Toby Frere is the owner of Number 35 Coffee House and Kitchen on High West Street in Dorchester

In this monthly column I am going to pass on my enthusiasm for coffee, an underestimated product. There is a lot more to coffee than you first think.

A term I’m sure you have heard is ‘barista’, but do you know what a barista is? The literal translation from Italian is ‘bartender’ and it was generally applied to those working in shops preparing coffee.

That is why the term has bean (ha, sorry!) adopted by the coffee industry. In the coffee world we now have many different levels of barista in terms of training, experience and skills. This is just one reason why the speciality coffee industry has formed.

Speciality coffee shops and baristas work hard to take coffee to a whole new level, with coffees from different regions, origins and altitudes. All this gives a different flavour in the cup, so it becomes an even more interesting drink. For example, we have at least two different espressos on at any time, plus brewed coffee and amazing decaf (yes, really!). And, they’re changing all the time.

There is so much I can tell you about a truly wonderful product. So, in this column I’ll take an interesting topic each month and hopefully you will become as passionate about coffee as I am.