Hello my dear friends...
In this post, i want to share about the book i've recently read. The title of the book are The Essentials Of Coffee Brewing by Willy Sidewalk. I must say that this is not the type of book that i've usually read. This post is more like a recap of the information i've gathered through this book rather than a proper review as i dont think that im qualified to make a review because i dont have enough knowledge through this matter. First of all, i want to share about the story behind me and this book. I've been visiting coffee shop a lot because i need a comfortable space to write and i need the power of coffee to powering me through my writing session. After I've finished my writing, i get an idea to look around the book section they have in this coffee shop. Apparently, they have a lot of books about coffee. I picked two of the most interesting one and here i will write about the one i like the most between the two. I dont even remember the title of the other book. The book was a lil bit too advanced for someone whom always asked for barista recommendation while ordering their coffee like me. While this book on the other hand, very light to read and i even ended up getting to know some interesting informations about coffee and the art of coffee brewing.
This book is written by a professional in coffee world in Indonesia. I know that i must sounds so stupid saying that but to be honest, i dont know what to call someone whom interacted profesionally with coffee. I believe that he used to be Barista too. He also write a lot in a blog about coffee. Before writing this book, he released another famous book called Barista No Cingcong. I have never read that book before but if i have the chance to read it, i willl surely try to read it eventhough from what i've read in the review that the other book is for Barista. I bet that i dont have any business reading it since i might not able to understand it properly. Willy called his reder "pendekar kopi" which means "coffee warrior". I think that make a nickname for your reader is very smart as it can help to grow the bonds between the writer and the reader. its like having a secret code with someone close to you.
The main content of this book is about the manual brewing technique he learnt for years because he thinks that barista in here (especially the new one) need a more competent reference to deliver the ogic and science behind coffee brewing. I've heard about coffee brewing as a form of art before, but this is the first time that i've hears that there's a science behind it too. I know that when we wan to look into the bigger perspective, almost everything (if not everything) in this world is related to scince. In this book, he also said that coffee brewing is the mix between art and coffee and i think that its beautiful to presenting coffee brewing that way.
There're many ways of coffee brewing and every places has its own signaure way of doing it. For Indonesian people itself, the most simple way are with using the kopi tubruk technique, and then as time goes by the other's country signature technique started to be introduced and used as variation. For the example of those development over time are the infamous coffee drip vietnam and many other's brewing technique. In this book, there’s a chapter full of each barista way of brewing their coffee, like in the picture i attached. Reading them alone is interesting and it makes me want to watch them prepare it.
This lovely lady is Erna Knutsen and she is the mother of specialty coffee.
There’re few quotes here and there in the book and i choose this one as my most favorite one. I am no barista and i dont have any plan to be a barista but i think that this quote can be applied to someone whom trying to find their favorite cup of coffee like me.