Re: A newbie's Hello world!

On the subject of coffee, the analytical equipment to qualify and
quantify caffeine is more than a few thousand USD$ -- more like 5-10
thousand each.  But if you're obsessed with chormatography (I know I
am), you can get started.  Try paper chromatography, or read up on how
people used to make starch and silica TLC plates.  If you can separate
pen ink reproducibly, then you can look up what Tswett did -- plant
pigments in chalk filled tubes, simple, and you can use analytical
instruments installed in your head.

Obsessed as you are... can you suggest a good reading about chromatography? From a beginner's point of view, with an in-depth approach would be exactly what I need. And in any case a vocabulary word comes up that after googling I'm still unable to understand, I can always ask around here!

Thanks a lot,
  Robert
.