Book Description
The first comprehensive business and social history of
coffee, from the author of the widely acclaimed For God,
Country and Coca-Cola.
From its discovery in ancient Ethiopia to its role as a
millennial elixir in the Age of Starbucks, coffee has
dominated and molded the economies, politics, and social
structures of entire countries. The second most valuable
exported legal commodity on earth, it has sparked
revolutions, romances, business deals, and friendships.
Uncommon Grounds traces the journey of coffee from its
origins on tropical mountainsides cultivated by poor laborers
to the coffee bars of the United States, Europe, and Japan,
where cosmopolitan consumers pay half a day's Third World
wages for one good cup. Pendergrast's scrupulously researched
and lively anecdotal history provides a window through which
to view broader themes of modern-day media and marketing, the
rise of mass production, colonialism, women's issues, and
international commodity.