Coffee is a pretty popular drink. An estimated 2.25 billion cups of it are consumed daily around the world. Yes, while everybody drinks it we like to think that there is a special connection to cycling. Coffee is everywhere in our sport. Whether it is as a performance-enhancer, an agreeable means of social cohesion, or as an historical factor in pro racing sponsorship it is present. But what do we really know about our morning joe? Look no further than the newly-revised World Atlas of Coffee to learn all there is to know.
Before turning the pages of this beautiful book by legendary British barista James Hoffmann, let’s look back at coffee and pro cycling. With both a strong coffee culture as well as bike racing one, it is no wonder that Italy comes to mind as a country that could meld both. As the pre-eminent manufacturer of coffee machines, Italy has been visible on jerseys over the years.
Eddy Merckx raced for Faemino-Faema from 1968-1970, promoting the domestic espresso machine made by Faema. That Milanese company, founded in 1945, had been active as a sponsor earlier with the Faema team from 1955. It merged with Flandria in 1963, then leaving the peloton a year later, before returning for the Merckx years.
In the 1990s, another Italian coffee machine company, Saeco of Bologna, became a primary sponsor of a cycling team. This was the team of super-sprinter Mario Cippolini, whose antics enlivened the peloton for several years. Saeco ended its sponsorship in 2005. The team merged with Lampre and yet another coffee-related company to form Lampre-Caffita. Caffita is a Bolognese maker of a capsule coffee system similar to Nespresso and Tassimo. Caffita only stayed around for a year as a team sponsor. That same team eventually morphed into today’s all-conquering UAE Team Emirates XRG.
Every video of a home visit to a pro cyclist always seems to show off a very fancy espresso machine but the drink itself has featured in a remarkable way in pro cycling team history. The national federation of Colombian coffee growers (think “Juan Valdez”) sponsored the Cafe de Colombia pro team from 1983 to 1990. This was essentially the national team of Colombian racers, making its mark in European races. The team’s biggest star, Luis “Lucho” Herrera, won the King of the Mountains jersey in all three Grand Tours. He also took the overall win at the 1987 Vuelta de España.
Most recently, coffee made an appearance at the World Tour with Segafredo Zanetti. It was a co-sponsor of the Trek-Segafredo team from 2016-2023. Yet another company from Bologna, it was founded in 1971 and is a globally-recognized coffee brand. Sponsorship ended when the team became Lidl-Trek in 2024.
So while most of us don’t race with some kind of coffee-related sponsor, the cafe stop is a tradition on many group rides. The story is that even in the UK, riders are foregoing the long-standing tea break for something more caffeinated and, well, Italian. There has been a big change in coffee drinking over the last two decades as speciality coffees have seen a surge in popularity. For some, education in this direction came with the emergence of Starbucks in North America but turning to The World Atlas of Coffee one realizes there is so much more. Apparently, we are in what is termed the “third wave of coffee.”
Author James Hoffmann was World Barista Champion in 2007, and was a two-time British Barista Champion as well. He has a YouTube channel about coffee that has 2.39 million subscribers and has started various related businesses. He released his first World Atlas of Coffee in 2014. The book was revised in 2018; the 3rd edition is coming out on November 4, 2025.
The Guardian, when reviewing the original edition, called it “high geekery made palatable by the evident love pulsing through every sentence.” Eleven years it is more of the same but even better. It is an encyclopedic view of this drink and the subtitle is not overpromising: “from beans to brewing–coffees explored, explained and enjoyed.”
The book is divided into three parts. The first covers coffee the product, with sections on the biology of the coffee tree, its varieties, how harvesting is done and the beans processed. Mr. Hoffmann did a three-part video series on decaffeination and we defy anyone not learn anything from his writing on this subject.
The section concludes with information about the trading of coffee and “a short history of coffee drinking.” In 1950s Britain there was a (seemingly fleeting but surprising to us) craze for Italian-style espresso bars. As an aside, what is the meaning of “third wave coffee?” It seems that the first wave was the widespread availability of coffee (think Folger’s or Maxwell House). Next came speciality coffee shops, such as Peet’s and, massively, Starbuck’s. The third wave is the growth of single-source coffees for home consumption and even roasting.
The second part of the book is really about drinking coffee in the here and now. From how best to buy and store it, what to look for in taste, how to grind it… an expert’s suggestions followed by a quick review of seemingly every known (and obscure) device for brewing the stuff. Then we go into the world of espresso drinks and their variety.
As absorbing as the first two parts of the book are, the “atlas” part of the title is delivered in “Part Three: Coffee Origins.” 145 pages cover all the countries in the world that produce coffee, split into sections on Africa, Asia/Oceania, and the Americas. Each national section includes the history of coffee there, the specific growing regions and the traceability of the product from each of them. Mr. Hoffmann also provides a taste profile. This is all fascinating stuff.
For example, we learn that coffee came to Burundi under its Belgian overlords in the 1920s and that after 1933 every peasant farmer was obligated to cultivate at least 50 coffee trees. After independence a state enterprise controlled coffee production. This is shifting to private enterprise as the country began to embrace the speciality coffee sector in 2008. While coffee is grown right across the country, there are 14 regions named specifically for production in the book. Burundi produced 215,000 60 kg bags of coffee in 2023 and Mr. Hoffmann writes of their taste profile: “Great coffees from Burundi can have complex berry fruit flavours and a pronounced juicy quality.” On the other hand, you might want to avoid coffee from the Philippines…
There is a lot to say about the biggest producers–Brazil and Vietnam–but there is also pleasure to be found in leafing through this book in reading about lesser-known suppliers. St. Helena, Taiwan and Puerto Rico all receive the same handsome maps and fine illustrations. The section on Colombia goes into detail about FNC, that growers’ cooperative and marketing agency that was behind the Cafe de Colombia racing team. In addition to being so comprehensive, The World Atlas of Coffee is a beautiful book. Credit for this goes to designer Lizzie Ballantyne and the creative team behind it at Octopus Books.
James Hoffmann’s enthusiasm for coffee is contagious. This book wears its considerable scholarship lightly. It would appeal not only to cyclists wondering about what to order during the cafe stop but also to foodies and bibliophiles.
“The World Atlas of Coffee” by James Hoffmann
288 pp., profusely illustrated, hardbound
Mitchell Beazley/Octopus Books, London, 2025
ISBN 978-1-784-72-986-8
Recommended Price: 30 GBP/US$39.99/C$49.99
# Available from AMAZON.COM HERE. #
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