The Coffeehouse Dictionary

 The scope of this document covers as much as I know about thecoffee-making and ordering process. Most of this is in the context of acommercial coffee bar (in my case, Starbucks store #871 in Belmont, MA,USA, where I worked for close to three years), but there is considerable overlap with your morning coffee routine.I do make the occasional disparaging joke; please understand that I intendonly to insult ;-)

It may be worth mentioning that at least at Starbucks, many of the slangterms are deprecated for one reason or another. I don't hold with thisparticular policy, but it should be acknowledged.

The Lexicon

- B -

barista -- The guy who makes the coffee.Italian for bartender, more or less, but in Englishexclusively means a coffeehouse bar operator. In this country baristais an occupation considered only slightly higher than burger flipper;in Italy it's a job with some respect. Of course, in Italy, almost allbaristas are men, too...

breve -- Indicates that the drink is made with half-and-half(as in dairy, not halfcaf coffee) instead of milk.

- C -

café -- The proper French spelling for coffee.

Café Au Lait -- A drink consisting of half milk, halfcoffee. More or less the same thing as the Caffe Misto and far more common;despite similarity of construction, this isnot the same thing asa Caffe Latte. Not even close. At least not the way I learned it. You can use either steamed or scalded milk for this, though the scalded milk may have a bit more of a caramelized taste to it.

caffè -- The proper Italian spelling for coffee.Note the grave accent on the è.

Caffè Americano -- More or less a cup of coffeethe long way around; consists of espresso and hot water. I imagine thisterm dates to the American occupation of Italy during WWII; I picture aGI ordering a "caffè" in a coffee bar somewhere and getting an espresso,then having it watered down to make it palatable. I'd appreciate a bitof corroboration on this...

Caffè Corretto -- An Italian term referring to coffeewith a shot of liquor; literally means "corrected coffee", if you mustknow. Loosely related to the notorious Irish Coffee (coffee with whiskeyand cream). Known in Spanish as El Carajillo and you really don't wantto know what that means if you don't already.

Caffè Cubano -- A heavily sweetenedshot of espresso. I make them at work by adding brown sugar directly tothe portafilter, but that's not the canonical way of doing it; a goodCuban cookbook will give you the correct technique.Carries a considerable head of crema.

Caffè Latte -- A drink made bypulling a shot of espressointo a cup and filling it up with steamed milk, topping it off withfoam. The quintessential product of an American coffee bar; Italianstend to prefer cappucinos and straight espresso.

Caffè Medici --A doppio pouredover chocolate syrup and orange peel, with whipped cream on top.Created at the Last Exit, a former espresso bar in Seattle, andapparently not well known outside.

Caffè Misto -- A drink made with half drip coffee,half steamed milk. The resulting drink is a slightly Italianized CaféAu Lait. As far as I know, Starbucks may be the only place (at least inthe United States) that uses this term in preference to the better knownau lait; feel free to correct me on this.

Caffè Mocha -- Essentially a latte with chocolatesyrup and often whipped cream. Often comes with whipped cream; Starbucksmakes a rather nauseating variant called a Mocha Valencia that involvesorange syrup and extra espresso to make it drinkable. Occasionally alsoreferred to as a Mocha Latte.

cap -- (slang) Cappuccino. Ubiquitous.

Cappuccino -- A coffee drink consisting of roughly equalparts of espresso, steamed milk, and milk foam. Can also be made dry orwet; a true cappuccino rarely has flavoring and almost never has whippedcream, cinnamon, or a cherry on top. Just get this through your head: thereis no such thing as cappuccino-flavored coffee.

Caramel Macchiato-- One of Starbucks' most famous drinks, the Caramel Macchiato is oneof those drinks that everyone wants to duplicate. Made hot and cold.Lookhere for a recipe.

Chai -- An Indian beverage (known more formally as chaimasala) that is essentially spiced black tea in milk. Has become quitepopular in recent years, and Starbucks sells Tazo's chai (mainlybecause they own them), which is quite good if a bit heavy on the blackpepper; Oregon Chai is another common brand. Madhur Jaffrey (the Indiancookbook author) has at least one book with a recipe from scratch. Ifyou want to make your own, common spices include coriander, ginger,star anise, and black pepper; steep with your favorite black or greentea and add steamed milk and honey.

coffee -- Nectar of the gods? Addictive stimulant drug? Publicutility up there with light, water and sewer? People who really like thestuff will say all of the above. What you need to know is that almost everybodydoesn't use enough of it when brewing; the proper measure is two tablespoons/10gper six-ounce cup. Too much, you get excessively strong coffee; too little,you get caffeinated turpentine. And no, I'm not saying this to get youto go buy more coffee.

Personally, I never drank a lot of coffee until I became a barista;these days, though, I can never quite tell whether I'm tired or not...

Cowboy Coffee -- Seldom seen in coffee bars, this iscoffee the old school way, boiled up similar to Turkish coffee on acampfire, with a crushed eggshell used to settle out the grounds.

crema -- When a shot of espresso is made, it comes outin threelayers. The bottom of the shot is referred to as the heart, and that'swhere most of the sediment is. The bulk of the shot is the body.However,on top there is usually a thin layer of golden-brown foam; this part,whichis what usually tempers the bitterness of a fresh shot of espresso, isknown as the crema.Interestingly, when Achille Gaggia invented the first piston-basedespresso maker, a lot of people considered the crema an impurity anddidn't want anything to do with it.

- D -

doppio -- Italian for double. Out of context, almost always refersto a double shot of espresso served as a drink. Compare solo.

double -- Two shots of espresso in a drink. And there'salso triple and quad; the overwhelming majority of people, though, willnever order more than four shots in any one drink thank God almighty inheaven above. There are FAA regulations against that...

dry -- Containing less milk than is typical; a dry cappuccinois essentially just espresso and foam.

- E -

Espresso -- An extremely strong method of brewing coffeethat involves forcing high-pressure hot water through finely ground, dark-roastedcoffee. The resulting shot actually has less caffeine than the typicalcup of regular drip coffee, despite what you may have heard.

Espresso Romano -- Espresso with atwist of lemon. This, despite the name, seems to be a purely Americanaffectation. It certainly isn't done in Italy.

- F -

flavored coffee -- Avoid it at all costs. You can do much betterjust getting a nice blend of Latin American beans (straight Colombian,Starbucks House Blend, Peet's Blend 101, and related coffees; I like to think of these as"tofu coffees" that just scream to be kicked up a notch) and adding flavoredsyrups or extracts. Lots of places do sell these, it's true, but if they'reusing bad coffee they're covering something up and if they're using goodcoffee they're wasting it. Starbucks doesn't touch the stuff.

frappe -- A drink made with ice cream and milk (and don't letanyone tell you otherwise :-) ). Also, strongly deprecated Starbucks slangfor a Frappucino (though in that sense usually spelled frap); also alsorefers to a popular Greek beverage (properly, frappé) made frominstant coffee, milk, ice and sugar that is probably a precursor to theFrappucino and similar drinks.

A quick explanation of the above wisecrack; inMassachusetts, we call what everyone else calls a milkshake a frappe.That's milk, ice cream, and syrup, blended. A milkshake is just milkand flavoring. I figure since we Massholes have about the best icecream in the country... :-)

Frappucino -- A Starbucks trademark for a blender drink thatcombines ice, extra-strength dark roast coffee, and a mixture of milk,cocoa, and sugar. The general idea (usually, however, in soft-serve orslush form) has also popped up as Dunkin Donuts' Coffee Coolatta, amongother variations, and is generally quite popular.

 Incidentally, I'm proud to say that the Frappucino, or at leastthename, is a Boston invention; the basic idea was inherited by Starbuckswhen they bought out The Coffee Connection in the process of moving intothe Boston area. The Coffee Connection is deeply missed, but Starbuckshas gone to great lengths to accommodated their customers, who were generallyaccustomed to a lighter roast than Starbucks'. If you want a taste of theold days, next time you hit a Starbucks in the Boston area try the Lightnoteor Starbucks Breakfast Blends. I'm not overfond of them, but they do seemto carry on the tradition.

French press -- Also known as a press pot and a plungerpot as well as a Melior, the company that first invented them (now partof a Danish manufacture called Bodum). May be a trademark. This deviceconsists of a glass or plastic pot and a filter attached to a plunger;the coffee, coarsely ground, is put into the bottom of the pot (2 tablespoons/10gper serving; no cheating), adding hot water at the rate of about six ouncesper serving, stirring to mix the grounds in, and then allowing to steepfor a period of time (standard is about four minutes). At the end of thattime, the filter-plunger is pushed down, separating the grounds from thecoffee liquid. The official party line at Starbucks is that this gets thebest flavor from the bean; I suspect gold filters do a very good job ofthis as well, but this is the way coffee tasters do it. Pressed coffeecan occasionally be rather gritty (and very strong), and cleaning the potcan be difficult (especially glass pots, which can be quite breakable,not to mention expensive). If you're sampling a new coffee, though, thisis the way to do it.

French Roast -- At Starbucks, at least, French Roast indicatesa coffee roast so dark that it destroys a good amount of the coffee's naturalflavor. The end result is an ashy, smoky flavor in the pot and coffee groundsthat look like model railroad coal dust.

I am personally not fond of French Roast coffee due to its burnt-outflavor profile, but it appears to be fairly popular around the Boston area.If I'm not mistaken, Trader Joe's (the bicostal semisupermarket with areasonably good specialty coffee selection) may go even darker with their ultradark Bay Blend Ultraroast.

- G -

gold filter -- A filter made with a fine metal (almostalways gold-plated) mesh and a plastic frame. Designed to replace paperfilters, since it's thought that metal interferes less with coffee flavorthan paper. It's traditional to grind coffee slightly coarser for a metalfilter than a paper one; no one really knows whether there's any real benefitto this.

granita -- A relative of theFrappucino,this term in an American coffee house usually refers to a sort of latteslush. Often served out of big swirling machines that resemble juicedispensers.

- H -

half-caf -- half-caffeinated, half-decaf. Synonyms includehalf-and-half and split shot.

harmless -- Seattle for decaf. Not so much heard around Boston,though.

Hot Chocolate -- Mentioned only so far as to say that the usualcoffeehouse recipe for hot chocolate is chocolate syrup and milk, usuallywith whipped cream on top. This tends to make a particularly sweet sortof beverage that likes a generous stirring up before drinking.

- I -

instant coffee -- Caffeinated beverage made by freeze-dryingthe life (and flavor) out of a pot of brewed coffee. Tends to be rathersour and unpleasant to those trained on coffeehouse coffee. IMHO its onlyreal use is in the odd dessert recipe; even then I'd say go with a shotof espresso and adjust liquids appropriately. (I once tried to brew a shotof espresso with Folger's Crystals to see what happened. This is an extremelybad idea; the end result rather resembled driveway sealant.)

- L -

latte -- Italian for milk; alsoshorthand for a CaffèLatte. You will occasionally see an accent over the e; this is amispeling. If you order this in Italy you will recieve merely a glassof milk.

lungo -- In this context, Italian for extended or large.Refers to either a long or watered-down (hopefully the latter) shot ofespresso.

- M -

macchiato -- /makija'to/ Italian for "marked". Unqualified,refers more or less to a shot of espresso with a topping of foam, sortof a minimalist dry cappucino. A latte macchiato is steamed milk with aristretto shot poured through the foam (at least at Starbucks); Starbucksalso makes a caramel macchiato, which is essentially an upside down vanillalatte with caramel syrup over the top. Also, the most frequently mispronouncedword on any coffeehouse menu.

Melior -- SeeFrench Press.

 Melitta -- A company named for the first name of the Germanhousewife (Melitta Bentz) who invented the drip coffeemaker; also a slangishterm (trademarked) for a manual drip coffeemaker consisting of a funnel,a filter, and a coffeepot. Operates by pouring hot water through the groundsin the funnel; the end result is basic drip-brewed coffee, pretty muchthe same as an automatic drip with maybe a bit more work.

Middle Eastern Coffee -- seeTurkish/Greek Coffee.

misto -- Italian for mixed; shorthand for a Caffe Misto.

 mocha -- Commonly refers to a mixture of coffee andchocolate;in a coffee house, it's usually used in the slightly restricted senseofa Caffè Mocha. Also refers to a specific type of Arabian or Ethiopian(where it's spelled Moka or Mocca) coffee with a pronounced acidic,fruityflavor (incidentally, Yemen Mocha Sanani is exceptionally good iced);thisis often combined with smoother, heavier-bodied coffees from Java (inIndonesia) to createthe well-known Mocha Java blend. To compound the confusion, a stovetopespresso pot (works on more or less the same principle as thepercolator,but without reboiling the coffee) is also known in Italian as a moka(originally,I'm told, a brand name). The connection between coffee/chocolate andthe former port of Al-Mukha in Yemen seems to have something to do withflavor similarities between coffee and chocolate.

Mochaccino -- Cappucino with chocolate syrup. Theproblem is that most people who come into Starbucks are thinking "mochaFrappucino"; this term should be considered obsolete.

- P -

panna -- Italian for whipped cream,sometimes unsweetened."Con Panna" indicates a drink with whipped cream added. Incidentally,at one time unsweetened whipped cream was the common practice atStarbucks; I don't know how common that is, and we now flavor it withvanilla syrup anyway.

percolator -- A room-freshening device designed to usecoffee grounds as the scent agent. Produces a spectacularly lovely smellin the room by reboiling water through the coffee grounds, but the brownliquid produced as a byproduct of this process should not be confused withbrewed coffee; it is considered unfit for human consumption.

portafilter -- An espresso machine operates somewhat like a dripmachine with a lot more pressure. The grounds, instead of being held ina basket, go into a small container with an insulated handle called a portafilter,which contains an insert with a grid of tiny holes in it. The coffee (groundalmost to a powder) is put in the insert and tamped down, and the portafilteris inserted into a holding bracket and turned to a locking position. Thewater is blasted under pressure into the portafilter and through the coffeegrounds, draining through the holes in the insert. The end result is ashot (or two) of espresso. The insert is usually securely locked into thefilter with a spring, allowing the barista to empty it by whacking it againsta bar that stretches across the top of something called a knock box insteadof having to gouge out the hot grounds with a spoon or finger.

- R -

Raktajino -- Not actually a coffeehouse term, and only a diehardTrekker barista will understand it, but according to Marc Okrand, who inventedthe Klingon language for Star Trek III and ought to know about these thingsa raktajino (a portmanteau of two Klingon words meaning "warrior's knife"and the word cappucino) is sort of a cappucino or latte spiked with Klingonbloodwine and served appropriately hot. I suspect brandy or red wine mightbe an appropriate substitute; YMMV and don't try to get me to drink thedamn thing.

Redeye -- (slang) A regular dripcoffee with a shot ofespresso. Meant strictly for those who need the caffeine boost. Othertermsfor the same drink include Shot In The Dark (possibly an Alaskanism),ScrapIron, Speedball, Depth Charge, Bellman, Boilerhouse, and Caffè MF.Seems mostly to be favored by the blue-collar and high-tech crowd; Iused to joke that some people who ordered redeyes didn't have enoughpaint on their clothes to qualify for one.Dunkin' Donuts began in 2006 to market this as a "Turbo Hot".

regular -- Means absolutely nothing. In New England, it'scream and sugar; elsewhere I've been led to believe that it implies strictlyblack. When you ask for a regular, you get what the locals think is a regular.Do yourself a favor and say exactly what you want. For what it's worth,now that Starbucks does mild roast, regular implies dark.

ristretto -- Italian for restricted or restrained; refersto an incomplete espresso shot used (for example, in latte macchiatos)when the espresso flavor must be especially intense.

- S -

skinny -- West Coast for nonfat/skim milk based drinks. Not somuch heard on the East Coast, but not so rare that it shouldn't be learned.

solo -- Italian for, well, solo (or single). Refers, dependingon context, to either a single shot of espresso served as a drink or aspace pirate played by Harrison Ford.

split shot -- West Coast for a half-caf espresso shot.

sweet -- This is a tricky definition; coffee isn't generallysweet in the usual sense since most of the sugars in the bean would becaramelized out of existence in the roasting process. When talking coffee,sweetness refers to tempering of its natural bitterness. A sweet shot ofespresso will have bitterness similar to a fine beer; a bitter one willbe more like the smell of permanent marker or turpentine. It won't killyou like the petroleum products will, but you won't enjoy it either. Themoral of the story: always order your espressos "for here". You'll enjoyit a lot more if it doesn't make it beyond the bar.

- T -

Turkish/Greek Coffee -- Anot-entirely-unpleasant preparationmade from powdered light-roast coffee beans, Turkish/Greek Coffee(compromisenames include Middle Eastern and Balkan Coffee; best to sit on thefenceif you don't know your audience) is prepared by putting a couple ofteaspoonsof powdered coffee, a teaspoon or two of sugar, and a demitasse-full ofwater into a small pot called a jezve or ibrik. The coffee is broughttoa slight boil two or three times until it foams and is then served,groundsand all. Try not to drink the grounds; they're not that good.(Incidentally,it's not worth spending big bucks on coffee beans for this. Most of theflavor is burnt off in the process, leaving a drink with a flavorvaguelyremniscent of a coffee caramel.) Most American coffee houses don'tservethis; it's a decent drink, but IMHO it's not really worth the trouble.If you're going to do this, though, it's worth noting that Turks preferBrazilian coffees, while the Greeks like Ethiopian (unless they'redrinking instant-based frappes).

- V -

Vietnamese coffee -- The tradition inVietnam, where they grow Robusta that's actually drinkable, is to servecoffee with sweetened condensed milk instead of regular milk. It'squite nice, though it can be startlingly sweet.

- W -

wet -- Containing more milk than is usual. This generallyonly applies to cappuccinos, but can also apply to drinks such as a caffemisto/cafe au lait; best to avoid the extended usage, though, as it canbe confusing.

Why Bother -- Any of a series ofclosely related and supposedly rather pointlesslattes revolving around the decaf skim theme. IMHO the ultimate wouldbea decaf triple venti skim latte or something along that line, but yougetthe general idea; a decaf double tall skim latte is the canonical form.The term "gutless wonder" has been observed on the televisionshowFrasier (set, of course, in Seattle).

How to Make A Caffe Latte Like A Pro

 You want to steam your milk first. Steaming can be a bit tricky;a professional unit has a steam wand design that's more or less idiot-proof,but you may not be so lucky. You'll need a pitcher first (a four cup measuringcup, preferably metal, will do the job fine) and an instant-read thermometersuch as a chef might carry; these sorts of things are available whereveryou can buy an espresso machine. Fill the pitcher no more than halfway;this is important, as if you're not careful the foam will overflow. Openthe steam valve with the wandin the milk (for safety reasons; steamis hot) and lower the pitcher until it stops howling. You will want tokeep lowering the pitcher as the foam forms; as soon as you've got allthe foam you need, raise the pitcher again and keep steaming until themilk hits about 130-140 degrees F. The temperature will continue to riseafter you stop steaming; try to make sure you don't go over 170 degreesF or you'll burn the milk. Set the milk aside; the foam and milk need timeto separate (whole longer than skim). Don't worry too much about heat loss;milk foam is a great insulator and the temperature will stay high for awhile, at least until you start making drinks.

Now you need to pull shots. You'll need some coffee (a dark roast ispreferable; I prefer Starbucks Caffe Verona at home) (neverever ever use flavored coffee in an espresso machine. You'll never getit clean again.), a couple of shot glasses or a mug, a timer or stopwatch,a coffee scoop that holds 7g of coffee, and a tamper (I have a specialspoon that does both). Scoop enough coffee to fill the portafilter; a commercial-gradeportafilter will hold about 7g per shot. Follow the instructions in yourowner's manual, but do your own tamping; it is my experience that customerswho believe they have self-tamping espresso machines are more often thannot disappointed by the results. Now work fast; espresso shots tend togo downhill very quickly. Pull your shots according to the manual, thenpour them into the mug. Using a large spoon to hold back the foam, pourthe milk into the mug over the espresso, then top it off with a layer offoam. And that is a basic caffe latte, the way it's done a la Starbucks.Most other such drinks are done in the same way, with flavorings addedand proportions adjusted accordingly.

A Few Notes About Usage

(but only in English) (at Starbucks) (Okay, so I'm venting)

I'm not going to say that her order, in and of itself, had any problems;to me it sounds slightly pretentious, but it's not incorrect. The thingis, Starbucks has a system for calling drink names, and, at least in English,it works pretty well (it would fail miserably in most Romance languages,for example). So if you ever wanted to understand how to break down yourdrink name (and in my opinion far too many Starbucks customers worry aboutthis when they don't have to), this is a good guide. It sets out the wayStarbucks does it (or at least the way I do it ;-) ) and tries to explainthe logic behind the system.
 
 

• Iced/not -- This actually matters in Starbucks, because we havedifferent cups for iced and hot drinks. Putting it first allows the baristato go for the right type of cup for the drink.
• Decaf/not -- No matter what the drink is, the barista knows whatkind of coffee's going in. Just gets things moving a little faster, really.
• Shot count -- There are specific recipes for most drinks, but sometimesthere will be variations (the double tall latte is probably the canonicalexample). The barista has to know how many shots to pull; this part tellshim/her how to set up the espresso machine. (Actually, strictly speakingthis goes after the size field, but I don't know of anyone that will takeissue with putting it here. To do so would be out of step with standardpractice anyway.)
• Size -- Coffee house sizes are a world unto themselves. The threethat would probably be most frequently understood would be short (Italianpiccolo), tall (alto), and grande; these usually, though not always, correspondto small, medium and large. At Starbucks, these sizes are eight, twelveand sixteen ounces; there is also a twenty-ounce size called the Venti,which is the Italian word for twenty.
• Flavoring -- Many coffeehouses brew straight coffee and add flavorsvia flavored sugar syrups; others, however, do brew coffees made with flavoredbeans (not recommended), though not for espresso drinks. Vanilla and hazelnutseem to be overwhelmingly the most common, though there are others (mint,orange, and Irish Creme, for example).
• Miscellaneous -- Double cup for insulation? Want that cappucinowet? Anything else that doesn't quite fit in? It goes here.
• Drink -- The drink itself usually comes at the end.

As for the customer whose ears were rattled by the "grande Frappucino"callback, it may sound more elegant to put the modifier after the noun,but only if both words are of Italian origin. It also breaks consistencywith proper English construction. And that's how that works. You may nowstep to the bar and order your drink. (Incidentally, to this day Maria is a well-known regular at our store.)

Randomness

• The canonical flavored coffee seems to be decaf hazelnut. I don't havea good explanation for this, but I'd estimate perhaps half of our flavoredcoffee customers at my store order this.
• The Starbucks Frappucino is extremely popular, to the point where gettingstuck on blender in the middle of a rush is considered a form of ritualabuse for the New Guy.
  
• Raspberry syrup in any red-colored iced herbal tea (especially hibiscus) looks remarkably likeblood. Try it some time... if you dare!
• Italian espresso bar practice varies greatly from American; drinks are much smaller (an Italiancaffelatteis no more than four to six ounces, for example), cappucinos are almostalways dry, iced and flavored drinks are rare to nonexistent (as arefemale baristas), and they tend to be a lot cheaper.

About those sizes, anyway...

The Starbucks side of the story goes something like this: there are foursizes. We have short (8 oz), tall (12 oz), grande (16 oz), and venti (20oz; it's Italian for twenty; the cold Venti is actually 24 oz). The official policy is that when you order a small, you get atall and work your way up. If you're really truly confused, find out howbig the cups are and order by the numbers. They'll know what you mean.

Some Coffees Worth Trying

These are not necessarily coffees I like (Kenya, in particular, I'm somewhat on the fence about) but coffees that everyone should try at least once to get an opinion. There are many great coffees that aren't particularly remarkable(Colombian is probably the worst offender in that regard); there are many remarkable coffees that aren't particularly great (for example, Brazilian arabica, with its slight iodine flavor,has traditionally been an acquired taste for everyone except the Turks and Italians). This list tries to include coffees with both attributes, both proprietary blends andsingle-origin standouts.

If you have anything you think I should add to the list, send me a sample,maybe a quarter to half-pound or so, roasted and sent in whole bean form. Theseare a few coffees that I've tasted that I like a lot.

• Starbucks Caffè Verona -- A popular Starbucks coffee blend, Verona is a blend of Indonesian and Latin American coffees mixed 80/20 with StarbucksItalian Roast. It has a unique zing to it that complements chocolate and rich desserts very effectively, but it's also good at any other time of day. Verona (named for the locale of Romeo and Juliet) is also an excellent espressoblend, and it's sometimes available in decaf.
• Costa Rica La Minita -- One of the finest coffees in the world comes from La Minita Estate in Costa Rica. Corby Kummer, author ofThe Joy of Coffee,goes into great detail about the exceptional quality of CostaRican coffee in that book, especially the product of La Minita (wherehe even spent some time as a day laborer). Costa Rican coffee ingeneral (popular particularly in Germany, as it happens) is among thebest in the world; Starbucks sells two very good Costa Ricans (BellaVista and Organic Costa Rica), but La Minita is probably the best (andwe don't carry it :-( )
• Yemen Mocha Sanani -- A profoundly unusual coffee, soorganic it'salmost wild. Sanani has a scent that reminds you of blueberries. It isexotic,expensive, frequently inconsistent, and absolute heaven over ice. Avery similar coffee (cheaper, but much harder to find) is EthiopiaHarrar, which has much the same flavor but a slight smoky overtone.These coffees are the most common "Mocha" component of a true MochaJava blend.
• Kenya -- Often labeled with the size designation AA(which is justas meaningless for flavor as the Supremo in Colombian Supremo), Kenyaisa violently controversial coffee. Roasted Starbucks-dark, it takes on aflavor remarkably remniscent of grapefruit, with the same elegantclarityas a good Costa Rica. Kenyas (and African/Arabian coffees in general)are love-it-or-hate-it propositions. If you can try one, don't denyyourself the opportunity, whether you like what you taste or not.Zimbabwean coffee is very similar, with a more pronounced scent but alighter body.
• Guatemala -- Guatemalan coffee (and its glorifiedsibling, Hawaiian Kona) is quite different from the average LatinAmerican coffee. It has a cocoa-ish flavor and it's almost sweet, witha much more pronounced body than most similar coffees.
• Kona -- Some see Kona as the holy grail of coffees. Ihave tried Kona precisely once, when it was being sampled at a TraderJoe's in my area. Kona is a remarkable coffee, no doubt, and it'sunique for being pretty much the only well-known American coffee(though Puerto Rican coffee is also said to be quite good). But it'salso very much like Guatemala (they grow Guatemalan variety trees inKona), and in any case the best never leaves the islands because it'sactually more worthwhile for the Kona farmers to sell to locals andtourists than to export it. I recommend it as an occasional treat orgift; just understand that buying American when it comes to coffee israther more expensive than is really worth the trouble. It's good, butit really is just a particularly excellent Latin American-style coffee.
• Sulawesi/Celebes -- Indonesian arabica coffee is knownprimarily for body -- Sumatra particularly, with its earthy, slightlymushroom flavor. Sulawesi coffee is known for having that kind of body,but it is also distinguished by a hard-to-describe buttery elegance.Sulawesi has two fairly common subvarieties, Kalossi and Toraja; thelatter is in particular demand in Japan, and as a result Sulawesicoffee is not especially common in this country.
• Illy Espresso -- I don't know what goes into this most expensive of espresso blends; Illycaffè is big on Brazilian coffee, among other things,but that's only part of it. Illy is very expensive, but in the hands of a competent barista, it's one hell of a coffee. Unless you're rich, though, I'drecommend just getting the catalog for their cappucino cups and Gaggia espressomachines, and savor the real thing at a coffee bar that serves it.

References

Before I worked at Starbucks, though, I had a pretty decent knowledgeof coffee drinks anyway, at least as good as any other layperson. Thatcame mostly fromEspresso: From Bean To Cup by Nick Jurich (ISBN1-88029-00-8), which despite being grossly out of date (1991; Starbucksis much more dominant now compared to when this book was written) is stilla very good reference for the coffee hacker.

Another exceptional coffee reference isThe Joy of Coffee byCorby Kummer (revised 1997; ISBN 1-57630-060-9). It's more general in scope,and doesn't focus so much on the coffee bar drinks, but it's still a veryinteresting bit of reading.

Some of the blanks were filled in thanks toStevenE. Callihan's Seattle Lexicon, which has a decent size page (not soin depth as this, though) on Seattle coffee slang. His stuff paraphrasedwithout permission, but I hope he doesn't mind.

If you're interested in piles and piles of coffee trivia, there is PhilipJanssen'sEspresso Quick Reference Guide (Eight Ball Books, 1998;ISBN 0-9643547-3-X), which has something like a thousand drink recipesfor various espresso bar beverages. Interestingly, more than half the bookis taken up with coffee trivia, hints, and glossaries; I don't, however,recommend the practice it suggests of steaming milks with flavor syrups.It tends to damage flavors and most likely will wind up with a lot moredifficult cleaning to do. Also, organizationally it resembles a bartendingbook, which isn't entirely appropriate to the more concretely defined worldof the coffee bar.

One last useful book isThe Espresso Bartender's Guide to EspressoBartending by "Sally Ann and Dara Diane" (Sally Slankard and daughter, according to Amazon) (HookedOn Espresso, 1994; ISBN 0-9636173-7-0). It's mainly useful for the glossariesin the beginning and the recipe for a Snickerdoodle latte (vanilla lattewith whipped cream and cinnamon on top), but despite its claims to beingthe Bible of the industry I don't recommend it very strongly. The author'swriting style is stunningly incompetent, and editing is nonexistent, butit does have a fairly well-organized list of recipes by category.

Both of the above books are reasonably useful, but they're very Seattlein scope. Nevertheless, if you want to learn about the way things are doneoutside of Starbucks, they're pretty good references.

 Thanks to Maryann Rowsell for technical review, and to her andother fellow partners for advice in producing the first version of thispage.