Upon first hearing of the upcoming release of this book by renowned barista and coffee mind James Hoffmann (Twitter), I immediately went to Amazon looking for an ‘eBook’ version, which, had one been available, I would most likely have purchased (or at least pre-ordered, as the title is published in October 2014) there and then.

However the more I think about it, the more I realise a collection of electronic pages would not do the subject matter of The World Atlas of Coffee justice. Whilst it is not my intent to dismiss the eBook format, my point is simply this, coffee is such an organic and sensory product, I feel it would be a shame to read about it without holding a physical, hard copy of this book in your hands. I simply believe it would add to the reading (read, my) experience.

The content of the book? From Amazon:

Taking the reader on a global tour of coffee-growing countries, The World Atlas of Coffee presents the bean in full-color photographs and concise, informative text. It shows the origins of coffee – where it is grown, the people who grow it; and the cultures in which coffee is a way of life – and the world of consumption – processing, grades, the consumer and the modern culture of coffee.

I have mentioned on one or two occasions before that James Hoffmann’s blog is one I especially enjoy reading, noting I am the typical end consumer, with a viewpoint decidedly external to the industry itself. For that reason, I was particularly happy to read the following from Hoffmann himself referring to the content of the upcoming book:

More than both of this, I wanted to write something for all our customers – the people who go out and buy, brew, drink and enjoy coffee every day. I believe that understanding something more can make it more enjoyable, and I wanted to make more of coffee accessible rather than make it more mysterious and exclusive. I want to help people to understand what they like, explore what they don’t know yet, and feel more confident in the somewhat intimidating world of specialty coffee.

At the end of the day, is there anything better than a coffee table book about coffee? Why of course, a high quality coffee table book about coffee.