Awards

• Winner of Gourmand Awards 2013, Best Coffee Book 2013
• Winner of Gourmand World Cookbook Awards: Best Coffeee Book (US) 2013
• Winner of Gourmand World Cookbook Awards: Best Coffeee Book (US) 2013.
• Winner of Library Journal Best Reference of 2013.

Overview

Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry offers a definitive guide to the many rich dimensions of the bean and the beverage around the world. Leading experts from business and academia consider coffee’s history, global spread, cultivation, preparation, marketing, and the environmental and social issues surrounding it today. They discuss, for example, the impact of globalization; the many definitions of organic, direct trade, and fair trade; the health of female farmers; the relationships among shade, birds, and coffee; roasting as an art and a science; and where profits are made in the commodity chain. Drawing on interviews and the lives of people working in the business—from pickers and roasters to coffee bar owners and consumers—this book brings a compelling human side to the story. The authors avoid romanticizing or demonizing any group in the business. They consider basic but widely misunderstood issues such as who adds value to the bean, the constraints of peasant life, and the impact of climate change. Moving beyond simple answers, they represent various participants in the supply chain and a range of opinions about problems and suggested solutions in the industry. Coffee offers a multidimensional examination of a deceptively everyday but extremely complex commodity that remains at the center of many millions of lives. Tracing coffee’s journey from field to cup, this handbook to one of the world’s favorite beverages is an essential guide for professionals, coffee lovers, and students alike. Contributions by: Sarah Allen, Jonathan D. Baker, Peter S. Baker, Jonathan Wesley Bell, Clare Benfield, H. C. ""Skip"" Bittenbender, Connie Blumhardt, Willem Boot, Carlos H. J. Brando, August Burns, Luis Alberto Cuéllar, Olga Cuellar, Kenneth Davids, Jim Fadden, Elijah K. Gichuru, Jeremy Haggar, Andrew Hetzel, George Howell, Juliana Jaramillo, Phyllis Johnson, Lawrence W. Jones, Alf Kramer, Ted Lingle, Stuart McCook, Michelle Craig McDonald, Sunalini Menon, Jonathan Morris, Joan Obra, Price Peterson, Rick Peyser, Sergii Reminny, Paul Rice, Robert Rice, Carlos Saenz, Vincenzo Sandalj, Jinap Selamat, Colin Smith, Shawn Steiman, Robert W. Thurston, Steven Topik, Tatsushi Ueshima, Camilla C. Valeur, Geoff Watts, and Britta Zeitemann

Full Product Details

9781442214408

Table of Contents

Reviews

A gift to every coffee lover and scholar, this monumental guidebook takes the reader from seed to cup, with stops in every time and place where coffee is significant. Even coffee fanatics will find many stories and details to savor in this rich and rewarding collection. -- Richard Wilk, University of California, Berkeley

A gift to every coffee lover and scholar: this monumental guidebook takes the reader from seed to cup, with stops in every time and place where coffee is significant. Even coffee fanatics will find many stories and details to savor in this rich and rewarding collection. -- Richard Wilk, Indiana University Editor Thurston and his colleagues have produced a welcome up-to-date vade mecum on the subject of coffee in all its manifestations. Readable, useful, and to the point, it will answer nearly everybody's questions about this enigmatic beverage. -- Sidney W. Mintz, Johns Hopkins University

Author Information

Robert W. Thurston is professor emeritus of history at Miami University. Jonathan Morris is research professor of modern European history at the University of Hertfordshire. Shawn Steiman is owner of Coffea Consulting in Honolulu.

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