Robert's Coffee Journal

When you take a sip of your favorite brew, do you actually think about what different elements came together to bring it into that delectable liquid you are consuming? Not really, huh? What do most of us know about this side of coffee anyway?

I have declared coffee as one of my passions, and it has spurned -- apart from coffee-infused blood in my veins -- a couple of blogs, which have helped keep me sane. A friend of mine from college, though, has made his passion for coffee his work, and now, through an ambitious but enviably successful project, something worth bragging about.

He is the very same coffee expert I had quoted in previous blog entries and reviews (in my "other" blogsite), recently launched a fabulous coffee table book on -- tah-dah! -- coffee!


Entitled, "A Coffee Journal", author Robert Francisco's book is a compilation of photos he had taken the past 15 years or so that he has had what he calls his "life with coffee". Accompanied by excellently written text, the stunning photos chronicle not just the development of his coffee know-how and career, it also includes those taken on a more recent journey he made to further research and document coffee's history in our country.

Asked what made him embark on such a project and actually publish it into something as beautiful as this newly launched book, he shared, "I had in my laboratory and coffee showroom a series of framed black and white photos I had taken earlier on showing the process involved to produce the coffee we drink, and this would always elicit curiosity, which would lead to a mini-lecture of sorts." This reaction made him think how wonderful it would be to share his own story about coffee -- made unique by the art of photographs, and made larger by an audience bigger that those in the coffee seminars and lectures he would conduct.

And so his first sets of efforts have come together. The book allows readers to appreciate the various stages of coffee, "from the farm to the cup, from the North to the South," through the eyes of a coffee lover. Robert's hope is for this book to reach other lands and earn for our country the recognition it deserves for its rich coffee culture and its roles a market player in the world of coffee, however far behind it has trailed.


I don't think it's such a lofty thing to hope for, especially when you consider the effort and love, the expert professional and personal insights, and the fabulous results of his work.




Every coffee lover should have a copy. Then maybe, with the next cup of brew we have, there would be greater appreciation, the type that goes beyond flavor and aroma, with every sip.