This is not exactly a great book, but then again, not exactly a bad book. It covers much about the industry of coffee and goes over the different regions that produce coffee. It describes what is and how to brew a perfect cup of coffee.

But I get a feeling of being rushed from one tidbit of information to the next. Just while I am almost within grasp of a certain concept or am about to form a picture of what it is trying to say it ends there without further detail. But it does repeat key information more than once throughout the book so you do walk away with greater knowledge than before.

If learning about coffee was compared to eating out, this book is best suited as either an appetizer or a desert. Appetizer to whet and get your brain ready to learn more about coffee, or as a desert, to catch up on and review over learned knowledge.

I guess that's why it is called "Coffee Basics" after all.

"A Perfect Cup" is a better selection in that it contains more information and better elaboration although that book is slightly dated being published in 1994. But coffee has been around way before 1994 so does it really matter?

This book gives a good basic understanding of what coffee is all about. I especially like the specificity of information about coffees from different areas in the Regional Character chapter. For example, discussing Costa Rica's two best growing areas and how the coffees differ. I also found the opinions of which coffees are worthy of their price helpful. I read the Perfect Cup first and am glad I did because it was a good coffee overview for me. Coffee Basics was a great second book for me because I was looking for more specific information about coffees of each area. If I hadn't read Perfect Cup first I think the break down of info. on each type of coffee/regional character would have been information overload for me. If you are new or relatively new to the coffee world and are excited about learning more and more about the subtlties and nuiances present in that cup, I highly recommend you read this book.

Great introduction to coffee - how to brew a great cup, a little bit about the industry, the different growing regions, how to buy good coffee, how to taste coffee, information about how coffee is processed. Not too complicated, easy and interesting reading. I definitely recommend this one if you're looking to learn the basics.

Hello, I'm the author of God and Coffee: in that order and I wanted to let you know about my new gift product line, Thank God for Friends. If you would love to send a gift that is sure to touch someone's heart, please check out, thankgodforfriends.com. You will find, Thank God for Friends coffee mugs (Some days are bad hair days... Thank God for Friends - and more) coffee, cards, and of course, more copies of God and Coffee: in that order. I look forward to hearing from you.
Kristina Seymour

A great inspiring book! I especially enjoyed Kristina's poems. They described her daily struggles purely from the heart. Kristina is witty and writes with a humorous flair. Her book is a well-written daily journal of raising a family and going to school. God and Coffee was fun to read and I could relate to her stories. The bible verses at the end of each chapter was a nice touch to sum up the chapter's message. An excellent spiritual read!

This is one of the best books about God, His power & love for us, that I have ever laid eyes on. In this book, the Author relates to her readers and also teaches the important message of how God truly IS present in our day-to-day lives and how much he cares about EVERY little thing! It is so down-to-earth, well-written and inspiring to anyone that reads it. I could relate to so many things that she talks about, which makes the message hit home! I was impressed with how it was written, with the related scriptures and beautifully written poetry. I highly recommend this book! Thank you, Kristina & I hope your next book will be coming soon!!

Yes, this book has many recipes for desserts; not coffee. However, the recipes are wonderful and the pictures are inspiring. The info about coffee at the beginning of the book was very useful to my finance:)

If you love coffee, this is going to be a favorite for you! Not only will you get the 'goods' on Starbucks wonderful recipes, but you'll also learn the history of coffee, how to distinguish between different coffee beans, and tons of tips on making great coffee. This coffee cookbook is packed with over 30 mouthwatering recipes for morning, afternoon, and night, and laced with beautiful color pictures to accompany the recipes. Starbucks Passion for Coffee cookbook is a winner for both your palate and your mind. I give it a thumbs up!

I first bought this book because I was looking for a recipe for biscotti. The recipe is excellent. All the recipes in the book are excellent. You don't need to be a coffee drinker to value this book. The delicious baked items go just as well with a cup a tea. Every recipe I have made from this book is outstanding and I can be assured that they will always come out delicious even when making it the first time for company. Excellent buy and highly recommended!

Sure, the photos are pretty but are the recipes any good? I tried the raisin scone recipe - it was very dry and the salt needs to be reduced by at least half if not three quarters. I wonder if any recipe testing was done before this book went to print.

The photos in this book are lovely, and some of the theme ideas are nice, but honestly, the recipes didn't do much for me, for the most part. If you want some inspiration, and you want some photos for ideas on creating ambience for a nice tea party, then this is a good book; if you're looking for a cookbook, best keep looking.

I have been collecting books on afternoon tea for the last twenty years. This outstanding book, against which I judge all others, is a must have for anyone interested in afternoon tea. I have made almost all of the recipes many times and several items, particularly the Victorian poppyseed cake, can be found waiting in my kitchen for guests any day of the week.

Every recipe has consistantly turned out delicious and beautiful. The text is invites repeated reading by its gently lyric style and the photographs are at once dreamy and alluring. You will return to this book time and again.

While this book has some good recipes and quotes, the stories that Freeman tells of her friends are not what I was looking for. It would be interesting to read about different types of friendships, not one woman's account of going to the movies with so-and-so and every detail that happened. I was disappointed.

COFFEE CUP FRIENDSHIP AND CHEESECAKE FUN
I had never liked coffee or cheesecake until it was served up with fanciful flair by gourmet
humorist Becky Freeman in her delightful book Coffee Cup Friendship and Cheesecake Fun.
Without the calories or caffeine, Freeman captures the sweetness and stimulation that only a
good, strong friendship affords. This queen of Christian comedy always has something
delicious perking in sometimes silly, often sensitive true vignettes, where her own life usually
becomes material for jesting. With humility and vulnerability Becky laughs at herself, and we
laugh with her, and just maybe as a result, gather courage to laugh at ourselves. Most of all,
Becky gives us the gift of learning how to cultivate camaraderie with our friends, loving each
other through thick and thin. This book is chocked full of recipes for fruitful friendships, ripe
with hilarity, tears, encouragement, challenge, and joy. It also contains scrumptious dessert
and dinner recipes guaranteed to please the palate. No doubt the pleasure will be all yours as
you pull up a chair, pour a cup of coffee, slice a piece of cheesecake, and devour the insights
of this delectable book!
-Lynn D. Morrissey, author & speaker

Becky's book is such a wonderful combination of wit, wisdom and wonder. After laughing my way through this quick read, I realized that it's Okay to have different kinds of friends for different seasons of life and different activities. This book is worth the price of admission.

I generally enjoy Hank's essays on rock contemporaries and/or elder statesmen of whatever genre he sets his sights on, and while I had actually read many of these collected articles (from Details, RayGun, Vox, etc.) beforehand, I found re-reading them quite enjoyable anyway.

His diatribe on David Lee Roth is worth the price of the book alone, but his Lollapalooza Tour Journal is also of interest. An in-depth look at Jerry Lee Lewis, a sparse (but fun) interview with John Lee Hooker, and a superb chapter on Phil Lynott are only a few of the gems within.

Vol.3 of the BCB series is also good, but offers less of interest about the music industry.

Interesting book by an intriguing man. OK, Henry is not a college professor, he does not write in a style in this book which is wordy or hard to get. He's going for something else, if more people had his edge this world would be a hell of a lot more interesting. Why people don't get excited about him or his band is saddening because people like Eminen, a real whining Yank if there was one, are vicious bastards who ought to get some brains. PS. Whatever man.

This was an amazing book, I could not put it down. I finished reading it within a day. Henry is a fantastic writer and he shares so much of himself in his writing. I feel like I know him. Some parts of the book are a little sad but then you start to realize that is just how Henry's writing is. When you finish reading this book you will feel like you just borrowed Henry's personal journal to read. I highly recommend this to any Rollins fan!! ~~Niki

I read this at an airport: the only reason I finished it is I had nothing else to read. The author tries to come off as angry and satirical, but just comes off as immature. Maybe if you're 16 and taking drama in school this would be an insightful read.

I've read almost all of Bogosian's work and really, this one smells the most personal of all. I've never seen him do his works(except movies...), but when you read it, you can almost see him ranting on. And this time, he's at is clearest. The magic lives on !!!
Really, Bogosian gives meaning to the saying that tells us artists are the Guardians of Humanity.
You can't escape it, the words he gives us speak of truth as you wouldn't want to know. He puts us in front of all you know but don't want to care about.
If you hesitate, don't !!! Get it !!!

Bogosian proves with 'Wake Up and Smell the Coffee' that he is one of the funniest, smartest, and angriest writers around. 'Wake Up' is a collection of monologues designed to be performed as a one-man (or one-woman) show, but the monologues could stand on their own as comedic vignettes good enough to work as audition pieces or stand-up routines. Most of the monologues are piercing in their accuracy. Bogosian takes on pop culture, religion, families, and he does so with sarcasm that never lets up and almost never misses the mark. His take on the carnival at airports is just one example: 'Standing in ticket lines, sitting in the departure lounge, crowded around the baggage carousel watching the luggage coming out as if awaiting the birth of your first child.'

The book is separated into three parts. The main portion of this book is the collection of monologues that form the one-man show. The second part of the book contains what Bogosian calls 'Orphans' ' monologues that don't really fit in with the rest of the work. The final piece of the book is an essay on how Bogosian develops his monologues (or solos, as he refers to them). He explains how he locks himself in a room with a tape recorder and lets his inner characters loose. The essay is interesting, but you get the feeling that it was added to give some more bulk to the book, and not because it was intended to accompany the monologues.

Bogosian admits in the introduction that after 9/11 he told his agent to shelve the book altogether. Some of the material in 'Wake Up' takes on terrorism, plane crashes, the Oklahoma City bombing, and Arabic immigrants, and Bogosian was worried that this book would come across as offensive. In truth, some of pieces do ring with a clarity that might not have existed in the pre-war on terror world. That insight makes the jokes funnier and the truth more bitter. The fact that some of his monologues dealt with subjects that would be forced into the public consciousness after 9/11 just shows how insightful Bogosian has become. It's not just jokes anymore.

This book might be useful to someone looking for a book with general information about tea, but for someone who wants to learn about the real art of Chinese tea, this book is useless . The book does not go into any detail about important elements of Chinese tea drinking such as Yixing teapots and the gongfu brewing method; it just tries to explain them in a few sentences. After reading this book, you will hardly have gained any knowledge of Chinese tea at all.
The book is obviously an imitation of John Blofeld's "The Chinese Art of Tea", which is an excellent book on the subject of Chinese tea. This book even copied the format of "The Chinese Art of Tea" by inserting small drawings in the margins, and they also copied the teahouse section of "The Chinese Art of Tea". The only thing they forgot to copy was all the good information.

The section in this book on tea brewing, entitled "How to Make a Nice Cup of Tea", provides instructions on making tea that could only be used to make tea for your dogs. The book does not explain any of the Chinese brewing methods, it seems like the authors just read the back of a Lipton box and copied into their book. If you are interested in Chinese tea, it is much better to find a few good websites on Chinese tea than to buy this book. Anybody who has even a small amount of knowledge of Chinese tea can see that this book is very badly made.

I found this tea book to be a very good reference book on tea's origin, how and when it's popularity spread to other realms, how to enjoy tea and what kinds of utensils are used to make and drink tea. I would have enjoyed more pictures and the ones that are here are in black and white, but this is an information packed read.

No fetishism nor fussiness in this volume, just excellent information and tips for the tea drinker and interested historian/gardener/travel buff/philosopher/health-seeker. If anything, this book demystifies Chinese teas with its clear and readable presentation -- instructive but not school-bookish. If you think there's more to life than powdered iced-tea mixes -- or even if you don't -- this book will tell you the rest of the story of your favorite brew.

This book gives U.S. coffee lovers hundreds of recipes with which to become coffee'd out! I particularly found the section on espresso, as well as Cappuccino, good. In Australia we have always had a strong coffee culture, based largely on the European experience, and therefore most of the recipes here will remain untried by me.
The book should interest most American coffee lovers with all those flavour variations for their coffee, and for all other coffee lovers, this book will be fun to own as a keepsake and curio on coffee.

My husband and I found this book a delight when wanting something other than plain coffee. With the variety of sugar-free syrups out there now, one can enjoy some of the most decadent cups of 'dessert' available with little affect to the waistline. If you enjoy coffee, cappuccino and/or espresso, you will likely use this book often.

The size is perfect for a quick kitchen reference book. The format is user friendly and has a certain charm. It is not the best guide for begining cappuccino makers as the directives are vague regarding how to make the perfect cup of expresso. As the book points out itself, in order to get a perfect cappuccino, you must first brew a perfect expresso. Overall, I enjoyed the recipes and like the fact that cold drinks were included for the warmer months. The price makes it an easy addition to any kitchen that has an expresso machine.

Coffee is a brown beautiful color.Ink is black set to a white back ground in books for a very good reason.If I had known the printing in this book was a light brown color that is hard to read I would not have wasted my time or money.This may be a very good book but I will never know.Keep the color in the coffee and your hands off the ink.I have the fifth edition.

Through his three books and informative website (...), Ken Davids is a leading expert on coffees of the world. He is also the green bean guru to home coffee roasters everywhere and it is primarily for them this book was designed. For anyone exploring the many pleasures of roasting their own beans, Davids is the only comprehensive guide available, which makes it particularly maddening that the book hasn't been updated in five years. When Davids wrote the book in 1996, home coffee roasting was beginning its rebirth. Today, the sorts of inexpensive, easy-to-use home roasters he long for in the book are finally available but not covered. A quick update could correct information on roaster availability (it's easier than you think, and easier than he says), and sources for unroasted beans (some of his are out of date, and some good ones aren't noted at all). Still, if you want to get started with home roasting, this remains the best book to own. And if you just love coffee, it's a fine second or third book to put on the shelf. But if you love coffee enough to buy a book about it, you really should explore roasting your own beans -- the flavors and fun of it are incomparable.

COFFEE : A Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying. Fifth Edition. By Kenneth Davids. 279 pp. New York : St. Martin's Griffin,
2001. ISBN 0-312-24665-X (pbk).

This is a book for those who, after years of slurping what all too often passes for 'coffee,' and what far too many establishments continue to pretend is 'coffee,' have been blessed by a coffee epiphany. It is for those, in other words, who have finally realized what a sensuous, ravishing, and complete experience a perfect cup of _real_ coffee is, and who would like to learn how to duplicate that experience at will in the comfort of their own home. Brewing up a cup of coffee may seem to most of us to be a relatively simple matter, but what we quickly learn from this book is that, far from being simple, selecting the right type, form, and state of coffee and correctly employing the methods that will produce that perfect cup demand real knowledge and skill; we learn, in short, that a true understanding of coffee opens up an area of connoisseurship every bit as big, or even bigger, than that of wine itself.

Davids' book is truly comprehensive. Besides giving us a fairly detailed history of coffee, from its origins in Arabia (or Ethiopia) through to its latest manifestation in the flavored espressos of the modern mall, the book includes chapters on Buying It, Tasting It, Roasting It, Grinding It, Brewing It, and Serving It. Detailed information is given on the special qualities and characteristics of all coffees of the many regions of the world which produce it (Guatemala; Honduras; Costa Rica; Jamaica; Puerto Rico; Haiti; Colombia; Peru; Brazil; Yemen; Ethiopia; Kenya; Uganda; India; Sumatra; Java; New Guinea; Hawaii, etc.), and on the merits and demerits of the many different methods of brewing and the best utensils for each of them (Open-Pot; French Press or Plunger; Drip Brewing (both with and without filters); Flip-Drip or Neapolitan Macchinetta; Pumping Percolator (now passe and the best way to ruin coffee); Filter-Drip, automatic and otherwise; Concentrate; Middle Eastern or Turkish; Soluble or Instant, etc.). There is also a very full discussion of espresso and just why it produces the ultimate cup.

If you are anything like me you'll quickly realize that you have been doing many things wrong and will be seized with the urge, not only to start using better coffee, but also to start brewing it properly. Although acquiring your very own roasting machine or espresso machine may be a little too ambitious for most of us, you may decide that bringing your coffee at least one stage closer to perfection by buying a grinder and grinding the beans yourself is probably a good idea. If you do so decide, Davids will inform you just why a manual is preferable to an electric grinder (it generates less of the heat that disperses the volatile substances that give flavor to coffee), and where you can buy a good grinder if one isn't locally available. His book, besides containing much else (coffee chemistry, maps, photographs, coffee glossary, etc.), concludes with a list of companies which sell a wide range of the best coffees and coffee paraphernalia and equipment.

There are few perfect pleasures in life. Davids is to be thanked for teaching us how not to spoil one of them.