Online Learning Resources
Here's a list of some great coffee resources we would recommend to further your learning. We aim to keep this list updated as we find new stuff so get in touch if there is something you feel should be included.
Blogs/News
Sprudge, your home for global coffee culture and original journalism. Since 2009, Sprudge has been publishing original features highlighting coffee culture, news, and events.
Roasting consultant and author of The Professional Barista's Handbook, Everything but Espresso and The Coffee Roaster's Companion. This blog contains loads of geeky articles about roasting, extraction and beyond.
Coffee blog written by an astro-physicist! A scientific approach to coffee brewing.
World Coffee Research's mission is to grow, protect, and enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihoods of the families who produce it.
Mainly focused on green coffee, supply chain and roasting. Some fascinating insights from a reputable importer based in Oakland, California.
Loads of industry news and features from the Roast Magazine team.
Upbeat and informative, Perfect Daily Grind is a cross-platform, global network which distributes coffee content to a worldwide audience.
Kasjan Orzol's inquisitive and thoughtful blog aimed at coffee professionals. Interesting writing on products, espresso, roasting and beyond.
Loads of great information and experienced insight on green coffee and roasting.
YouTube channels
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is a membership-based association built on foundations of openness, inclusivity, and the power of shared knowledge. From coffee farmers to baristas and roasters, our membership spans the globe, encompassing every element of the coffee value chain. SCA acts as a unifying force within the specialty coffee industry and works to make coffee better by raising standards worldwide through a collaborative and progressive approach. Dedicated to building an industry that is fair, sustainable, and nurturing for all, SCA draws on years of insights and inspiration from the specialty coffee community.
Re:co celebrates new thinking in coffee – innovative ways to address our challenges, concepts that build our businesses, and fuel to push the coffee industry forward. We invite thought leaders from a variety of disciplines to share their work at Re:co, providing a dynamic force for progress in specialty coffee. We seek to inspire leadership, collaboration, and innovation. Re:co is the place where we share new scientific, agricultural, and economic research, providing essential understanding of the rapidly changing coffee world.
The Coffee Roasters Guild (CRG) is the global trade guild of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) dedicated to inspire a diverse coffee roasting community through the development and promotion of the roasting profession.
The Barista Guild is the global trade guild of the Specialty Coffee Association made up of members dedicated to the craft of coffee preparation and service. Through events as Barista Camp and CoLab, as well as our online platform, BG offers easily accessible education to baristas of all levels, driving the opportunity for baristas and the barista profession to develop. It continuously strives to bring our vibrant community together, online and in person, to meet, learn, develop, and grow. Learn more on www.baristaguild.coffee
Specialty coffee household name and author of The World Alas of Coffee provides how-tos, guides, reviews, vlogs, video essays and mini-documentary films. Lovely stuff.
We are sharing stories from the speciality coffee culture in Europe and beyond. We explore the world of third wave coffee by visiting the best cafes we can find and sharing the tips and tricks on how to brew better coffee at home. Follow our channel to make sure you don't miss the next video.
As well as instructional videos for their own brand of roasting machine, there are plenty of educational videos to be found here.
Podcasts
A new podcast series from the Specialty Coffee Association presenting stories, lectures, and debates. The SCA is a non-profit organization that represents thousands of coffee professionals, from producers to baristas all over the world.
Making Coffee with Lucia SolisLucia is a former winemaker turned coffee processing consultant. This podcast talks about the steps in getting a coffee cherry ready for roasting, shares current coffee research in microbiology and has interviews with coffee producers in different parts of the world. A fascinating listen!
A platform for learning and debate, Tamper Tantrum have built a library of coffee lectures amassed over the last seven years of live events and interviews as well as hosting a fortnightly podcast.
Having fun talking about coffee while drinking natural wine. Their goal is to discuss current topics in the coffee industry, covering roasting, brewing, coffee quality or business.
How does your choice of coffee affect civil wars, illegal immigration and climate change? Filter Stories is a documentary podcast connecting your morning coffee to millions of hidden people.
FilteredThoughts is a podcast focused on the coffee industry, mainly in the UK. Made up for 7 members talking about recent topics & news.
On-line Resources
The Coffee Exporter's Guide is the world's most extensive, hands-on and neutral source of information on the international coffee trade. It covers trade issues relevant to coffee growers, traders, exporters, transportation companies, certifiers, associations, authorities and others in coffee-producing countries. This third edition marks Guide’s 20th anniversary and includes new material on climate change, the role of women in the coffee sector and comparison of sustainability schemes.
The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) is the main intergovernmental organisation for coffee, bringing together exporting and importing Governments to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation. Its Member Governments represent 98% of world coffee production and 67% of world consumption.
A global catalog of varieties covering: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Malawi, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
The largest collaborative research project on coffee's flavors and aromas ever undertaken. Created at the Sensory Analysis Center at Kansas State University, the lexicon identifies 110 flavor, aroma, and texture attributes present in coffee, and provides references for measuring their intensity. The purpose of the lexicon is to advance our understanding of coffee quality and how it is created, so that we may continue to increase it.
Interactive Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel, based on Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel (2016) and World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon (first edt. 2016) from SCAA and WCR.
Fascinating report on a long term observational study of water activity in specialty green coffee. Starting in 2012, the Cafe Imports sensory analysis department, led by director Ian Fretheim, set out to start collecting and monitoring water activity in green coffee in the hope that “it would provide a more insightful measurement than moisture content, specifically with regard to predicting the shelf life of coffees. We hoped to answer (or at least partially answer) the question of why some coffees arrive as purchased and some do not.”
Free scientific paper, co-authored by the team at CoffeeMind in Copenhagen. Investigating the relative importance of two roasting parameters — colour (i.e., roast degree) and time — on the sensory properties of coffee.
Loads of free educational resources from this international coffee trader. Covering all aspects of green coffee from varieties and origin info to roasting.
Useful Apps
Our coffee app helps you learn about coffee. Record tasting notes, compare answers with pros, and remember all the things you've tried.
Filtru will let you know when to pour, stir or wait for that perfect bloom. Each step has an indicator of how long it's going to take and what you should be doing - super easy!
VST CoffeeTools is a comprehensive design and measurement application for coffee and espresso professionals, brewing equipment designers, baristas and coffee enthusiasts. Fully functional with or without a coffee refractometer.
A free alternative to VST CofeeTools, unfortunately only available for iPhone. As well as a clean user interface this app provides the ability to record both espresso and filter recipes and measurement data.
Navigate the world of specialty coffee with the Firstbloom app. Expand your list of favourite brews by browsing new coffees and keeping tabs on the latest from the roasters you know and love.
Online Courses
Barista Hustle is here to help the world make better coffee. We are a team of baristas, educators and product designers. We take great pride in being transparent — our website is advertising-free and we disclose all affiliations and potential conflicts of interests. In the modern world of ‘pay-for-content’ marketing, building trust between our community and us in an ad-free online environment is at the heart of what we stand for.
Baristas and coffee professionals from all over the world make use of our free and subscription-based online coffee classes. We have published seven online barista courses. These are visited each week by thousands of freelance baristas, as well as hundreds of coffee businesses looking to offer training and career progression for their ambitious staff.
Coffee Courses were founded in 2012 by Willem Boot an internationally renowned coffee expert with more than 25 years of professional coffee experience, and Valerian Hrala a coffee entrepreneur (Green Plantation Coffee and Unleashed Coffee) and podcast host – coffeeis.me.
Our mission is to help you unlock the secrets of coffee and speed up your coffee knowledge development so you can create the best products for your customers and enjoy coffee to its full potential. With online courses, you can do this wherever you are for a fraction of the price of a live course. We offer courses in the art and science of coffee tasting, roasting, quality management, green coffee production, brewing, barista skills and enjoying coffee.