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

Learn coffee things.

The 4 star rating is the average between the 2 editions. The 1st rates a 5*, the2nd only a 3. I have left the review on the 1st edition & have added comments @ thebottom of the review.1st EDITIONThis is an excellent history, but needs a 2nd edition. A lot has happened in thelast 10 years. For instance in 2009, coffee made news as Starbucks had to close someof its shops because of the recession. Also it's now easier to find organic & FairTrade coffee. Vietnam is now one of the top producers of Robusta beans. I wish hewould have dealt a little more with coffee ads which were a major part of coffee'shistory during the 20th century. I didn't start drinking coffee until recently, butI never forgot the Maxwell House percolator tune, Mrs. Olsen, Juan Valdez, or the"IF I DON'T GET AMERICAN ACE COFFEE, I'M GOING BACK TO BED" commercials. JuanValdez' influence is still felt today. Go to any grocery store & you will see 100%COLOMBIAN coffee. By the way, the man in the A.Ace. firing squad commercial inMexico was one of Elvis Presley's back up singers. Since I was once addicted to TV,I remember the commercials very well. Be warned, the book is depressing @ times(when you read abt the coffee farmers or the civil wars & bloodbaths in the coffeeproducing nations), but to anyone who is interested in a detailed discussion ofcoffee history, this is the book to read. I hope that the author will update it.2nd EDITIONI was looking forward to this one, but can only give it mixed reviews. The prefaceis OK & the revised chapter FINAL GROUNDS where he updated the history is excellent.The reason I gave the 2nd ed. only 3 stars is that he chopped out quite a bit of thematerial from the 1st ed. to make the book shorter. He even edited out the Konascandal. I would have preferred that he had just left the book intact (changing onlywhat was found to be incorrect), then adding the new prefix & the update-chapter atthe end. As it is the reader that who has only the 2nd ed. loses a lot of materialfrom the 1st. So if one has the 1st ed, don't throw it away. I will leave it to thereader as to if 2 new chapters are worth the price of the book.

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!!

I liked it. I wonder if it could be more interesting, but it was decent overall

It was almost ironic that I read most of this book while in the local Starbucks. This is a fascinating book on the history of coffee as well as a look at how one guilty pleasure influenced the planet. It made Europeans sober and more political discussing the rights of mankind while enslaving vast numbers of non-European peoples just to put Coffee, Tea and Sugar on their tables. The boiled water reduced the incidence of water-borne diseases. Yet, all the while, underneath the Coffee House Culture lay a vast exploitation of workers, land grabs, speculation, and a host of nefarious people.So, lift the mug and shed a tear and ponder the mysteries of an infusion of roasted ground cherry pits and all the changes it brought to the planet.

Arrived on time in good condition.

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.

I enjoyed this read. My career is in the coffee industry and enjoyed this read as it walked through the various eras of coffee markets. There are moments where the anecdotes become very detailed and tedious with a little repetitiveness. But, there are also many odd facts, like ones about old time brewing methods, I learned in this book that amounted to interesting conversation starters with others.I have recommended this to friends and read an excerpt every so often to rediscover tidbits of coffee history.If you want something that more addresses the 21st century this probably isn't the first book I would select.

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.

An excellent overview of the history of coffee. However, it is very USA-centric and this reduces the interest for non-American readers in my opinion.

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.