Reddit reviews Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry

Hey there. I'll give you a little summary of what I think most people on here will tell you in response to your questions.

Books: Blue Bottle ,Coffee Comprehensive and Uncommon Grounds are all good books to cover most of coffee and its processes.

This Capresso Infinity is considered a pretty decent burr grinder for the price. It will not do espresso but will be good enough for most other coffee brewing methods.

Getting a set up that is acceptable for "real" espresso is kind of expensive. A Gaggia classic is considered the bare minimum espresso machine for a "real" espresso. A Baratza Virtuoso is considered bare minimum for a decent espresso grinder. Now, you can (and many people do) find these items used, which obviously reduces the cost greatly. But depending on your area, finding these items up on craigslist or similar sites can be pretty rare.

I'm not from Rhode Island, but googling local roasters will provide some results. As for online ordering, tonx, blue bottle and stumptown are favorites around here for their price and quality. Beans are broken down on what region they came from, how they were processed and how dark they are roasted. Each region has different flavor profiles in their beans. African beans are known for being more fruity than other beans, for example. A little warning, most people on this subreddit believe Starbuck's espresso roast coffee to be too dark. However, many of Starbuck's light/Medium roast coffees have been reviewed as pretty decent. Most websites that sell the beans will list a flavor profile of the beans. The basic saying on this subreddit is that if you have crappy beans, no matter what, your coffee will be crappy. If you are going to overspend anywhere in the process, overspend on quality beans.

The espresso machines that you will be using at starbucks are machines that will basically produce espresso at the push of a button. They will grind, tamp and extract the espresso without any input from you. You should just know right off the bat that there is a whole other world to espresso making that is the exact opposite, with people grinding the beans to the right size, tamping by hand, and extracting shots with a lever that controls pressure. Neither way is right or wrong, you should just know that there are many different types of espresso machines and baristas.

I'll share a little bit of advise, take from it what you will. I was an ambitious college student coffee drinker just like you. I asked for a Breville espresso machine as my first real coffee making device (even before a grinder, how silly of me). I just wanted an espresso machine because that was all I was getting from these coffee shops. Since then I've gotten a nice grinder, a melitta pour over, french press, gooseneck kettle, aeropress, V60, moka pot, and chemex. I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't turned on my espresso machine in over a year. There is so much more to coffee than espresso. There are so many methods to brew coffee that are cheaper, more complex and more interesting. If I had a chance to do it all over again, I'd buy the burr grinder I linked, and an Aeropress or any french press (Starbucks sells some pretty nice ones. You could get one with an employee discount) and just learn to love coffee on its own, without frothed milk and flavorings.

There is a ton of info on this subreddit if you stick around for awhile. Questions like yours are posted all the time and answered by very knowledgable people. Your enthusiasm for coffee is extremely exciting to see. Please don't let any of my advise subtract from your enthusiasm. Everyone takes a different path while exploring coffee. That's part of the excitement. You will learn a lot at Starbucks and you will learn a lot if you stay here. Enjoy your stay.

Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry is a great resource. More technical than many other books, but not prohibitive to a hobbyist.

-All of Scott Rao's books, including the Espresso e-book.

-Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/046501836X?pc_redir=1412274560&robot_redir=1

-Coffee: A Comprehensive guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1442214406?pc_redir=1411853065&robot_redir=1

-The World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffman
http://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/products/the-world-atlas-of-coffee

-Coffee: Growing, Processing, Sustainable Production by Jean Nicolas Wintgens
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/3527332537?pc_redir=1413970300&robot_redir=1

Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry Published in 2013 by a Miami University professor who runs a small coffee shop that roasts, in Oxford, OH. This book is a wonderful resource for all things coffee: cultivation, roasting, preparing, the industry and many other aspects, etc. I was fortunate to know Dr. Thurston and can tell you he is extremely knowledgeable about coffee, among other things.

Altitude is only indirectly responsible for high quality, the direct reason is temperatures. Arabica attains a higher quality when it is grown at cool, stable year-round temperatures, and it can never frost. Where are these conditions found? Generally, at high elevation, near the equator. There are exceptions, for instance Hawaii is further from the equator than many other coffee regions, and there specialty coffee is often produced at significantly lower elevations.

Source: multiple authors within this book