Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry

Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry offers a definitive guide to the many rich dimensions of the bean and the beverage around the world. Leading experts from business and academia consider coffee’s history, global spread, cultivation, preparation, marketing, and the environmental and social issues surrounding it today. They discuss, for example, the impact of globalization; the many definitions of organic, direct trade, and fair trade; the health of female farmers; the relationships among shade, birds, and coffee; roasting as an art and a science; and where profits are made in the commodity chain. Drawing on interviews and the lives of people working in the business—from pickers and roasters to coffee bar owners and consumers—this book brings a compelling human side to the story. The authors avoid romanticizing or demonizing any group in the business. They consider basic but widely misunderstood issues such as who adds value to the bean, the constraints of peasant life, and the impact of climate change. Moving beyond simple answers, they represent various participants in the supply chain and a range of opinions about problems and suggested solutions in the industry. Coffee offers a multidimensional examination of a deceptively everyday but extremely complex commodity that remains at the center of many millions of lives. Tracing coffee’s journey from field to cup, this handbook to one of the world’s favorite beverages is an essential guide for professionals, coffee lovers, and students alike. Contributions by: Sarah Allen, Jonathan D. Baker, Peter S. Baker, Jonathan Wesley Bell, Clare Benfield, H. C. "Skip" Bittenbender, Connie Blumhardt, Willem Boot, Carlos H. J. Brando, August Burns, Luis Alberto Cuéllar, Olga Cuellar, Kenneth Davids, Jim Fadden, Elijah K. Gichuru, Jeremy Haggar, Andrew Hetzel, George Howell, Juliana Jaramillo, Phyllis Johnson, Lawrence W. Jones, Alf Kramer, Ted Lingle, Stuart McCook, Michelle Craig McDonald, Sunalini Menon, Jonathan Morris, Joan Obra, Price Peterson, Rick Peyser, Sergii Reminny, Paul Rice, Robert Rice, Carlos Saenz, Vincenzo Sandalj, Jinap Selamat, Colin Smith, Shawn Steiman, Robert W. Thurston, Steven Topik, Tatsushi Ueshima, Camilla C. Valeur, Geoff Watts, and Britta Zeitemann

Table of Contents:
Introduction Robert W. Thurston Part I: The Coffee Business 1 Strategies for Improving Coffee Quality Price Peterson 2 The Coffee Plant and How It Is Handled Shawn Steiman 3 Digging Deeper: Cultivation and Yields H. C. "Skip" Bittenbender 4 Coffee as a Global System Peter S. Baker 5 What Does “Organic” Mean? Robert W. Thurston 6 Coffee under Threat: The Growing Problem of the Coffee Berry Borer Juliana Jaramillo 7 Culture, Agriculture, and Nature: Shade Coffee Farms and Biodiversity Robert Rice 8 A Guatemalan Coffee Farmer’s Story: A Challenging Life in a Beautiful, Harsh Land Carlos Saenz 9 Pickers Robert W. Thurston 10 Coffee Processing: An Artisan's Perspective Joan Obra 11 Women in Coffee in Colombia Olga Cuellar 12 How a Country Girl from Arkansas Became an Importer Leading Other Women in Coffee Phyllis Johnson 13 The Role of Nonprofits in Coffee August Burns 14 Hunger in the Coffee Lands Rick Peyser 15 The “Price” of Coffee: How the Coffee Commodity Market Works Robert W. Thurston 16 Appreciating Quality: The Route to Upward Mobility for Coffee Farmers George Howell 17 What is Specialty Coffee? Shawn Steiman 18 Where Does the Money Go in the Coffee Supply Chain? Robert W. Thurston Part II: The State of the Trade 19 The Global Trade in Coffee: An Overview Robert W. Thurston 20 Coffee Certification Programs Robert W. Thurston 21 Direct Trade in Coffee Geoff Watts 22 Fair Trade: Still a Big Plus for Farmers and Workers around the World Paul Rice Producer Country Profiles 23 Hawaii Shawn Steiman 24 India Sunalini Menon 25 Indonesia Jinap Selamat 26 Colombia Luis Alberto Cuéllar 27 Ethiopia Willem Boot 28 Vietnam Robert W. Thurston 29 Brazil Carlos H. J. Brando 30 Supporting Coffee Farmers’ Response to Market Changes Jeremy Haggar Consumer Country Profiles 31 Introduction to Consumer Countries Jonathan Morris 32 Denmark Camilla C. Valeur 33 France Jonathan Wesley Bell 34 Italy Vincenzo Sandalj 35 United Kingdom Clare Benfield 36 Russia Robert W. Thurston 37 Ukraine Sergii Reminny with Jonathan Morris 38 Japan Tatsushi Ueshima 39 Germany Britta Zeitemann 40 United States Robert W. Thurston Part III: The History of Coffee and Its Social Life 41 Coffee, a Condensed History Jonathan Morris with material from Robert W. Thurston 42 Coffee House Formats through the Centuries: Third Places or Public Spaces? Jonathan Morris 43 Why Americans Drink Coffee: The Boston Tea Party or Brazilian Slavery? Steven Topik and Michelle Craig McDonald 44 The Ecology of Taste: Robusta Coffee and the Limits of the Specialty Revolution Stuart McCook 45 The Espresso Menu: A History Jonathan Morris 46 The Competing Languages of Coffee: Signs, Narratives, and Symbols of American Specialty Coffee Kenneth Davids Part IV: The Qualities of Coffee 47 Coffee Quality Geoff Watts 48 Why Does Coffee Taste That Way? Notes from the Field Shawn Steiman 49 Coffee Quality and Assessment Shawn Steiman 50 Distinctive Drinking: Specialty Coffee and Class in the United States Jonathan D. Baker 51 Brewing: Dissolving the Puzzle Andrew Hetzel 52 Roasting: Developing Flavor in the Bean Colin Smith 53 Roasting Culture Connie Blumhardt and Jim Fadden 54 Barista Culture Sarah Allen 55 Brewing Culture Alf Kramer Coffee and Health 56 The Long Debate over Coffee and Health Robert W. Thurston 57 Caffeine: How Much Is in Your Cup, and How Much Is Bad for You? Robert W. Thurston 58 Recent Research on Coffee and Health Lawrence W. Jones Part V: The Future of Coffee 59 Coffee Research in Kenya: Current Status and Future Perspectives Elijah K. Gichuru 60 Genetically Modified (Transgenic) Coffee Robert W. Thurston 61 Mechanization Robert W. Thurston 62 A Life in Coffee Ted Lingle 63 How to Make a Great Cup of Coffee Robert W. Thurston with Shawn Steiman and Jonathan Morris Glossary

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.

Review :
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. Highly recommended. All public and academic library collections. 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. 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. 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. One of the very best coffee books to be released in a very long time. A must read for all coffee people.... Not only does this book include an amazing and global perspective of the bean that became one of the world’s most popular beverages, but also discusses all of the major coffee growing counties in detail from Guatemala to Ethiopia. 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. 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.