Bonus Episode: I Made A Puzzle Book!
In this very special episode I am celebrating the launch of my new puzzle book “Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious’. Listen to find out about the puzzles I included in the book and why each puzzle comes with its own fascinating coffee fact. I also reveal why I felt compelled to create a coffee focussed puzzle book in the first place. If, like me, you like word search puzzles and you love coffee “Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious’ is where your daily word search fix meets your coffee obsession!
Buy ‘Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious’ on Amazon:
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Making coffee breaks better, one wordsearch at a time!
Get in touch!
Please note that although I read all texts, I don’t have the facility to reply to them, but you can also get in touch via Instagram and email.
Email: thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com
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Lusona Publishing and Media Limited website: https://www.lusonapub.co.uk
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Hello and welcome to The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster, writer and now a wordsearch puzzle maker on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
In this special bonus episode I am talking about my new puzzle book ‘Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious’ to celebrate its official launch on the day this episode drops…and later I’ll be answering the question that I am sure all of you will be thinking, why on earth I created the puzzle book in the first place so stay tuned for that…
For those of you who are thinking wait, did I hear that right? Yes, I am officially launching my puzzle book ‘Wordsearch For the Coffee Curious’. And to get the plug in right away it is available now on an Amazon site near you. I will put the link to the listing in the show notes. So, the big question: why a wordsearch puzzle book? Well, for three reasons. One, I like wordsearch puzzles and have been doing them since I was a child. Next to dot-to-dot puzzles they were my favourite childhood puzzle to do. As an adult I have also grown to love codeword puzzles. So, yes, its fair to say that I just like words for their own sake. The second reason is that words are important. They are the basic unit of communication, the building blocks for our understanding of everything. So if you really want to understand coffee you need to know coffee words and their context. And what better way to learn them than completing a fun puzzle book? But this book is more than a collection of random coffee word puzzles. Following the format of the show these puzzles will guide you through different aspects of the world of coffee. Also alongside each puzzle I have added a brief coffee fact or explainer to add depth to that puzzle and build on your understanding of coffee as you work your way through the book. And the third reason? For that you need to listen to my answer to the Frequently Asked Coffee Question at the end of this episode, so stay tuned! And now lets take a closer look at what I have included in the book…
So firstly my wordsearch book and the brew
Following the format of the show and in the great puzzle tradition the book starts off easy with words that are most likely to be familiar to you in the first section, The Brew. The puzzles in this section are about different aspects of brewing coffee, coffee equipment and drink names. If you thought you knew all the ways to make espresso based drinks you may be surprised by the variety you can find in the puzzle ‘What’s Your Coffee Called?’. I have also included a puzzle on brewing variables to limber up the mind and help you flex your brewing technique - and of course if you want to review the significance of these on your finished brew you can check back on previous episodes of the show.
Next my wordsearch book and the taste
So the next section in the book is The Taste. This is where things get a little more challenging as you’ll be introduced to some of the many and varied flavours to be found in coffee across three different puzzles. Who knew you could find liquorice, grassy and stone fruit flavours in coffee eh? So what other flavours can you find? Well you’ll have to do the puzzles to find out. The last two puzzles in this section are about the world of the professional coffee taster, giving you an insight into how the quality of your coffee is assessed. If you have ever seen a numerical score given within the description of a coffee this will shed light on where that came from. And hopefully may help you understand why one coffee commands a higher price than another.
Finally my wordsearch book and the bean
The penultimate section of the book, The Bean, explores the fundamentals of the coffee bean itself. The nomenclature of the coffee cherry, bean shape, species, varieties and green coffee grading are all the subject of their own puzzle. And the final section, Frequently Asked Coffee Questions, drills deeper into coffee bean knowledge. The puzzles in this section are more challenging with topics ranging from roast level to the stages of the roasting process via coffee growing areas, decaffeination methods, the chemistry of the coffee bean and more. At the end you can really stretch your brain as I have included a dastardly bonus puzzle called 'Test Your Coffee Knowledge' to challenge what you've learned. And if I tell you that when I double checked my own puzzle as part of the editing process I only got 20 out of the 25 words without cheating, you know that it is tough!
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
Or is it? In actual fact this episode’s question is one that I am pretty sure all of you are wondering about and it is…
What was the third reason that you created a wordsearch puzzle book?
Honestly it was because when I looked for a coffee focussed wordsearch puzzle book for myself, what I found was that most displayed little, if any, coffee knowledge or expertise whatsoever. Many appeared to have been created as a long list of random coffee related words which were then arbitrarily cut up into shorter lists from which the puzzles were made without any consideration of the words being used in them. And frankly they just sucked. I don’t mind random words juxtaposed in a wordsearch puzzle if it is presented as a general knowledge puzzle, but in a themed puzzle book, personally I find it irritating and frankly boring. I found myself wishing that someone who knew something about coffee would write one and in a lightning bolt moment realised that, that someone would have to be me! So here it is. A collection of puzzles with coffee words curated from the world of coffee, organised into categories and topics that actually mean something by someone who knows what she’s talking about. In other words, the wordsearch puzzle book that I’d hoped to find. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it for you.
Thank you for listening to this special episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide to launch ‘Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious’. It is out today on Amazon across the globe and the link is in the show notes. I will be beyond thrilled if you do buy it and if you do I want to say thanks in advance for supporting my work. And as always I’d love to hear from you - let me know what you think of my wordsearch puzzles and if you’d like me to make more of them - I have plenty more where they came from. You can get in touch on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide, email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com or leave me a text message using the link in the show notes. And in case you were wondering, the new season of The Coffee Drinkers Guide, is in the pipeline and will be out soon. If you haven’t already, be sure to hit follow so that you don’t miss the start of Season Four when it drops. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for taking your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee - and one wordsearch puzzle - at a time and here’s to better coffee!
The Coffee Drinker’s Guide is a Blue Sky Coffee Project