Put your local coffee bar to the test with Coffee Basics!

With thousands of coffee bars and restaurants serving an endless variety of blends, roasts, and brews, ordering a specialty coffee drink has become as daunting a task as selecting a fine wine. How can you distinguish between great coffee and great hype? Read Coffee Basics.

Kevin Knox and Julie Sheldon Huffaker have filled this handy reference with hundreds of industry truths and trade secrets. You'll learn the fundamentals of coffee buying, brewing, and tasting; and develop an aficionado's ability to see beyond the expensive trappings of today's coffee explosion. You'll discover:

• The basic coffee facts: its origin, history, and many varieties
• Step-by-step methods for selecting, roasting, blending, and flavoring coffee "to taste"
• A coffee taster's glossary
• Simple charts showing grind progression, relative grinding times, and regional characteristics
• The scoop on decaffeinated, organic, and espresso beans
• Specialty coffee recipes
• Lists of the best sources for beans and professional equipment

Whether you make coffee at home or at a fine restaurant, Coffee Basics offers a bottomless cup of brewing knowledge and drinking pleasure.

An A-to-Z guide to making it in your own specialty coffee business!

Expert tips, tricks, and a gold mine of crucial how-to information you just can't find anywhere else—learn how to:

• Get started in business for as little as $15,000
• Secure the optimum location
• Get the financing that best suits your goals
• Buy, use, and maintain equipment
• Find and deal with suppliers
• Market your espresso business with little or no capital
• Brew delicious, high-quality coffee drinks that keep customers coming back for more
• Hire and manage personnel
• And much more

Espresso! also arms you with sample business forms, leases, and contracts; worksheets and checklists for planning, opening, and running day-to-day operations; sample menus; coffee drink recipes; inventory lists; plans and layouts; and dozens of other valuable, time-saving tools of the trade that no espresso entrepreneur should be without.