The Devil’s Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee

August 23, 2019 - Comment

“Absolutely riveting . . . Essential reading for foodies, java-junkies, anthropologists, and anyone else interested in funny, sardonically told adventure stories.”—Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential Full of humor and historical insights, The Devil’s Cup is not only ahistory of coffee, but a travelogue of a risk-taking brew-seeker. In this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen

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“Absolutely riveting . . . Essential reading for foodies, java-junkies, anthropologists, and anyone else interested in funny, sardonically told adventure stories.”
—Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential

Full of humor and historical insights, The Devil’s Cup is not only ahistory of coffee, but a travelogue of a risk-taking brew-seeker.

In this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen treks three-quarters of the way around the world on a caffeinated quest to answer these profound questions: Did the advent of coffee give birth to an enlightened western civilization? Is coffee the substance that drives history? From the cliffhanging villages of Southern Yemen, where coffee beans were first cultivated eight hundred years ago, to a cavernous coffeehouse in Calcutta, the drinking spot for two of India’s Nobel Prize winners . . . from Parisian salons and cafés where the French Revolution was born, to the roadside diners and chain restaurants of the good ol’ USA, where something resembling brown water passes for coffee, Allen wittily proves that the world was wired long before the Internet. And those who deny the power of coffee (namely tea drinkers) do so at their own peril.

Comments

Anonymous says:

Coffee in history and from around the world The premise is simple enough, travel through the countries where coffee drinking originated and evolved while trying to find little bits of that history along the way. Stewart’s trail starts in Ethiopia, on to Yemen, India, to Turkey and across to Austria, Germany, France, Brazil and finally to the United States. He combines the adventures of his very unconventional free-form travel with outstanding research on how coffee influenced history and culture along the way.”The…

Anonymous says:

Writing on a Coffee Buzz I enjoyed this book by Mr. Allen. It is basically a personal narrative on his travels so it can also be considered a travel essay. As he experiences various regions, he stops and samples various brews. The “History of the World” portion of the title comes from amusing anecdotes throughout the book relating to coffee. I enjoyed learning about some of the regions where coffee was outlawed at a time and the reasoning or lack of behind it. I am only giving it four stars because I wanted more…

Anonymous says:

A devilish good read The premise is simple enough, travel through the countries where coffee drinking originated and evolved while trying to find little bits of that history along the way. Stewart’s trail starts in Ethiopia, on to Yemen, India, to Turkey and across to Austria, Germany, France, Brazil and finally to the United States. He combines the adventures of his very unconventional free-form travel with outstanding research on how coffee influenced history and culture along the way.”The Devil’s…

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