--- title: Coffee & Barista Skills description: Specialty coffee is a craft from bean to cup. You will learn brewing methods and ratios, espresso and milk, grinding and water, tasting, and how to improve your coffee at home or behind a bar. category: trades-crafts subcategory: cooking-and-culinary difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/coffee-and-barista-skills --- # Coffee & Barista Skills Specialty coffee is a craft from bean to cup. You will learn brewing methods and ratios, espresso and milk, grinding and water, tasting, and how to improve your coffee at home or behind a bar. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 2 Websites • 1 Papers ## Papers ### 1. Systematically Improving Espresso: Insights from Mathematical Modeling and Experiment **Author:** Michael I. Cameron, Christopher H. Hendon, William T. Lee et al. Peer-reviewed model plus experiment showing that coarser grinds and smaller doses yield more reproducible, less wasteful espresso than the conventional fine-and-full approach. Explains channelling and why an identical recipe drifts shot to shot. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://pages.uoregon.edu/chendon/publications/2020/74.%20Matter,%20Espresso%20extraction.pdf **Tags:** espresso, extraction-modeling, grind-size, channeling, coffee-science ## Websites ### 1. SCA Coffee Standards and Coffee Value Assessment protocols The Specialty Coffee Association's published standards, including the Coffee Value Assessment protocols for sample preparation, tasting mechanics, descriptive and affective assessment. These free PDFs define the cupping vocabulary and scoring the trade uses. Equipment certification standards require membership. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://sca.coffee/research/coffee-standards **Tags:** coffee-cupping, coffee-value-assessment, sensory-evaluation, specialty-coffee-standards ### 2. Coffee ad Astra **Author:** Jonathan Gagné Jonathan Gagné's research blog on brewing, publishing experiments with data on water recipes, grind distribution, filter papers, extraction yield control charts, and specific V60 and espresso recipes. Posts show methods and raw measurements rather than conclusions alone. It is the working notebook behind the book, so it stays current and shows the data. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://coffeeadastra.com/ **Tags:** coffee-science, brew-water-chemistry, extraction-yield, pour-over, grind-distribution ## Books ### 1. The Physics of Filter Coffee **Author:** Jonathan Gagné Astrophysicist's treatment of percolation, extraction kinetics, particle size distributions and fines, water chemistry, filter papers, kettle and brewer geometry. Uses measurement and modelling to test common brewing claims, and ends with concrete recipe recommendations for pour-over. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578246082?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** filter-coffee, pour-over, extraction-kinetics, brew-water-chemistry, coffee-science ### 2. The World Atlas of Coffee (3rd edition) **Author:** James Hoffmann Reference covering coffee species and varieties, growing regions, harvesting and processing methods, roasting, and brewing, with country-by-country profiles. Covers the 'bean' half of bean-to-cup that brewing guides skip — variety, terroir, processing, roast — which is what turns recipe-following into tasting judgement. The third edition adds chapters on decaffeination and steep-and-release brewers. Useful for understanding why beans taste as they do. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1784729868?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** coffee-origins, coffee-varieties, coffee-processing, coffee-roasting, coffee-brewing ### 3. How To Make The Best Coffee At Home **Author:** James Hoffmann Practical manual covering grinders, water, dose and ratio, and step-by-step method for French press, AeroPress, pour-over, moka pot and home espresso, plus milk drinks and cold brew. Written for people choosing and using equipment rather than tasting professionally. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1784727245?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** home-coffee-brewing, brew-ratio, pour-over, home-espresso, coffee-grinders, cold-brew ## Youtubes ### 1. Lance Hedrick (YouTube channel) **Author:** Lance Hedrick Working barista and two-time Coffeefest latte art champion explains espresso dialling-in, puck preparation, milk texturing and latte art, grinder alignment, and pour-over technique. Videos are long, detailed, and aimed at people running the same equipment at home or on bar. Fills the hands-on espresso-and-milk gap Hoffmann covers more lightly. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@LanceHedrick **Tags:** espresso-dialing-in, puck-preparation, milk-texturing, latte-art, grinder-alignment ### 2. James Hoffmann (YouTube channel) **Author:** James Hoffmann Video channel from the 2007 World Barista Champion covering brewing technique for V60, AeroPress and espresso, grinder and water variables, equipment testing, and coffee origin. Includes long-form technique guides and repeated blind comparisons of gear and methods. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann **Tags:** coffee-brewing-technique, v60-pour-over, aeropress, home-espresso, coffee-equipment-reviews, brewing-water --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/coffee-and-barista-skills