Coffee

Pumpkin spice lattes are only here for a season, but coffee has a long, global history.

Posted on October 19, 2023 in Hot Topic

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Coffee: a comprehensive guide to the bean, the beverage, and the industry, ed. by Robert W. Thurston, Jonathan Morris, and Shawn Steiman. Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. 416p ISBN 9781442214408, $55.00; ISBN 9781442214422 ebook, contact publisher for price.
Reviewed in CHOICE April 2014

In light of today’s caffeine-obsessed culture, this new work focusing on coffee production and consumption is highly interesting and informative. The book is composed of 63 relatively short chapters gathered into five overall sections, beginning with “The Coffee Business” and “The State of Trade.” The trade section includes chapters on each of the world’s seven major coffee-growing areas and nine of the biggest coffee-consuming countries. The third section focuses on coffee’s history and coffee (and coffeehouse) culture, followed by a section on coffee qualities, including health aspects. The book concludes with an exploration of coffee’s future. This is not a compendium of academic papers, as are so many edited collections these days. Chapters, contributed by experts in their respective fields, are written in an engaging, accessible style. They are well researched and often include an extensive notes section at the end. Black-and-white photos, maps, graphs, and other illustrations are interspersed, depending on the topic. A glossary and detailed index round out the text. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public and academic library collections. —S. Hurst, Miami University

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Cowan, Brian. The social life of coffee: the emergence of the British coffeehouse. Yale, 2005. 364p ISBN 0300106661, $40.00.
Reviewed in CHOICE March 2006

There was no sound reason for coffee to have such a successful following in 17th-century England. The British took to coffee with great enthusiasm even though they distrusted exotic medicine and foodstuffs, distanced themselves from non-Christian empires, and considered it a bitter-tasting drink. Yet by the end of the century, coffee and coffeehouses were an accepted part of daily life. Cowan (McGill Univ.) explains why the British coffeehouses were embraced by all classes and how they helped democratize British society. Explaining the predilections of the virtuosi, the author discusses the eccentric behavior of these men and how it drew them to such things as tobacco, liquor, and chocolate–with coffee an additional exotic craze to embrace. Coffeehouses soon became centers of political discussions, financial transactions, art, poetry, and gossip. Many were accessible to customers regardless of wealth, status, or education. By the 18th century, coffee culture and the invention of the coffeehouse influenced English society. Cowen’s comprehensive account of the social history of British coffeehouses will stimulate discussion of the period’s civility, science, economics, and politics. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and researchers. —S. Hassig, Central Arizona College

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Fridell, Gavin. Coffee. Polity, 2014. 180p bibl index ISBN 9780745670768, $49.95; ISBN 9780745670775 pbk, $19.95.
Reviewed in CHOICE March 2015

At first, one might expect this book with its minimalist title to be a guide to the beverage for connoisseurs.  Instead, this recent addition by Fridell (St. Mary’s Univ., Canada) to the “Polity Resources Series” is a serious book—with several dimensions to it—about the world coffee economy.  Unlike Mark Kurlansky’s books on codfish (Cod, CH, Dec’97, 35-2109) and salt (Salt, CH, Jul’02, 39-6398), each of which tells the story of a single commodity’s positive social impact, Fridell’s book describes a commodity whose economy has contributed to backward labor practices and held back many of the countries that depend on its export.  The book covers the history of the coffee industry, from its origins in Yemen to its more recent reshaping through various corporate and state forces.  The author shows how coffee benefited from slavery and aggressive government policies, both of which kept labor costs low while helping those managing the post-production chain of the market reap substantial profits.  Attention is also given to the heavy environmental toll of sustained coffee cultivation.  Though one might expect that a book describing the negative background of coffee production in such detail would be arduous, Fridell’s work is well written and deserves a wide audience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —M. Perelman, California State University, Chico

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Kordick, Carmen. The saints of progress: a history of coffee, migration, and Costa Rican national identity. Alabama, 2019. 268p bibl index ISBN 9780817320027, $49.95; ISBN 9780817392093 ebook, $49.95.
Reviewed in CHOICE June 2019

Kordick (Southern Connecticut State Univ.) uses the history of the community of Tarrazú, a canton in San José province known for its coffee production, to break open Costa Rica’s national myth of yeoman farmers building a peaceful, white democracy. Drawing on archival and oral sources, each chapter merits a book of its own. Kordick moves from business history to gendered analysis of politics to war to questions of migration and race. In the early chapters she reinforces the argument made by other scholars—i.e., that even where coffee cultivation remained small scale, class disparities arose around processing at the top and labor at the bottom. These disparities endure to the present, albeit with new forms of labor input. Kordick’s major contribution comes in illuminating the connections between the Costa Rican population in the US—she focuses on New Jersey—and the continued strength of coffee smallholding in Terrazú. The coffee smallholdings celebrated by Costa Rican elite and popular classes alike are now cultivated and harvested by migrants from Panama and financed by family members working in New Jersey and struggling to earn money and send it back to Terrazú. The durability of a myth that arose during the Cold War, as Kordick points out, is increasingly challenged by the inequity that undergirds it.–C. Lurtz, Johns Hopkins University

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

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Morris, Jonathan. Coffee: a global history. Reaktion Books, 2019. 213p bibl index ISBN 9781789140026, $19.95; ISBN 9781789140262 ebook, contact publisher for price.
Reviewed in CHOICE June 2019

This colorful book reveals almost everything one may want to know about the ascent of coffee as a “global beverage.” Morris (Univ. of Hertfordshire, UK) begins, in plain language, with a brief discussion of the cultivation of the coffee plant, how its berries are processed to become coffee beans, and how these beans can be roasted to make a variety of coffee drinks, including the decaffeinated kind. After this scientific discussion, Morris moves on to the history, covering two centuries of coffee’s spread from the Middle East to Europe and to the rest of the world. While a rapid diffusion, this was also a gendered process because the coffee houses that served the beverage were traditionally a male environment, whereas “well-bred women were directed towards tea” (p. 73). Only once coffee makers became household items did the gender divide disappear. Toward the beginning of the 19th century, coffee processing was industrialized, and Brazil and US became the two major producers. The book finishes with the rise of “specialty coffee” and the global appeal of Starbucks, completing the journey to our own time. Delightful reading! Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. —Q. E. Wang, Rowan University

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Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon grounds: the history of coffee and how it transformed our world. Basic Books, 1999. 520p ISBN 0465036317, $27.50.
Reviewed in CHOICE November 1999

Pendergrast (investigative journalist and author, e.g., the well received For God, Country, and Coca-Cola, CH, Oct’93) presents the history of coffee from its discovery in Abyssinia to the spread of the Starbucks coffee shops. His fascinating story blends economics, politics, marketing, and managerial decision making in this comprehensive biography of one of the world’s most widely traded products. The book is the result of exhaustive research, as indicated by extensive source notes, a voluminous bibliography, and a list of nearly 250 interviews conducted over a roughly three and one-half year period. Coffee may have transformed the world as claimed in the subtitle, but it was a minor transformation compared with, say, electricity or computers. Pendergrast places greatest emphasis on coffee in the US, which is reasonable since that country consumes more than any other nation, but more coverage of coffee in other countries, e.g., greater use of coffee in producing countries, would have been desirable. This well-written work could be used as an excellent case study, or as collateral reading, in a number of academic courses, particularly marketing. Summing Up: Interesting and profitable reading for a wide audience–general readers, undergraduate and graduate students, and professionals.—W. C. Struning, Seton Hall University

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Simon, Bryant. Everything but the coffee: learning about America from Starbucks. California, 2009. 304p ISBN 9780520261068, $25.93.
Reviewed in CHOICE April 2010

In Everything but the Coffee, Simon (Temple Univ.) focuses on gaining an understanding of the world-famous Starbucks, specifically examining how its psychological, political, and emotional power over consumers has precipitated both its success and its subsequent downfall. Simon explores Starbucks’ cultural significance, positing that while Starbucks initially fulfilled desires for identity and culture, over time values changed. Consumers now seek “utility, a place to sit, or just the quickest caffeine fix.” The brand is evolving as consumers increasingly value the local, sustainable, and inexpensive. In the first section of the book, Simon attributes Starbucks’ growth to the ever-expanding meanings of buying in America, its influence on emotions, and the daily life of a rapacious consumer society. The following sections explore how Starbucks’ appeal is not focused solely on its products, but has migrated into new media, marketing films, books, and music. Simon concludes that the brand has now established a sense of “ordinariness,” with the company’s lack of ethics contributing to diminished market share. The book offers a modern twist on marketing, most appropriate for professionals and researchers or as a supplementary text for graduate students. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate through professional collections. —S. D. Clark, St. John’s University (NY)

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Singleton, Theresa A. Slavery behind the wall: an archaeology of a Cuban coffee plantation. University Press of Florida, 2015. 261p bibl index afp ISBN 9780813060729, $74.95.
Reviewed in CHOICE December 2015

Archaeologist Singleton (Syracuse) offers a rare glimpse into the Cuban historical landscape through the perceptions of a US-based archaeologist.  Her definitive study on the spatiality of slavery, plantation archaeology, and Cuban historical archaeology is as reflective as it is holistic.  She begins with the whole of Cuban history, makes comparisons with similar studies in other slavery-based countries, explains the relevance of her work at Cafetal Biajacs, and demonstrates how they are all interconnected in the big picture of spatial slavery and plantation studies.  Going beyond a mere analysis of material culture, Singleton dives into the ethnic and gender comparisons of the enslaved people who lived behind the walls.  This informative read on the mysterious and little-known Cuban culture and comprehensive how-to manual for archaeologists is an outstanding contribution to the study of slavery and Cuban historical archaeology. Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students, faculty, professionals. —K. C. McCallister, Appalachian State University

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Talbot, John M. Grounds for agreement: the political economy of the coffee commodity chain. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. 238p ISBN 0742526283, $70.00.
Reviewed in CHOICE January 2005

Talbot (Univ. of the West Indies) reviews significant events in world coffee trade since WWII from a largely political economics perspective. Unlike other works offering similar coverage, this book utilizes a theoretical construct–commodity chain analysis. Talbot’s carefully researched account of international negotiations related to coffee is enhanced with insights into the background of events and analogies to other commodities. Talbot devotes particular attention to major coffee producers; large international roasters/importers; and international agreements designed to regulate the flow of coffee into the world market. He finds overproduction to be the primary cause of the low prices paid to coffee-producing countries. Talbot advocates some form of regulation–reinstatement of export quotas buttressed by production controls, in particular–to smooth the flow of coffee into the world market and support the prices of green coffee. A chart showing world coffee supply and demand would have helped readers understand the magnitude of oversupply. Talbot pays little attention to the demand side of the problem, which persists despite concerted efforts by, for example, the World Coffee Promotion Committee, to absorb excess coffee by increasing consumption. Nevertheless, this is a valuable addition to the literature on coffee and an interesting case study of an important commodity. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. —W. C. Struning, Seton Hall University

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Van Norman, William C., Jr. Shade-grown slavery: the lives of slaves on coffee plantations in Cuba. Vanderbilt, 2013. 207p ISBN 9780826519146, $59.95; ISBN 9780826519153 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780826519160 ebook, contact publisher for price.
Reviewed in CHOICE December 2013

Cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco, and coffee were major plantation crops in the American tropics. In Cuba, sugar, tobacco, and coffee plantations thrived, worked by slave labor until emancipation in 1886. Fernando Ortiz’s classic Cuban Counterpoint (1940) contrasted sugar and tobacco slavery in Cuba. Now, in the first major work on Cuban coffee and its slave system, historian Van Norman shows how the requirements of different plantation crops affected the daily life and organization of the slave labor force. Coffee slavery was not as harsh and regimented as sugar slavery. Slaves on Cuban coffee farms married, lived in families, and cultivated their own food gardens. They succeeded in creating music and ritual. Their independent economic activities brought them income to spend as they liked. In short, Cuban coffee slaves created, maintained, and passed on culture despite their unfree condition. They were not the only slaves in the American tropics who succeeded in exercising limited autonomy, a topic on which there is a large literature. Yet coffee slavery in Cuba has not been investigated until now, making this is a valuable and accessible book for all college libraries. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. —R. Berleant-Schiller, University of Connecticut

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