Antony Wild

Excerpt from my review at my blog, The Itinerant Librarian:

"Coffee is one of my favorite topics. I enjoy the drink, and I like reading about the lore and history around it, so I thought this would be a good book on the topic. It was not to be."

Visit my blog to read the rest. Link: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2013/04/booknote-coffee-dark-history.html… (més)

Witty a.nd well-informed. almost a complete history of world history viewed from the bottom of a coffee cup.Leitmotiv is St Helena ( which has great coffee but it never caught on) and Napoleon who was a crab and miserable bungler. Wild is a former coffee trader turned filial historian so he has all the facts in his apron pocket and well able to overturn some myths. The book loses a bit of momentum when coming to modern times: the case histories of exploitation (Latin America especially) make rather heavy reading after the more anecdotal style of the first part.

some good turns of phrase:
" the only thing instant coffee has in common with real coffee is that both bear the same name"
An espresso machine is the best way of making a good coffee, but not a good way of making the best coffee" Not quite clear what is the way for best coffee but i think it's still the cafetière. Surprisingly in the after-notes he says he normally drinks just a "decent supermarket Guatemalan". Coffee is packed with marketing spin and illusions. Freshness really matters, at every stage.… (més)