The Professional Barista's Handbook

Helps you get the basics straight !

I haven’t finished the book yet, but I’m really enjoying it so far. I like the scientific approach Scott takes while writing, I feel like I have a much better understanding of why everything is happening. I don’t even brew espresso at home, but I’m still loving this book as its a great read for anyone interested in the coffee world and is interested in the science behind brewing great espresso (and coffee in general)

Amazing book on how espresso is made.
Great insights on how to prepare espresso as well as tuning it.
Recommended for people starting to get into espresso.

An extremely well laid out and thorough reference book that's also interesting to read and beautiful to look at.

Since COVID has happened, I wanted to take the extra spare time to learn more about the art of making coffee and learn what it takes to become a professional barista. I'm happy I purchased this book because it's straight to the point and easy to follow, many of the topics are detailed enough to understand the technical aspects and even come with diagrams or pictures on the analytics and methods to the various techniques of brewing coffee.

This book transformed my espresso brewing experience. The testing notes are so clear and the method so much more consistent. All thanks to the perfect balance of theory and practical advice.

This short book is extremely well written and informative.

A lot of these ideas concerning grinding, tamping, and extracting have been expressed elsewhere, at least in part. To be fair, many of the other commentators's words were based on Rao's own research. Here he brings all the topics together and provides a single, overarching viewpoint.

The sections on brewed coffee and tea are extremely short and not of the same degree of value.