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THE COFFEE BOOK - Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop |
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Monday, 03 July 2006 |
 Revised and updated…
THE COFFEE BOOK
ANATOMY OF AN INDUSTRY FROM CROP TO THE LAST DROP
BY NINA LUTTINGER AND GREGORY DICUM
“This well-written book is an enticing brew . . .. An outstanding example of a thorough industry treatment.”
-Library Journal
“Informed and argumentative…. Drawing on sources ranging from Molière
and beatnik cartoonists to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the
authors describe the beverage’s long and colorful rise to ubiquity.”
-The Economist
One of the oldest commodities in the world – from the cafés of
sixteenth-century Cairo to the eighteenth-century Dutch colonies, from
the nineteenth-century Brazil to the modern-day Starbucks – coffee
tells not only the history of the world, but is a history in of itself.
As a part of our everyday routine, American society sees coffee as a
form of relaxation, simulation, and a necessary component of every
business meeting.
A freshly updated edition of the best introduction to one of the
world’s most popular products, THE COFFEE BOOK: ANATOMY OF AN INDUSTRY
FROM CROP TO THE LAST DROP (The New Press; May 31, 2006; $16.95 PB) by
Nina Luttinger and Gregory Dicum is jammed full of facts, figures,
cartoons, and commentary covering coffee from its first use in Ethiopia
in the sixth century to the rise of Starbucks and the emergence of Fair
Trade coffee in the twenty-first. The book explores the process of
cultivation, harvesting, and roasting from bean to cup; surveys the
social history of café society from the first coffeehouses in
Constantinople to beatnik havens in Berkeley and Greenwich Village; and
tells the dramatic tale of high-stakes international trade and
speculation for a product that can make or break entire national
economies. It also examines the industry’s major players, revealing how
they have systematically reduced the quality of the bean and turned a
much-loved product into a commodity and lifestyle accoutrement, ruining
the lives of millions of farmers around the world in the process.
Finally, The Coffee Book, hailed as a Best Business Book by Library Journal
when it was first published, considers the exploitation of labor and
damage to the environment that mass cultivation causes, and explores
the growing “conscious coffee” market and Fair Trade movement.
About the author:
Author of Window Seat, Gregory Dicum has written for the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Salon, Travel + Leisure, New York, and Mother Jones.
He is a contributing editor at Other magazine and writes a biweekly
column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Nina Luttinger has worked as a
private coffee and tea industry consultant and freelance writer and at
TransFair USA. They live in San Francisco.
THE COFFEE BOOK:
ANATOMY OF AN INDUSTRY FROM CROP TO THE LAST DROP
Nina Luttinger and Gregory Dicum
The New Press / May 31, 2006
Paperback / $16.95 / 232 pages
ISBN: 978-1-59558-060-3
To purchase the coffee book click here!
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