Full Description
This engaging guide traces the history, cultivation, and culture of coffee, as well as the major factors influencing the industry today. Robert Thurston provides a readable, concise overview of coffee from the time the seeds of the coffee fruit are planted to the latest ideas in roasting and making beverages. He considers cultivation and its challenges, especially climate change; new research on hybridization; the history of coffee and cultural change surrounding it around the world; devices, new and old, for making coffee drinks; the issue of organic versus conventional agriculture; and the health benefits of the brew. The first book that coffee lovers naturally will turn to, it will also appeal to anyone interested in globalization, climate change, and social justice.
Contents
1 INTRODUCTION
2 IN PRODUCING COUNTRIES:
COFFEE FROM FARM TO PORT
Where and How Coffee Grows
Organic vs. Synthetic: Yes, Coffee Is Full of Chemicals
Coffee Cultivation
Women in Coffee
Gathering and Processing the Harvest
The Cost of Coffee through the Supply Chain
Certification Programs: Benefits and Drawbacks
Cupping (Rating and Purchasing Decisions)
Climate Change
3 ROASTING COFFEE, MAKING COFFEE DRINKS
Coffee Consumption around the World
What Is "Sophistication"?
How Coffee Spread around the Globe
Roasting
Making Coffee to Drink
4 COFFEE AND HEALTH,
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL
How Coffee Brought Social and Political Disruption to the World
Coffee and Personal Health
Caffeine
Recent Research on Coffee and Health
5 CONCLUSION
GLOSSARY
NOTES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
