Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World Paperback – 28 September 2010

Mark Prendergrast has got a good record as an author and this book is no exception. It's somewhat US-centric, although given the global reach of subjects as various American jazz and Starbucks, both of which feature, that isn't a huge problem given the topic. It covers the full range of the coffee story - production, trade and drinking - and features many lively and eccentric characters on the way. This all makes for a good solid history of the topic.

Recipient seemed pleased with the book, plenty of information about the new hobby and was looking forward to trying out allt he different coffees from around the world.

It looks at the subject purely from the USA, which was disappointing as a UK reader, however some interesting content

This book assumes you don't know what the word guano means and you are incapable of using a dictionary. So one example among the many bits of the book that are maybe pitched at too low a reading level for the US audience - skip the long rambling bit in the middle about the US coffee advertising in the 30s and 40s, nothing of interest there. Its flaw is its geocentric bias but someone obviously mentioned this to him at some point as after the huge swathes of guff about Folgers or something there'll be a morsel about Germany or Peru something squashed on the end of the chapter. You'd be surprised Nestle even existed, that tiny little European coffee supplier. Otherwise, it was an ok read, it's most definitely not challenging, bits of it are interesting.

I first read this book as a young teenaged coffee enthusiast who had just begun to discover that coffee is actually so much more than the Gevalia subscription my father bought me for Christmas. I always knew I wanted to add this book to my library, and I'm so glad I did! Once again, I was thrilled by the storied history of coffee, and how it has shaped governments, economies, and cultures all around the world. If you are looking for a comprehensive look at coffee, and the industry as a whole, this is the book for you; if you are a lover of history, this is the book for you; if you just want to know what the big deal is with coffee, this is the book for you. In my mind, this is pretty much the coffee bible.