Tasting Notes is part of an ongoing quest for a more transparent coffee culture. The book’s text is mined from advertising copy - hyperbolic descriptions of coffee and its origins. This text is paired with advertising imagery from Chicago coffeehouses, especially depictions of labor and coffee production. By appropriating advertising tactics, Tasting Notes demonstrates the disparity between the message of marketing and the reality that it hides. This sense of artifice and illusion is referenced throughout the visual language of the book.