The folks over at Pop Chart Lab have been busy. They do impressive work; here are two of their infographics which delineate just about everything you would need to know in order to become an impressive beer snob or a really skilled barista. These infographics are large – click for a full-size version.

All the beers, and the kinds of glasses they are served in.

Master this, and Starbucks is your oyster.

A blogger over at Fast Company related,

[The] coffee Chart lays out the entire coffee ecosystem, outlining how various methods of production, including the French press, Kyoto dripper, and Neapolitan flip, among others, are used to create coffees, cortados, cappuccinos, and more. Coffee devotees can use the graphic as a way to announce their allegiance to the coffee bean in all its manifestations. For newcomers, it’s a chance to discover that it’s not actually called a “cafe olé.”

Creating the taxonomy was not without its difficulties. “We had to make a judgment call on how to classify the output of the Moka Pot and the Aeropress,” a PopChartLab team member told me. “It’s not quite standard brewed coffee, but we wouldn’t dare call it espresso, so we coined a term for it: fauxpresso.” And while it is, indeed, compendious, there is one notable omission. “I think we got just about every major coffee brewer in here except for K-cups,” he says, “because screw K-cups.”

One of my Aussie mates has been busy with a virtual beer tour around the world (originally in 80 beers, but as of this writing up to 129); I’d love to take that tour with him, as well as sample every possible type of coffee concoction, if it weren’t for the fact that I drink neither beer nor coffee.

But all this is ruddy interesting.

The Old Wolf has spoken.