Coffee is more than just a morning ritual—it’s a global phenomenon. Grown on four continents and savored across all seven, coffee fuels our days, our conversations, and, in many cases, entire economies. Whether it’s the comforting aroma of a fresh pot or the first energizing sip, coffee has a way of bringing people together.
To celebrate, we’ve brewed up a list of books for every kind of coffee enthusiast. From eye-opening nonfiction about the industry’s roots and impact to fiction steeped in the cozy ambiance of cafés and the lives of those who love them—these reads are the perfect pairing for your next cup.
NonFiction
The Art & Craft of Coffee Cocktails: Over 80 Recipes For Mixing Coffee And Liquor by Jason Clark
World-class mixologist Clark will inspire, excite and educate you by taking you behind the bar for a masterclass in creating coffee-based cocktails. Learn how to perfect simple classics such as Espresso Martini and Irish coffee or try your hand at technical modern marvels Golden Velvet and Death By Caffeine.
Coffee: A Global History by Jonathan Morris
Morris explains both how the world acquired a taste for this humble bean, and why the beverage tastes so differently throughout the world. He identifies the regions and ways in which coffee has been grown, who worked the farms and who owned them, and how the beans were processed, traded, and transported. Morris also explores the businesses behind coffee—the brokers, roasters, and machine manufacturers—and dissects the geopolitics linking producers to consumers.
Coffee: From Bean to Barista by Robert Thurston
This engaging guide traces the history, cultivation, and culture of coffee, as well as the major factors influencing the industry today. Thurston considers cultivation and its challenges, especially climate change; new research on hybridization; the history of coffee and cultural change surrounding it around the world; devices, new and old, for making coffee drinks; the issue of organic versus conventional agriculture; and the health benefits of the brew.
The Coffee Book by Anette Moldvaer
Discover the origins of coffee and its production before exploring over 40 country profiles, showcasing the incredible variety of beans grown around the world. Master different roasting, grinding, tamping and brewing techniques, plus the equipment needed. Experiment with some 70 recipes, ranging from café culture classics, such as the Americano, to more adventurous flavor combinations like the Almond Fig Latte or the Hazelnut Frappé, as well as non-dairy milk alternatives.
Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug by Augustine Sedgewick
The epic story of the rise of coffee in the Americas, and how it connected and divided the modern world. This history of how coffee came to be produced by the world’s poorest people and consumed by its richest opens up a unique perspective on how the modern globalized world works, ultimately provoking a reconsideration of what it means to be connected to far-away people and places through the familiar things that make up our everyday lives.
The Complete Book of Coffee : the Definitive Guide to Coffee, From Simple Bean to Irresistible Beverage by Mary Banks
The definitive illustrated guide to coffee: its history, where it is grown, the beans, the types of roast and grind, and how to brew and drink it. Features a comprehensive survey of the coffee-producing countries around the world, and the quality and characteristics of different kinds of bean. Over 70 recipes demonstrate the wonderful versatility of coffee in the kitchen, with delicious soufflés and meringues, puddings, fruit and frozen desserts, and enticing cakes, pastries, breads and biscuits.
The Home Café : Creative Recipes For Espresso, Matcha, Tea and Coffee Drinks by Asia Lui Chapa
That first sip of caffeine is pure magic–so why not treat yourself and make it an all-out celebration? With this classy curation of recipes, you’ll find endless ideas to take your morning cup of tea or coffee to the next level with fun flourishes, new flavors and fresh takes–from fruity matcha spritzers to dessert-inspired lattes. These drinks make it easy to bring the warm aesthetic and delicious notes of a café into your own home. You’ll capture that quintessential barista taste without spending extra money or changing out of your pajamas.
How to Make the Best Coffee at Home by James Hoffmann
The author demonstrates everything you need to know to make consistently excellent coffee at home, including: what equipment is worth buying, and what isn’t; how to grind coffee; the basics of brewing for all major equipment (cafetiere, aeropress, stovetop etc); understanding coffee drinks, from the cortado to latte and the perfect espresso.
How to Taste Coffee : Develop your Sensory Skills and Get the Most Out of Every Cup by Jessica Easto
Easto explains why flavor notes are not always as straightforward with coffee as they are with other beverages, such as wine, beer, and spirits. You’ll learn how our senses perceive coffee, what creates and affects coffee flavor, and how to practice your sensory skills, using the same tools and resources as coffee professionals.
The New Rules of Coffee: A Modern Guide for Everyone by Jordan Michelman & Zachary Carlsen
An illustrated guide to the essential rules for enjoying coffee both at home and in cafes, including tips on storing and serving coffee, coffee growing, roasting and brewing, plus facts, lore, and popular culture from around the globe.
Fiction
At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather S. Webber
A mysterious letter. An offer taken. And the chance to move forward. When Ava Harrison receives a letter containing an unusual job listing one month after the sudden death of her ex-boyfriend, she thinks she’s being haunted. The listing–a job as a live-in caretaker for a peculiar old man and his cranky cat in Driftwood, Alabama–is the perfect chance to start a new life. A normal life. Ava has always been too fearful to even travel, so no one’s more surprised than she is when she throws caution to the wind and drives to the distant beachside town. On the surface, Maggie Mae Brightwell is a bundle of energy as she runs Magpie’s, Driftwood’s coffee and curiosity shop, where there’s magic to be found in pairing the old with the new. But lurking under her cheerful exterior is a painful truth–keeping busy is the best way to distract herself from the lingering loss of her mama and her worries about her aging father. No one knows better than she does that you can’t pour from an empty cup, but holding on to the past is the only thing keeping the hope alive that her mama will return home one day. Ava and Maggie soon find they’re kindred spirits, as they’re both haunted–not by spirits, but by regret. Both must learn to let go of the past to move on–because sometimes the waves of change bring you to the place where you most belong.
Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The fifth novel in the internationally bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series translated from Japanese. the mysterious café where customers arrive hoping to travel back in time welcomes four new guests: The father who could not allow his daughter to get married;
A woman who couldn’t give Valentine’s Day chocolates to her loved one; A boy who wants to show his smile to his divorced parents’; A wife holding a child with no name . . .
They must follow the café’s strict rules, however, and come back to the present before their coffee goes cold.
Bulletproof Barista by Cleo Coyle
Only Murders in Gotham, the smash-hit streaming program, is famous for filming in authentic New York locations and using real New Yorkers as extras. For its second season, they’ve chosen to spotlight the century-old Village Blend and its quirky crew of baristas. Shop manager and master roaster Clare Cosi is beyond thrilled, especially when her superb bulletproof coffee lands her a craft services contract for the production. Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the landmark shop, reveals an old kinship with the star of the show, comedian Jerry Sullivan. Now a Hollywood legend, Jerry frequented the Blend during his early years performing in Greenwich Village comedy clubs. But the past may hold more than nostalgia for Jerry. Suspicious accidents begin plaguing his shoot. Then a real bullet is fired from a stage gun, and Clare becomes convinced something sinister is afoot.
Crema : A Haunted Romance in Three Chapters by Johnnie Christmas (graphic novel)
Esme, a barista, feels invisible, like a ghost… also, when Esme drinks too much coffee she actually sees ghosts. Yara, the elegant heir to a coffee plantation, is always seen, but only has eyes for Esme. Their world is turned upside down when the strange ghost of an old-world nobleman begs Esme to take his letter from New York City to a haunted coffee farm in Brazil, to reunite him with his lost love of a century ago.
Death by Iced Coffee by Alex Erickson
Bookstore-café owner Krissy Hancock is stepping out from behind the counter to take part in the first annual Pine Hills, Ohio, marathon. But with a killer close by, she may soon be running for her life . . . It’s a brutally hot day in Pine Hills, and Krissy Hancock would love to be sitting in a shady spot and sipping her favorite iced coffee. Instead, she’s lacing up her sneakers for a marathon–and swiftly regretting it. Especially when she finds one of the other runners lying motionless. At first Krissy suspects heatstroke, but the red marks around the man’s throat tell a more sinister story. The victim, it turns out, had brewed up all kinds of enemies thanks to his cheating ways–both romantic and financial. Krissy’s not keen to get involved, but her friend Rita’s boyfriend, Johan, seems to be mixed up in the mayhem. For Rita’s sake, Krissy wants to help filter out the real killer. But can she do it before another Pine Hills resident gets permanently iced?
Fatal Brouhaha by Emmeline Duncan
Twentysomething master barista and owner of Portland, Oregon’s popular Ground Rules coffee cart, Sage Caplin is ready to celebrate her growing business at a weekend-long maker’s festival, complete with live music, a cornhole tournament, 4th of July fireworks and murder . . . In addition to her beloved coffees, Sage is thrilled to be expanding her offerings in collaboration with the local whiskey company that is throwing the festival. And how better to launch their new product than with fellow entrepreneurs. But among the crowd of artists and creators, Sage is surprised to spot Left Coast Grinds owner Mark Jeffries, who has it out for Ground Rules. The distillery didn’t invite Mark and they apologize. But nothing can make up for the glare Mark aims at Sage and her co-owner, Harley. And that is just a taste of what’s to come . . .
The Full Moon Coffee Shop: A Novel by Mai Mochizuki
This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and it seemingly appears at random. It’s also run by talking cats. While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult their star charts, offering cryptic wisdom, and letting them know where their lives veered off course. Every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. For a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop’s feline guides will set them back on their fated paths.
Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes by Travis Baldree
After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is. If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone. But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.
Brewed Awakening by Cleo Coyle (Coffeehouse Mysteries Series)
Memories and murder collide when coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi awakens on a bench in Washington Square Park and has no idea she has been missing for days, or that her friends and family have been frantic with worry…Now that Clare is back, everyone is overjoyed, including a handsome NYPD detective who claims to be her fiancé. But to Mike Quinn’s crushing distress, Clare does not remember him, or much of anything about the last fifteen years of her life. Clare’s missing memory is tied to a crime she witnessed. She had been invited to a posh hotel by its owner to sample gourmet wedding cakes. After their indulgent tasting, a security camera captured a masked figure with a gun confronting the hotel heiress with Claire looking on. Did the kidnapper take Clare, too? The camera went dark, just like Claire’s memory. Soon authorities grow suspicious. Is Clare really a victim? Or merely acting like one? Evidence is mounting that she set the woman up. To clear her name, Clare must find a way to reclaim her memories and rescue the heiress before this high-stakes crime ends in tragedy.
Flat White Fatality by Emmeline Duncan (A Ground Rules Mystery Series)
To top off her coffee business, Sage is now helping out with her boyfriend Bax’s gaming company … That makes it easy for her to pitch in with Bax’s employee team-building event. The plan is to boost morale with a scavenger hunt. And it seems to be going well–until Robbie, a programmer known for being a prankster, turns up dead in Sage’s roastery. There are two suspects so far–Now, it’s up to Sage to find the culprit–before another life grinds to a halt.
—Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian