Coffee - by Robert W Thurston & Father Jonathan Morris & Shawn Steiman (Paperback)

About the Book

In this definitive guide, experts consider coffee's history, global spread, cultivation, preparation, marketing, and the environmental and social issues surrounding it. They also describe the art and science of roasting, cupping, and making good coffee in a comprehensive handb...

Book Synopsis

In this definitive guide, experts consider coffee's history, global spread, cultivation, preparation, marketing, and the environmental and social issues surrounding it. They also describe the art and science of roasting, cupping, and making good coffee in a comprehensive handbook will be an essential resource to one of the world's favorite beverages.

Review Quotes

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.

Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry [is] a real heavyweight of 400 pages or so. . . . The authors . . . point out that they consider the work to be 'a handbook', and so using the book as a dip-in becomes perfectly legitimate. . . . Elsewhere in the book, we find many nuggets and gems. . . . Insights into the situations at origin are fascinating. . . . Producer country profiles are interesting and observations are direct and to the point. . . . This book works very well indeed.

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.

One of the very best coffee books to be released in a very long time.


This comprehensive guide to the coffee bean and the beverage itself includes contributions from leading experts in business and academia. They consider the history, global spread, preparation, marketing, and social issues that surround coffee today. The book also includes interviews with people who work in the business, from pickers to roasters, to bring a human side to the story. By tracing coffee's journey from field to cup, the editors work to create a guide for professionals, coffee lovers, and students to help them better understand their favorite beverage.

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.

Truly comprehensive, examining coffee from soil to cup. [The authors] have pulled together 63 essays that address agriculture, economics, gender, culture and history, assessment of quality, effects on health, and future research and development of the coffee bean and coffee production. The authors include coffee farmers, scientists, industry leaders, journalists, historians, and even a mechanical engineer. In addition, there are country profiles providing detailed information about both coffee-producing and coffee-consuming countries (e.g., Vietnam, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Colombia, the United States) that cover subjects such as the history of coffee in the region, climate, business costs, companies in the marketplace, and trends in consumption. . . . For those who have a serious coffee addiction, the book offers a wealth of content.

About the Author

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.