Java Jive

"...brimful with a wealth of coffee understanding from the 'ground' up, from bean to cup, including international coffees and brewing techniques best suited to a variety of preferences, all topped off with plenty of problem-solving tips and delectable full-color photographs."

"In this ultimate coffee guide you will learn to understand and enjoy all the new coffee drinks, navigate coffeehouses like a 1960's hippie , control the calories in your favorite drink, get better results when making coffee at home, maximize the health benefits of coffee and speak coffee jargon like a barista."

From its discovery in ancient Ethiopia to its role as a millennial elixir in the Age of Starbucks, coffee has dominated and molded the economies, politics, and social structures of entire countries. The second most valuable exported legal commodity on earth, it has sparked revolutions, romances, business deals, and friendships. Uncommon Grounds traces the journey of coffee from its origins on tropical mountainsides cultivated by poor laborers to the coffee bars of the United States, Europe, and Japan, where cosmopolitan consumers pay half a day's Third World wages for one good cup.

Patricia Harper is dead, killed by a hot-wired espresso machine, in Uncommon Grounds, her very own gourmet coffee store! Maggy Thorsen wants to know who killed one of her partners. Maggy needs the store to succeed. Starting over after her divorce, she's quit her PR job to open the coffee store. And if things aren't already tough enough, she begins to suspect one of her friends is responsible for Patricia's murder.

"Coffee as history's primary instrument and instigator. What is this elixir that fuels our destiny? Stewart Lee Allen's insatiable, unquenchable thirst for the answer carries him across forbidden borders and several continents as he pursues the precious and little-known catalytic effect of the ambrosial brew upon world empires and mankind. He also documents the unconscionable attempts to suppress coffee. With Paris one 'vast caf,' for instance, Napoleon banned coffee, but then was summarily overthrown and exiled. His last request: a cup of St. Helena's best. Likewise, Germany's long anti-coffee campaigns kept java from offering its solace to the lower classes. In 1930 German workers voted Adolf Hitler into power. In America the military tried for fifty years to produce an easily brewed cup for battlefield use, and did. The perfection of instant coffee triggered a 3,000 percent jump in consumption during World War I and stimulated the rise of the United States to world-class power."

Who knew coffee was such a cutthroat business? Good reading for a rainy afternoon, cuppa joe in hand:

"Amsterdam, 1659: On the world’s first commodities exchange, fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a sharp-witted trader in the city’s close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this only too well. Once among the city’s most envied merchants, Miguel has suddenly lost everything. Now, impoverished and humiliated, living in his younger brother’s canal-flooded basement, Miguel must find a way to restore his wealth and reputation. Miguel enters into a partnership with a seductive Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at success—a daring plot to corner the market of an astonishing new commodity called 'coffee.' To succeed, Miguel must risk everything he values and face a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to see him ruined. Miguel will learn that among Amsterdam’s ruthless businessmen, betrayal lurks everywhere, and even friends hide secret agendas."

Remember the NPR April Fool's Day broadcast when they promised Starbucks coffee would be piped hot and fresh into every home? In the 10-plus years since this book was written, Starbucks may not have reached that level of saturation, but with outlets in book shops and discount retail chains, it's certainly coming close. In addition to company history, the Starbucks exec provides 30 recipes for excellent sweets to go with remarkable coffee.

The chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks tells how he and his team built a small Seattle company into a nationwide business phenomenon through such anti-corporate principles as community-mindedness and employee-ownership. (1997)

Would you like to make money at a coffee shop rather than just spend it? Learn how to start your own shop for as little as $15,000. Tips and tricks for finding a location, getting financing, locating suppliers, and more.