Coffee Culture, A Coffee Lover’s Bible… Another Mapstudio GiveAway…

I told you all that we would have a GiveAway every single week throughout the month of November. Our Road tripping GiveAway is closed, we will announce the winner soon. This week we bring Coffee Culture: The South African Coffee-Lover’s Bible.

For many of us the day only begins after we have had our first cup of coffee, and lets face it some days require two. Earlier in the year the father person and I did a recognisance of all coffee shops in our area, looking for the best possible coffee we could find – and the best coffee includes, fine service, a good atmosphere… and a sigh of contentment when you taste it. We set our standards high and had to endure some shockers. Honestly, where was this book when we needed it.

The book is in written in two parts, the first part explains the story behind your coffee and the second part of the book tells you where to get the best of the rest:

• The Buying, Drinking and Making of Coffee: This part of the book is for everyone anywhere, and is a coffee lovers dream. Details and facts, the story behind your morning cup of coffee… The history of coffee, where your beans come from, and the people and processes involved. It makes for a fascinating read to discover who drinks coffee around the world, and how they drink it. There are plenty of tips on how to taste your coffee and how to enjoy it. Not only that, but coffee machinery is explained in detail, the ins and outs, the good and the bad… and the the best way to extract your coffee from the beans. There is a whole section on what to order, the special lingo of the coffee industry, what to expect from your order and how to rate it. This section is really a coffee lovers dream, it is easy to read, with lots of infographics, and blocks of information… you will come away equipped with a good working knowledge of what to expect from all that is coffee.

• The A to Z of South African Coffee Shops: The second part of the book is dedicated to bringing us over a hundred of the best coffee spots throughout South Africa, sorted by province and maps are provided. You know, when you are on the road and absolutely desperate for a real coffee, this book is equipped with all the info that you need to know. Each coffee shop comes with location details, contact details, opening hours and a website. For each store there are details for the coffee fundi: The owner, the barista, any coffee awards, the vibe, the coffee, and a coffee review. It’s a Mapstudio book, you can expect the information to be detailed and organised, not to mention beautifully photographed. The photographs really do set the scene, and help to define the vibe – the funky coffee next to a gallery, the township coffee… all the coffees have been tried and tested, and reviewed in detail. There are tips and tweaks to add to your order, and each coffee is ranked from good to extraordinary. There are even tips on how to review your coffee, according to the World Barrista Championship Judges’ Protocol. And for those of you who are not looking for a coffee shop at all, but something a little closer to home, there is a list of bean and equipment suppliers in the back.

Coffee lovers everywhere will enjoy this book, it is packed with useful and interesting information, I am not surprised that it has the sub-title: The South African Coffee-Lover’s Bible. You will come away from reading it better equipped and more informed about all things coffee, which can only bring a little more enjoyment to a freshly ground cup.

We have a copy of Coffee Culture to GiveAway to our readers.

We love it when our readers leave us comments, so to enter… leave us a comment: Tell us where in the world you have had the best coffee ever… For those of you who are following, we will plot your trips on our map… which is looking fantastic and worthy of it’s own post!!!

This GiveAway works in the usual way, leave a comment before the end of Sunday, 23 November 2014. We will draw and publish the winners after that. I won’t respond to your comments as we do on our other posts because we don’t want to be included in our own giveaway. Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away. Postage takes forever from here but eventually it should get to you! Good luck and happy commenting!!!

We would like to thank MapStudio who supplied us with a copy of this book to review. We were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed in it are as usual, entirely our own.