Why am I passionate about this?
Coffee was a hobby that went off the rails. I moved to Hawai‘i to study coffee horticulture in graduate school and became a generalist coffee scientist by the end of it. My coffee library contains over 100 books, and it is incomplete! I approach coffee as an academic, but I’ve owned some retail companies that have taught me to talk and think about coffee in a way that doesn’t scare people off. Coffee is what I love, and I love talking about it with other people.
Shawn's book list on coffee books by academics that anyone can understand
Why did Shawn love this book?
I love this book because it captures the experience of coffee tasting as it really happens and explores it from a social science perspective. What I love most about the book, though, is how much I disagree with some of its content; it is wonderful to love someone’s perspective and effort without always seeing eye to eye. Reader beware: the first part of the book is heavily academic, but it clears out and eventually becomes easy reading.
1 author picked Tasting Coffee as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Draws upon the situated work of professional coffee tasters in over a dozen countries to shed light on the methods we use to convert subjective experience into objective knowledge.
- Coming soon!