Uncommon Grounds Revised Edition: The History Of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World [Paperback]

 

 

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The subtitle of this book is: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World. I thought I was getting into a book about the role of coffee in the waves and trends of world history.

However, Prendergast almost entirely ignores the rest of the world (while repeatedly remarking how Europeans drink more coffee than Americans) and writes, instead a literature review of coffee industry publications, going into tedious detail of the advertising wars between coffee companies in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Occasionally, the author finds himself remarking about how coffee consumption in the industrialized world helped institutionalize atrocious poverty in coffee-growing countries, but then eschews considered analysis in order to get back to the oh-so-enthralling decades-long battle between Maxwell House and Hills Brothers for market share.

Prendergast repeatedly refers to how Americans' taste for coffee is, objectively, poor - one feels he does this as compensation for what he knows is a weak narrative.

If you are looking for a book which considers the 'world' as 95% America and chapters full of quotes from fin de siecle coffee advertisements, you've found the right one. If you are looking for a careful anaylsis of how coffee has changed the world, you'll need to keep looking.

Resting next to your mouse or keyboard - at a safe distance! - your cuppa steams aromatically. The morning coffee, whether at home or work, is the "kick-starter" of many a person's day. For some, it must be a special flavour, brewed to taste, yet often mixed with sweeteners or cow juice, real or otherwise. For the rest, anything hot and caffeine-laced is sufficient. Yet almost none of us ask where that beverage came from, why we drink it and why North Americans stick with coffee and others with tea. Mark Pendergrast asked, and asked some more and in many places. The result is this captivating book relating the history of our favourite beverage. It must be important if we write songs about it.

Opening by relating the Ethiopian myth of the goat-herd wanting to learn why his charges danced about in the bush, Pendergrast quickly traces the spread of coffee elsewhere. Coffee houses, beginning long ago, became quickly popular as gathering places. News and gossip were swopped over steaming cups. Patrons didn't exactly dance about as the goats did, but there must have been something more than just lounging about. The coffee house, viewed as a den of vice or worse, sedition, has been banned by various insecure rulers. Charles II of England, fearful his reign might go the way of his father's, tried to shut them down. He was correct, since the howl of protest might have generated another rebellion. The king withdrew the ban.

While coffee houses remained in place, some becoming gloriously decorated institutions, it was the home market that enlarged the role of coffee. Pendergrast tracks that shift with a colourful history of coffee's economic growth in the Western Hemisphere. As tea was consumed in Britain in a form of support for the East India Company, so did coffee rise as part of North American patriotic fervour. The nascent United States took up coffee with alacrity, the habit made easier by the proximity of the growing nations. The author notes that once coffee took root in Brazil, that nation became the backbone of the coffee industry.

Coffee's status as a cash crop, however, made it vulnerable to numerous forces - not the least weather. Grown at various elevations, but rarely on environmentally stable plains, coffee is subject to storms and frosts. Like grape vines, coffee is also vulnerable to a virus infestation. Prices rise and fall in a highly unpredictable market. Pendergrast notes how at the beginning of the 20th Century, the US penchant for cheap coffee led the government to make early attempts at meddling with Brazil's domestic economy. It was easy to claim Brazil's growers and wholesalers were "fixing" prices by storing millions of bags in warehouses, when their real intention was price stablilisation.

Pendergrast traces the growth of this industry with a fine flair for detail. Price shifts, marketing techniques, changes in tastes and the growth of dealers from small shops to national chains are all covered well. While there are many names and control shifts about in various locations, the author keeps us with him as he recounts the interactions. There is little technical to distract or delay the reader - he keeps the chemistry of coffee tucked away in a final chapter. To reach that point, however, the reader is guided through the founding and expansion of such names as Folger's, Hills Brothers and A&P. It's not all pleasant reading, of course. We must pause to cope with the palate-insulting phenomenon of "instant" coffee [you don't actually drink that stuff, do you?]. There are a few unpleasant people to meet. However, we also learn that with home-served coffee being served by sometimes abused housewives, some enterprising women entered the coffee trade arena. Some of these did so well they are legends in the industry.

This is an excellent book on a "hidden" topic. To understand why coffee prices shift and wobble, why this is the second most valuable resource in the world, why one brand is a delight to drink while another goes down the drain after the first taste, this is the place to find out. While you're ordering your copy, i'll just nip off to the kitchen for another cuppa . . . [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Everything you ever wanted to know about coffee. Most of the book makes for very slow reading, but the information is interesting and well worth the price.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Decent book
This book is about coffee. Obvious, right?

Yet, it is also about the larger world out there. Our kind author isn't just using coffee as a metaphor, but instead uses Coffee as... Read more

Published on Mar 19 2004 by David N. Reiss

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun read.
This informative book is truly a joy to read, and any coffee drinker (serious coffee drinker, anyways) would benefit from this work. Read more

Published on Dec 9 2003 by L. Olmstead

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelent
Ok, I admitt that if you do know about coffee you'll probably find it somewhat incomplete, specially in the terms of how to get a great cup of it. Read more

Published on May 9 2003 by Roberto Macías

5.0 out of 5 stars Coffee may be worse than cattle!
This is a great book that details the origins of coffee from 6th century Ethiopia to today's Starbucks. On many levels this book succeeds. Read more

Published on April 4 2003 by Super Trader

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit tedious and more
Although critically acclaimed, this book was not exactly what I was seeking. It gives the history of the US mass market coffee companies in excruciating detail, but as a coffee... Read more

Published on Nov 16 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Not keeping me up at night, but a great history
A staple of our breakfast table, our breaks at work, after dinner, and for a pick me up all during the day coffee is something that we think about the cup in front of us, but... Read more

Published on Jun 23 2002 by J. J. Kwashnak

4.0 out of 5 stars The History of the Coffee Business
This book outlines the history of coffee with a focus on the industry as a whole. It's main focus is on the late 19th century to the present. Read more

Published on May 2 2002 by Craig Clotfelter

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a "caffe latte" history
If you are looking for something light that offers some tips for tasters or a cultural history on some of the exotic places that coffee is grown, or even an appropriate book for... Read more

Published on Mar 24 2002 by michaeleve

5.0 out of 5 stars If you have to find the ONE book that covers Coffee..
Pendergrast has it covered here in Uncommon Grounds.. From Kaldi to Peet's and Starbucks.. He manages to give you the complete historical perspective of coffee from when it was... Read more

Published on Feb 3 2002 by P. S. Rouse

5.0 out of 5 stars Serves up a rich blend of history.
A discovery made in an Ethiopian rainforest centuries ago no commodity such as coffee has brewed up a rich and troubled history. Read more

Published on July 29 2001 by FinancialNeedsdotcom

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