
101 French press | BREWING
103 Fresh crop | HARVESTING
103 Full immersion | BREWING
105 G
105 Gear | BREWING
105 Geisha | VARIETY
106 God shot | ESPRESSO
109 Green | UNROASTED COFFEE
109 Grinding | PROCESSING
110 Grooming | ESPRESSO
113 Guatemala | ORIGIN
113 Gustatory | TASTING
117 H
117 Hawaii | ORIGIN
117 Heat exchanger | BREWING
118 Honduras | ORIGIN
118 Honey process | PROCESSING
123 I
123 Ibrik coffee
123 Importing | TRADING
124 Independent coffee shops | COFFEE CULTURE
124 India | ORIGIN
126 Indonesia | ORIGIN
129 Instant coffee | COFFEE CULTURE
130 International Coffee Organization | TRADING
130 Invention | TECHNOLOGY
131 Italy | COFFEE CULTURE
133 J
133 Jamaican Blue Mountain | ORIGIN
133 Japan | COFFEE CULTURE
135 K
135 Kaldi | COFFEE LEGEND
135 Kenya | ORIGIN
136 Kopi Luwak | PROCESSING; ANIMAL RIGHTS
139 L
139 Latte art | COFFEE CULTURE; PREPARATION
140 Le Nez du Café | AROMA
140 Leaf rust | GROWING; DISEASE
142 Lever machine | EQUIPMENT; ESPRESSO
142 Lloyd’s of London | HISTORY
145 M
145 Maillard reaction | ROASTING
145 Mechanical drying | PROCESSING
146 Melbourne | COFFEE CULTURE
146 Mexico | ORIGIN
149 Moka pot | BREWING
151 Mucilage | ORIGIN
151 Multi boiler | ESPRESSO
155 N
155 Naked shot | BREWING
156 Natural process | PROCESSING
159 Nicaragua | ORIGIN
159 Nordic | COFFEE CULTURE
161 Nutate | ESPRESSO
163 O
163 Old Brown Java | AGED COFFEE
163 Olfactory | FLAVOUR
164 Oliver table
164 One-way valve | PACKAGING
166 Origin | PROVENANCE
167 Oxidation | STORAGE
169 P
169 Pacamara | VARIETY
169 Panama | ORIGIN
171 Paper
171 Papua New Guinea | ORIGIN
171 Parabolic | DRYING
172 Past crop | OLD COFFEE
175 Peaberry | COFFEE BEAN TYPE
175 Peru | ORIGIN
176 Phosphoric acid | GROWING; TASTING
176 Plunger
176 Portafilter | ESPRESSO
179 Pour-over
179 Pressure | ESPRESSO
180 Producing | GROWING
183 Q
183 Q Grader | QUALIFICATION
183 Quaker | DEFECTS
185 R
185 Radiation | ROASTING
186 Raised beds | PROCESSING
186 Rate of rise | ROASTING
189 Refractometer | TESTING
189 Resting | FRESHNESS
190 Reverse osmosis | FILTRATION
&n
bsp; 190 Ripe | HARVESTING
193 Robusta
193 Roller grinder | GRINDING
194 Rwanda | ORIGIN
197 S
197 Sensory science | TASTING
197 Signature drinks | COMPETITIONS
198 Silver skin | GROWING; ROASTING
201 Single origin
201 Slow brew | COFFEE CULTURE
201 Soil | GROWING
202 South Korea | COFFEE CULTURE
202 Species | ROBUSTA AND ARABICA
205 Spittoon | TASTING
205 Steaming | MILK FROTHING
206 Strength | DRINKING
209 Sudan Rume | VARIETY
209 Sugar | SWEETENER
210 Super taster test | TASTING
211 Sustainability | GROWING; TRADING
212 Syphon
213 T
213 Tamping | ESPRESSO
213 Temperature | HOT AND COLD
214 Terroir | GROWING
217 Thermodynamics | SCIENCE
217 Third place | COFFEE CULTURE
218 Third wave | COFFEE CULTURE
221 Turkish coffee | BREWING; COFFEE CULTURE
221 Typica | VARIETY
223 U
223 Umami | TASTING
223 United States of America | COFFEE CULTURE
227 V
227 V60 | BREWING
227 Vacuum pot | BREWING
228 Variety | GROWING
231 Vietnam | ORIGIN
231 Volatiles | TASTING
232 Volumetrics | BREWING
235 W
235 Washed process | HARVESTING
236 Water | BREWING
239 Weighing scales | BREWING
239 World Barista Championship | COMPETITIONS
243 X
243 Coffee X | SPACE COFFEE
245 Y
245 Yemen | ORIGIN
245 Yield | TERMINOLOGY
247 Z
247 Zambia | ORIGIN
250 Index
254 Acknowledgements
256 About the Author
Introduction
It seems that there are two ways to fall in love with coffee. Either you start drinking coffee from an early age and develop a relationship with it over time, becoming more and more engrossed with its culinary and cultural potential; or you have almost no interest in coffee and then have an epiphany, a cup of coffee that changes everything. This is followed by disbelief and confusion coupled with excitement–and then you never look back.
The latter scenario applies to me. I had almost no interest in coffee. I drew portraits and painted things as my first real vocation. Like many an artist, I worked hospitality jobs on the side and over time, I realized my passion lies there. I met my wife and we thought we would do a bit of travelling. After six months in India, we ended up in Melbourne, Australia, with a work visa.
Unbeknown to us at the time, the city of Melbourne was home both to a vibrant café scene and to an equally impressive coffee culture. I got a job in the city in a café downtown and it wasn’t long before I was discussing coffee with many of the regulars. It was they who brought the subject up, and to be honest, I was a bit lost. Sure, I was finding it an interesting challenge to master this difficult “latte art” thing, but quite why coffee was a complex culinary phenomenon was not obvious to me. One of the regulars could see I was intrigued, though, and suggested that on my lunch break I pop up the road to a small café called Brother Baba Bhudan. I wandered up, and a lady with a coffee plant tattoo crawling up her leg asked me whether I would like to try the single-origin coffee. She said it was from Kenya and had notes of strawberry and vanilla. I must be honest – I was sceptical. I had no idea what coffee coming from Kenya meant (why would it be different from any other coffee?) and the flavour notes, I thought, would be lost on me.
Then I stepped outside onto the pavement and tasted the espresso. There it was – the epiphany. I simply could not believe how incredible this little beverage was. It instantly changed how I saw coffee and its potential. Not only did I get the flavour notes, it was one of the most incredible things I had ever tasted. To say that I enjoyed it is a huge understatement. My mind started going crazy. Why have I only just found out that coffee could taste and be like this? Not just I but my wife, too, bubbled over with excitement and we knew immediately that we wanted to work in coffee. Next day, I changed jobs and began the ongoing and endless pursuit of chasing and understanding coffee. We used our time in Melbourne to visit roasters and cafés and take courses with barista champions, before finally heading home.
Back in the UK we started an events company, moved to a new town to open a shop, dived into the world of competitive coffee, collaborated with scientists and espresso machine manufacturers, and continued to learn and explore coffee. The coffee world really is a rabbit hole.
For me, coffee has proved to be endlessly fascinating, engaging, and rewarding. Coffee is many different things for different people. This amazing drink is full of flavour, intrigue, history, and countless stories. With this dictionary, I am excited to explore and discover coffee with you.
—Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood
A
Acidity | TASTING
You may have heard acidity being described positively as “brightness” and negatively as “sourness”. This is the thing about acidity: it is integral to a great cup of coffee, but it is also a broad term. There are good and bad acids where taste is concerned, and there are also compounds that from a scientific point of view are acidic, yet we wouldn’t describe them as tasting acidic. Though there are many sources of acidity in coffee, it is only a mildly acidic beverage, with a pH of around 5, as compared to the pH2 of wine. Coffees grown at a higher altitude often showcase more structured, complex, and positive acidity. Coffees without such acidity can be described as tasting flat and uninteresting. Brightness lifts a coffee in your mouth and gives it structure. A lot of perceived sweetness can also be derived from, or elevated by, acidity.
SEE ALSO
Phosphoric acid p176
Aeropress | BREWING
The name Aeropress is inspired by a high-tech frisbee called the Aerobie, which was invented by the same man – Alan Adler. The Aerobie has set several world records for the furthest-thrown object; the Aeropress is instead designed to make the perfect brew. Alan is a self-taught inventor from the United States. The Aeropress houses the ground coffee and the water inside a syringe-like brewing chamber. Manual pressure applied by the user forces the brewed coffee through a multiholed lid that holds a custom-shaped filter paper. (Metal filter discs are also available.)
The Aeropress allows you to be very versatile with brewing. You can opt for fine grinds and strong brews, as the pressure generated allows the grounds to be separated from the brew to a degree that a gravity-fed filter method could not manage. You can also brew lighter, more elegant brews. There is even a World Aeropress Championship, which, at the time of writing, attracts contestants from fifty-one countries.
SEE ALSO
Brew ratio p36
Strength p206
Agitate | BREWING
To agitate is basically to fiddle with the brew in any way that mixes the water and the coffee grounds. By agitating, the brewer can allow the water to more easily access the coffee by mixing things up. This will increase extraction and can be very valuable in any brewing method where the coffee grounds might settle and stop mixing with the water, such as with a French press. Agitation can be achieved in a couple of ways: you can use a stirring stick of some kind or just give the brew a good old shake.
SEE ALSO
Extraction p86
French press p101
Agronomy | GROWING
From the Greek for “field law”, agronomy is the science and study of the growing of crops and managing of land. An understanding of agronomy can transform the fortunes of a farm. Certain farms will have a dedicated onsite agronomist; others – with equal success – make periodic use of an independent agronomist to inform
their practice. An understanding of agronomy will benefit how a coffee-growing plot is managed and maintained. Many coffee farms are now broken up into many smaller segments that are treated individually. Small changes in sunlight, climate, and soil can have a big impact on how coffee plants behave and on the quality of fruit they produce. Of course, weather and climate are out of a farmer’s control, but adapting to make the most of changes – by tweaking irrigation or altering harvesting times to compensate – is not.
SEE ALSO
Terroir p214
Agtron scale | ROASTING
You may have heard people discussing the colour of a roast. When discussing colour we are really referring to light and dark, not to a more normal idea of colour – there are no orange or purple roasts! The Agtron scale is a reference point for how dark or light a coffee is. Agtron measuring devices are pricey. In essence, they measure how much light is bounced back off the roasted coffee bean: a darker roast will absorb more light and produce a lower reading, and a lighter roast a higher reading. (It may help to think about how a white T-shirt throws back sunlight, while a black one will absorb it.) There are many terms that have been attributed to the Agtron number such as “light city roast” or “French roast”. The colour, though, is only one measurement of a roast, and a coffee can be roasted in many different ways to achieve the same colour.
SEE ALSO
Maillard reaction p145
Altitude | ORIGIN
The general rule of thumb is the higher the better. But – and it is a big but – this is not a fixed rule. As with everything in coffee, it is a bit more complicated than it seems. The more prized Arabica species is typically grown at altitudes higher than 3,300ft (1,000m) above sea level and can be grown all the way up to 8,200ft (2,500m) or more. The less desirable Robusta crops are grown between sea level and 3,300ft (1,000m). The idea is that at higher altitudes, the climate is cooler and the cherry has a longer ripening period, developing a superior flavour. However, the plants do not like it too cold either, which is why coffee is grown in the tropics. Cup quality is to do with many other aspects of provenance, such as soil, climate, and processing. It is true that no world-beating coffee is grown below 3,300ft (1,000m). It is also true that the world’s most sought-after and prized coffees are not necessarily the very highest grown. Sometimes a cooler microclimate at lower altitude can mimic a higher altitude and produce similar results.
The Coffee Dictionary Page 1