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

If you are a new coffee fanatic, and are in to roasting your own coffee and wanting to learn all you can about coffee, go ahead and purchase this book, Pendergrast does a pretty good job of covering the coffee world from harvest to cup, and it is in an easy to read format. But I must say, I felt it was basically a "Cliff Note" of the all encompassing "Coffee Bible" that William H. Uker wrote almost a hundred years ago. Ukers book is titled "All About Coffee", and is the acknowledged complete work of every aspect of the coffee world. You can sometimes find the out of print book on Ebay, but it is usually over $150 for a worn out copy! I found that you can go to "Project Gutenberg" on the web and read the entire book, with all the full color hand drawn pictures, absolutely free of charge! Do it! You won't regret it!

I bought this book for my own information -- I've been a black coffee drinker for c. 60 years, and a real coffee aficionado for the past 15 years or so. The book's size and amount of information are almost overwhelming, and yet the author's clear, reader-friendly, nearly conversational writing style make it as much a "page-turner" as a good mystery novel. He covers the history, geography, economics, and complex sociology & politics of all aspects of this world-wide industry so completely as to make this work a textbook, nay, a one-volume college course. From Asia, Africa, and the Americas, to Starbuck's, Folgers, Maxwell House and everything in the U.S., it's all here. HIGHLY recommended!!

If you love coffee, this book may hold your attention. But, a more casual reader may find the book plods rather slowly, particularly the second half. The first half on coffee varieties and history was interesting. The second half of the book about the personalities and rise of craft coffee made for slow reading. Having read the book, my recommendation for coffee lovers is: read the first half and then quit.

It got more into the corporate battles than was my interest, but some folks may enjoy that. The history of coffee is a fascinating subject, for me.

Found the book in a coffee shop over in Kuwait. Had to get my own copy. The history of coffee is something most people don’t know. Do you? In this book you can also read about the reason Kellogg developed corn flakes. You may or may not stop eating them.

Probably the best historical book written about coffee as the author somehow made a factual compilation an easy read. The first half of the book was particularly entertaining. This book remains in my small library and I have used it as a reference several times. I have also purchased a few copies as gifts for friends.

Wow! This book really delves into behind the scene dealings of coffee companies extending into the darker aspects of government interventions in the exploitation of foreign nations' resources. Loaded with fun facts and pertinent information. I bought it for my dad for Christmas. He's a coffee lunatic and collects Chase & Sanborn vintage coffee tins.

I was wandering in Ethiopia when the curiosity about coffee was borned. I am a Brazilian but never looked deep into the story and history of coffee. This book is a piece of beauty as gives a tremendous parallel in between thes tory and the history of the world since coffee invention.

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

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.

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.