VOL.69/2024.04

 

[Book × Coffee]

Everything About Coffee We Love

 

2024.01.02

 

 

Koreans are known worldwide for their love of coffee. Earlier last year, Agence France-Presse (AFP) published a feature on “Koreans’ love of coffee,” introducing the word Eoljukah (meaning iced americano even though I freeze to death). Explaining that Koreans drink iced americano even in the middle of winter, the story captured the attention of the world by highlighting their love of coffee in all seasons. Korea’s coffee market has already grown to become the third largest in the world. According to a survey, the market for coffee shops in Korea is about $4.3 billion (in terms of sales), which is the third largest after the US and China. Overall, coffee consumption also ranks seventh in the world, behind major developed countries such as the US, Germany, and Japan. Along with this increase in coffee consumption, interest in coffee is also growing. It is estimated that more than 2 million people have acquired coffee-related certifications since the first barista certification exam was conducted in 2005.
The growing interest in coffee has brought with it a greater diversity of content. Until the late 2000s, there were only about a dozen titles about coffee. It wasn’t until the 2010s that the number of coffee-related books began to explode, thanks to the efforts of various writers. Most of the books published during this period were in the form of “generalist” books, covering A-Z of the topics and focusing on providing a holistic understanding of coffee. Starting in the 2020s, books that explore more specialized and detailed areas began to appear. More specialized content, such as introductions to coffee, cupping, roasting, home café, brewing, and hand drip, emerged, providing both theory and abundant technical references.
Experimental data and new technical terms, which were mainly sourced from foreign translations, have recently been largely replaced by Korean standards. Nevertheless, the cupping process, which is used to evaluate the taste and scent of coffee, and the roasting process, which literally means roasting coffee beans, still use the standards and terminology of foreign institutions that systematized them academically. Despite this situation, Korean coffee people have published many easy-to-understand and detailed books for hobbyists and majors. Here are some of the representative books in each field about coffee for those who are new to coffee or want to study it in depth.

 

For Those of You New to Coffee

 

 

It is an era where people dream of owning their own cafe. Understanding the various extraction tools is essential to mastering coffee. In my book Coffee & Barista (Youngjin.com), I explain the history, structure, and characteristics of brewing tools, from historic tools that have been loved for a long time to newly developed ones. Coffee brewing tools can be categorized into filter, infusion, press, and boiling types, depending on the method. The filter method involves brewing coffee through a strainer. The infusion method involves simmering the coffee, the press method involves pressurizing the coffee, and the boiling method involves adding coffee to boiling water. These four methods of brewing coffee are categorized in this book, providing plenty of photo and video examples of how to use over 30 different coffee brewing tools.
Unlike other books, this one focuses on the essentials of coffee brewing tools at the beginning to help readers understand them better. From the middle, the book moves on to explain how to roast coffee at home, brewing theories, coffee cups, how to find good coffee, coffee stories, and menu recipes. It is a comprehensive book for home cafes that focuses on helping readers enjoy and experience the specialty of coffee baristas at home. It was the first Korean coffee book to be translated into Chinese and published in Taiwan, garnering a lot of attention.

 

Want to know how coffee flavors are rated?

 

 

Published in 2021, Kim Gil-Jin’s Cupping Bible (IB Line) was written with the idea of how to make coffee a common, more objectified experience for people with different perceptions of coffee. The flavor scale for coffee was developed by the Specialty Coffee Association and is now like a common language around the world. However, it is not easily accessible to everyone because of its specialist nature, and it can only be understood by spending a lot of time and money studying for a Q-grader or coffee analyst course at a specialized training center. However, this book breaks down the sporadic yet relatively simple translations of flavors and breaks them down into detailed categories by presenting two versions of the Flavor Wheel.
The Cupping Bible begins with an understanding of the chemical structure of coffee beans, followed by a detailed description of defective beans and processing methods, a glossary of coffee flavor and Flavor Wheel terms, and a thorough cupping protocol. When evaluating coffee flavor, it is important to objectify the perceived flavor so that there is not even one percent of subjectivity involved. It takes a lot of trial and error and repetitive training for anyone to be able to objectify coffee flavors. However, the existing flavor evaluation methods, which have been translated and used in fragments, have limitations. Here, instead of the subjective and universal expressions that have been used so far, this book provides a system for fully understanding each item on the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) Flavor Wheel, the world’s common flavor language.

 

Now, it’s time to talk about the different varieties of coffee

 

 

Coffee varieties are a crucial part of understanding the flavor and scent of coffee, but there’s relatively less information and more inaccurate information than in other areas such as brewing and roasting. Lee Jong-Hoon’s Coffee Variety (Penciandmug) is a book that fills this gap. Early on, coffee went by many names as it spread, causing confusion. It wasn’t until the mid-1900s that the study of varieties began in earnest, and the decline in production due to coffee diseases served as a critical turning point in the recognition of the importance of coffee varieties and the improvement of people’s awareness of them. Coffee varieties have become a highly interconnected topic, not only in the rapidly developing specialty coffee market, but also in addressing the challenges facing the coffee industry, from global warming and climate change, which are currently the biggest threats to the world. Coffee varieties are so much more than just an ingredient - they relate to so many parts of the coffee industry, from the producers on the farms that grow the coffee to the baristas who serve the finished product to consumers.
According to a study conducted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK (2019), 75 of the world’s 124 wild coffee species are endangered by climate change and are at risk of disappearing by 2040. Moreover, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Biodiversity Risk Scale, 13 of the 75 species were categorized as Critically Endangered, 40 as Endangered, and 22 as Vulnerable. The researchers predicted that if global warming continues to increase temperatures, coffee production is expected to drop by 40 to 50 percent by 2038, and that Arabica and Robusta, which account for about 90 percent of global coffee production, will be extinct by 2040. In order to respond to these environmental changes, the diversity of coffee varieties must be preserved. Research and basic knowledge of coffee varieties is necessary to find varieties that are resistant to climate change, pests, and diseases, and to ensure the long-term development of the coffee industry. Coffee varieties are the link between the past, present, and future of the coffee market and the key to solving the challenges facing the coffee industry in this era.

 

Roasting brings coffee to life

 

 

Roasting brings coffee to life. Before roasting, coffee beans are just a mass of carbohydrates, but when they are heated and roasted, they take on nearly 2,000 different aromas and so many flavors that the human senses can’t distinguish them all. Today, 4 out of 10 cafe starters in Korea choose to open a roastery cafe where they roast their own coffee. This is because, unlike in the past, when franchised cafes were commonplace, more people have come to realize that the flavor of coffee depends on the skill and style of the roaster. However, roasting is not an easy job. It is something that you only get to know a little bit after you have roasted countless times. My book, Coffee Roasting & Artisan (Sidae_in), shares a variety of ways to make the time-consuming and laborious process of roasting more efficient.
This book analyzes coffee beans and categorizes them into types (Type A/B/C/D), and shows how to roast coffee for each type. It also explains how to successfully roast coffee and what to do when the roast profile is wrong, providing objective data to support its many years of know-how. The book also explains the currently popular roasting terms around the world with diagrams for better understanding. In the flavor section of the book, the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) flavor wheel, which was revised and published in 2016, is translated in full - the first to do so in Korea. In addition, the manual for the “Artisan” program, which records the roasting process, was analyzed to make it easier for anyone to use it.

 

Coffee machines every barista should know

 

 

Since its commercialization in 1901, espresso remains the most powerful drink of all time. The allure of a deep, rich sip of coffee began to spread across Europe as it became relevant to young, non-alcoholic drink consumers, and with the development of cities, it spread across the globe. Coffee machines, which have continued to improve over the course of the century, helped speed up the spread of espresso. In the late 1980s, Starbucks began to make a name for itself in Seattle, and espresso-based beverages began to dominate the world. Introduced to Korea in the late 1990s, espresso is still the market leader today. The machine that makes this drink is the coffee machine, or the “espresso machine.”
One of the first things an aspiring barista learns is how to operate a coffee machine. Unfortunately, few baristas know exactly how to maintain a coffee machine. This is partly due to the fact that most of the coffee machines used in Korean cafes (about 80% or more) are imports from Europe, such as Italy and Spain, and thus not easily accessible. In addition, the complexity of the machines, the fact that they are not widely available like home appliances, and the fact that they are expensive equipment are factors that reduce accessibility. The book Master of Coffee Machines (SEOUL COMMUNITY) by Choi Bum-Soo focuses on improving the understanding of coffee machines, which are often thought to be difficult to learn, from the internal structure to the working principle, the causes and countermeasures of malfunctions, and how to manage them, using detailed drawings and photographs. If you find technical terms like electricity and components intimidating, you can put the book down for a while. It’s a good idea to pick up the book again when you get really curious and just study what you need to know.

 

Opening my own cafe – what to know before you start

 

The coffee industry in Korea is a dynamic market, growing at an average annual rate of over 6%. The Koreans’ love for coffee is extraordinary, so much so that it is often referred to as an “early addiction to coffee and caffeine.” According to statistics on coffee consumption in each country as of 2020, France consumes 551 cups, Korea 367 cups, the US 327 cups, Japan 280 cups, and China 9 cups, while the global average is 161 cups. Korea ranks second in the world, more than double the global average, meaning that each Korean consumes an average of more than one cup of coffee per day, or more than 2.5 cups of coffee per day for adults aged 19 and older. In terms of the number of coffee shops per million people, Korea is by far the leader with 1,384, followed by Japan with 529, the UK with 386, the US with 185, and China with 71. Coffee is now more than just a food; it has become a habit. But we have been too indifferent to this drink. If you look at it with a little bit of interest, you will discover that there are all kinds of disciplines in coffee: biology, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, food engineering, and many more. So, if you want to succeed in starting your own cafe, a dream that everyone has at one time or another, I suggest you start with the knowledge and skills set by Korean coffee pioneers and build up a solid skillset.

 

 

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Written by Hwang Ho-Rim (Coffee Science)