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Uncommon Grounds: The History Of Coffee And How It Transformed Our World

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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 your coffee table, I suggest you look elsewhere. This book is none of that. This book is pretty narrow in focus and limits itself to discussions on the history of coffee growing and the business end of the industry. Topics covered include trading, marketing and distribution, consumption patterns, the emergence of cafe's and big coffeehouses, and the social, environmental, and political issues in both the producing and consuming nations. As with so many recently published books this one suffers from a pop-culture sounding title which is deliberately eye-catching, but misleading with its grandiose claim. These titles work best with popular science books about arcane subjects that changed the world set in stories about eccentric heroes and villains. I enjoy those books but this is a different book. This serious work is more referrence book than story. Don't get me wrong though. UNCOMMON GROUNDS: THE HISTORY OF COFFEE AND HOW IT TRANSFORMED OUR WORLD is too well written and has enough anecdotes to provide the "latte" for what could otherwise have been simply a dark and thick text-book.

One of the issues that Pendergrast focuses on is the stark social contrasts between where coffee is grown and the markets where it is consumed. As we read on it becomes very apparent that for Pendergrast, researching this book was part moral lesson. He pays special attention to issues of economic justice and makes us see some of coffee's story in this light. He says coffee "laborers earn an average of $3 a day. Most live in abject poverty without plumbing, electricity, medical care, or nutritious foods". After shipping and processing the product arrives here at market where "cosmopolitan consumers routinely pay half a day's Third World wages for a good cup of coffee." Along these same lines Pendergrast talks about a movement in the speciality coffee sector towards the idea of "fair trade" coffee which seeks - in the slogan of one of the companies - to offer "Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup". Equal Exchange in the US and Max Havelaar Quality Mark coffee in Europe are the best known groups that say we should consider human rights issues when choosing a brand.

Equally as interesting is the topic of "bird-friendly coffee". Basically it involves a long standing debate over the merits of "shade coffee" (grown under a canopy of trees and thus bird-friendly) or "sun coffee" which is grown on open and exposed slopes. As happens with most things, the discussion ends up as a political argument with opponents of the ecological approach labelling it politically correct coffee. Perhaps that's true, or maybe as others have suggested, it's a brilliant marketing strategy for selling speciality coffee. Pendergrast doesn't say what he thinks but his presentation of a few facts gives us a hint. "Of the fifty-four million Americans who consider themselves birders, twenty-four million actually travelled in 1991 to observe their avian friends. In the process, they spent $2.5 billion - and who knows how much of that went for strong predawn coffee?"

Want to know about coffee prices? Prendergast explains. "One thing I have learned through my coffee research: One consumer's poison is another's nectar." In other words it's all relative and price is very subjective. "Then there's the psychological factor. The rarer the bean the more expensive and desirable. Hence, Hawaiian Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain command premium prices, even though most coffee experts consider them bland in comparison to Guatemalan Antigua or Kenya AA." Of course price is a function of supply and demand and no discussion of coffee could end without referrence to the US. We are the largest market and the home of the biggest coffeehouses (Starbucks of course). The Finns however beat us cups down when it comes to per capita consumption.

I've lived in both Kenya and Jamaica and have had my fair share of their coffee and am a birder myself. The books coverage of those topics was therefore of particular interest to me. Whatever your tastes and interests and whether or not you even drink coffee, there's much to learn and even more to enjoy in this fascinating look at our favorite brew.

It's not everyday you find a five hundred page book on the history of coffee. But then again, most coffee fans take their jobs quite seriously. Author Mark Pendergast has chronicled ups and downs of this remarkable commodity on an unprecedented scale. He takes us from the discovery of the bean in the hills of Ethiopia all the way to the despicable excesses of Starbucks. The first few chapters of this book take us on a jaunty trip through coffee's early history, including the ruthless and colorful European traders who were responsible for introducing the Western world to the bizarre beverage. Pendergast, a businessman by education, then settles into a wonderfully readable economic history. The structure of the material centers on the companies and international agreements that make up the international coffee system. But unlike so many commercially-oriented histories, Uncommon Grounds is eminently readable and captivating. The characters in the saga are fascinating: from American industrialists to Latin American peasants to African warlords to European consumers, there are people involved in this story, not just money. If you have a yen for coffee, grab an espresso and read this book. You won't find weighty theories on how coffee forms the basis of all human history, rather a fun, a caffeine-inspired trip through modernity with java-tinted glasses. -- HistoryHouse.com

Uncommon Grounds is the best history of coffee and the coffee trade to be published in English in over three-quarters of a century.

Mark Pendergrast has provided both to the casual reader and the coffee professional a perspective on the history of coffee and the coffee trade that has the ring of truth.

Pendergrast has not bothered the reader with myths of goatherds and mullahs, but focuses on the documented true story with the adventure and lure of fortune to be found in the brown gold that is coffee. We can sense the anguish and torment of peon and slave, and feel the silk-shirted personalities of the 19th Century robber barrons who created the great coffee fortunes. We cry with the Central American farmers, and cheer on the fledgling specialty coffee roaster/pioneers of the 1970's who created the new coffee business which heralded the myriad of consumer coffee choices of today.

The reader is swept along with the flow of history, as it is paralleled in the telling of coffee's fortunes and the fortunes of the men and businesses who have pursued it's financial promise. By the last chapter Mark Pendergrast has our cup running over with knowledge and understanding. Uncommon Grounds' text, authoritativly annotated and footnoted, brings coffee into sharp focus, warts and all. The picture is clear, well textured and on balance, an appealing and fascinating one. Uncommon Grounds, by Mark Pendergrast is sure to be enjoyed by the coffee lover on your gift list.

......

The reviewer, a professional roaster/cupper is Gourmet Specialties Editor @ Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, founded in 1902, the oldest and most esteemed trade organ serving the international coffee community.

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.

In Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World, Mark Pendergrast traces the commercial, political, and social impact of the bean from its mythical discovery by an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi to its modern vacuum-packed ubiquity. Pendergrast does best when describing the coffee-drinking habits of populations around the world down through history. Also of great interest are the sections illustrating the impetus that the coffee trade provided empire-building nations during the age of colonialism. Some of the strongest sections of the book deal with the role of the coffee trade in Cold War and contemporary U.S. foreign policy. Pendergrast also devotes ample attention to the social and environmental effects of the cultivation of coffee in the countries where it is grown. The text only lags a bit, however, during the long accounts of relatively mundane business maneuvers by various U.S. companies attempting to gain market supremacy. There is a useful appendix illustrating how to brew "the perfect cup" of coffee.

Everything we do, everything we buy has an impact far around the world. This is an excellent study of these links through an in depth review of the coffee industry. Pendergrast has researched the significant political, business, and economic history of the industry and its role in the US relationship with Latin American, African and Asian coffee producing countries. The information is academic quality but throughoughly readible.

Pendergrast certainly would not ask us to give up this amazing drink, but the book does help to lift the veil of ignorance surrounding the impact our decision has and our role and responsibility in the economic process called the "invisible hand" of capitalism.

The book is a bit heavy on the marketing history of the industry, but to business people or economists this is a one of its strongest aspects. It is also important to understand the history of coffee consumption in the US (and has implications for other products we buy.) Quite simply, Americans bought crappy coffee just because of the advertising and brand strategy. It is amazing to me how much longer it took Americans to realize the potential for much better tasting coffee. It does give hope to all entrepreneurs, because this seems so obvious to us post-Starbucks, but it is only very recently that gourmet coffee companies figured out that we might want something with flavor.

If there are broader lessons from this book, it is to re-examine what we buy. What do we buy that is just good marketing and yet is an inferior product in some way. I like to believe that most Americans would not want to buy products that are made with slave or child labor or with environmental practices that are killing people in another country. Obviously the real world is not so black and white, but I think the same principle applies to everything we buy. Ideally, we will continue to evolve as a society and consider these factors when we choose our coffee. It is the beauty and potential of our economic system that we CAN push Starbucks and other companies in that direction just buy what we choose at the coffee cart or in the grocery aisle.

This book doesn't deliver on its title on how coffee transformed our world. Instead it dwells excessively on market and price manipulation detail while skimming over the social-cultural aspects promised in the title. Yet it does have interesting photographs, and makes clear the extreme oppression of coffee workers in contrast to the U.S. insistence that paying a few cents more for coffee is impossible and justifies military support for brutal regimes. There are frustrating small questions that I would expect a book with this title would do more than mention, e.g., why does France, with its extreme emphasis on the importance of high quality food and taste, traditionally use a high percentage of the most inferior coffee beans to make lousy coffee? I also find the author's moralizing rather off-putting (although I don't disagree with his positions), and his inclusion in the body of the text of the 800 number for just one specific coffee company seems inappropriate. The author doesn't seem to have been able to really focus on what he wanted the book to be.

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 first grown in Africa and South America.. He goes into great length about the trade aspects of coffee, how it's become such an important staple of American life. I personally enjoyed the chapters on the history of American coffee advertising which went WAY beyond the "good to the last drop" story I'd heard regarding Theodor Roosevelt (said after drinking a cup of Maxwell House). If you or anyone you know, is a coffee lover, this is certainly a must-have book. I don't consider myself a coffee junky,(though I do like good coffee) and this was a really interresting & eye opening read.

I thought it was a good blend between history, socio-economic, business theory, anthropology --- who knew coffee was so interesting and me from Seattle - Starbucks land. This is the book for the wine folks, the erudite folks who can liltingly spew New Yorker and McPhee like stories at the drop of a whim, who effortlessly spin factoids into interesting conversation. Everybody drinks it, not everyone knows its pretty amazing journey/history. Thought it read like a novel. Reminded me of McPhee's writing - Good job - I look forward to reading his next entry - obviously a big thinker

I first heard about this book in a review on the Arts&Letters Daily website and couldn't agree more that this is a fabulous book. Mark Pendergast presents everything you never knew about coffee but didn't know existed, in an interesting, well woven story, from its history to present day business aspects to a consumers primer about this most stimulating of drinks. Others have reviewed this book as "liberal", but it simply presents the reality of this commodity. This book will educate and broaden you in many ways among which, the desire to find your favorite coffee, I've consequently graduated from staled in the can coffee to 8 o'clock-whole bean. The only drawback is for those who are not as business oriented the numbers by 3/4 of the way into the book can get a little tiring, but not too bad. Thank you Mark for writing this book!