KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — If you are in the coffee industry, the name Scott Rao will already be a familiar one.

After all, he has written four books on the subject.

The books have also been translated into many other languages.

Rao, 43, started in the coffee business at 20 but it was only in the last 10 years that he took to writing and consulting.

“I started writing books on coffee because I could never find a good book on the subject. So I started to experiment and experience coffee and wrote about it,” he explained.

The coffee consultant and author is on his Asian tour to conduct workshops and consulting. So far, he has visited Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore before making his way to Malaysia. 

Coffee geeks and people in the industry got a chance to learn from Rao over the weekend as he conducted two masterclasses hosted by Pulp by PapaPalheta.

The first one was about espresso and filter coffee while the second one was all about roasting. I sat in on the first masterclass where Rao also did a demo on hand drip coffee at Bookmark, APW in Bangsar. The four-hour session had about 35 people in attendance. 

Rao is a technical instructor so if you are a beginner you might not understand the equipment and coffee jargons.

“Coffee is part art and part science. The art part is when we use our taste, sense and judgement to tell if the coffee is good. It has to be consistent with the science part where it is measured,” said Rao. 

The coffee instructor said that to be a professional, measuring is mandatory. Little wonder then that he started off by talking about the refractometer and its usage. 

The refractometer is used to determine what level of extraction tastes best and it is valuable information for coffee professionals. Different extraction levels affect the taste of coffee. 

The session was an interactive one as Rao would answer questions throughout. The majority of participants were in the coffee industry so it was no surprise to have technical questions directed at Rao. 

It’s not every day that Malaysian coffee professionals have access to someone like Rao so it was an energetic session.

“I enjoyed my trip here to Malaysia. It is my first time here and I’m glad that the participants asked a lot of questions,” he said.

Most of them will be surprised though to know that Rao actually prefers tea to coffee!

“Tea is my first love, but coffee is more of a job. Coffee makes better business. Also, when you turn something you love into a job, you lose the passion for it.” 

He once ran a restaurant but he stopped doing that when he realised he wanted to continue loving to cook.

Next up is another book and maybe a coffee school.

Rao is considering the possibility of collaborating with Pulp again for another workshop in the future.