Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

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.

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 m

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 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!

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