How much do you really know about coffee? In this podcast by Science & The City, Andrea Illy, chairman of illycaffe S.p.A. discusses the chemistry and technology that produce a great cup of coffee. It’s almost an hour long, but definitely worth a listen.

I often get confused about all the milky concoctions that pretend to be coffee drinks. For example, what exactly is the difference between cafe latte and a cappuccino? Lokesh Dhakar claims to be new to the world of “fancy coffee drinks”. He’s made a very useful illustrated guide to coffee drinks. It makes it very easy to understand what goes into each drink, and what proportions of each ingredient are used. There’s also a pronunciation guide, so you can order your coffee with confidence.

The illustration above is an example of Caffé Mocha.

Coffee

Coffee High Speed Photography

We all know that good coffee is hard to find. Making good coffee at home will definitely save you money, but how do you make sure that the quality is the same (or at least almost the same) as what you find at your favourite cafe or coffee shop? One of the key ingredients to great coffee is freshness. Ideally, you want to grind coffee beans yourself at home, as close as possible to consumption. Even better, if you could roast coffee beans yourself! Which brings us to the question, “How to roast my own coffee beans?”

It won’t cost you big bucks or a lot of effort to roast your own coffee at home.. The folks at GourmetCoffeeShop.net have compiled a great resource on home coffee roasting. They discuss different techniques of coffee roasting, including campfire coffee roasting and home coffee roasting using the stovetop, oven and even a popcorn popper!

Coffee Home Roasting

This is an interesting short video. It demonstrates how to make hearts, leaves and rabbits on coffee.

[ via MAKE ]

Coffee Art

Mike Rohde and his wife designed Coffee 2006: A Calendar for Coffee Lovers. Mike is a good designer (he often shares his sketches and ideas on his blog) and the calendar looks great. The calendar makes a great gift for the coffee lover in your family (or even yourself!).

The calendar is available for sale at Cafe Press for US$16.99.

Coffee 2006 Calendar

Chris of Locust St. has a very insightful article on songs about coffee. The range of songs is quite diverse : from Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee” to “Cappuccino” by MC Lyte.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy the article – it’s very well written and there’s a lot of commentary to each song.

Coffee Music

Feast your eyes on these works of beauty – they are almost too beautiful to drink! These are international entries to the Latte Art 2005 Championship held in the Netherlands.

Coffee Latte Art

Love or hate Starbucks, it’s practically there everywhere you go. Starbucks Gossip is a blog that covers everything Starbucks – and it’s a lot more than you think! Perhaps most interesting are stories of customers in Starbucks cafes. Do you have a story to tell about Starbucks?

Coffee Starbucks

Starting from January this year, Lloyd Y Asato has documented every single cup of coffee that he has drunk. To date, he’s at 851 cups this year. Now that’s commitment. Catch his caffeinated adventures at The Year of Coffee Blog.

Since it’s still early November, Lloyd’s well on track to a 1000 cups this year.