The Book of Coffee and Tea: Second Revised Edition

All the recent "advances" in coffee culture and all the baristas and all the writing about the subject do not outdo this classic guide. It's still the best. I have a soft spot in my heart for the late, lamented Schapira's Flav-r Cup on W. 10th St., a "cottage industry" of a roaster in Manhattan. Yet even if I had not had a long association with the store where the Schapiras sold coffee, I would recommend this book ever so highly.

As a coffee roasting hobbyist, I have used this book for over 20 years. It remains an invaluable reference to anyone who wants "close dancing" with the Java Bean. - Buy it!

The Schapira family's long relationship with coffee and tea is uncovered in this book. Full of history, stories and information, The Book of Coffee and Tea is the difinitive book for those who truly are interested in coffee and tea. I would especially recommend this book for anyone working in a coffee house.

This book forever changed the way I brew my coffee. It is worth reading even if you are coffee aficionado and do not care about tea.

It was a Christmas gift for my daughter and she us really enjoying it and learning what she wanted to know.

great book

Buyer beware! This 1996 "Second Revised Edition" is nothing more than a poor quality facsimile reprint of the older 1982 book!Extremely misleading if not downright dishonest to market this reprint as a "Second Revised Edition."Keep reading and see for yourself (below) the author's pathetic attempt to justify this unrevised "revised edition"!(The author's decision not to revise the book is one thing, but the publisher and Amazon have a responsibility to market it honestly.)(I've always treasured my 1982 copy of the book, from which I learned a great deal about coffee and tea, so I was curious to see how the book had been updated after 14 years, and was shocked to discover that it hadn't been! Note that the cover of my 1982 copy says "Completely Revised and Updated Edition," in reference to the original book, first published in 1975.)The main text and index are an exact replica (but with much poorer printing quality) of the 1982 version, and the *only* changes are the addition of an unnecessary 3-page "Foreword to Second Revised Edition" and some changes in the 8-page "Shopping Guide" at the end of the book. (Ironic that the only part of the book that was updated is now the least useful: the list of vendors may have been helpful to some back in 1996 but is of course now over 20 years out of date, and unnecessary, thanks to the Internet. Interestingly, Starbucks was included in the 1982 version, but there is no mention of it whatsoever in the 1996 list.)Sadly, the poor printing quality renders the book far less pleasant to read than the 1982 version. This is true of the text but is especially noticeable in the poorly reprinted illustrations, which are much darker and very indistinct compared with Meri Shardin's delightful hand-drawn originals in the 1982 version. I don't know whether this is true of all copies of the book, as the copy I purchased says (in the back) that it was printed by Amazon Japan. (I live in Japan and ordered the book here.) It's unclear whether the poor quality is due to Amazon's in-house (on-demand?) printing or whether they were working with poor quality originals, but carelessness (rare for Japan, if that's where the fault lies) is evident: portions of some illustrations have been cut off, and on p.17 the full-page illustration is turned diagonally(!) and therefore partially missing from the page—the same thing that happens when making photocopies if the original is turned at an angle.The author, in his unnecessary "Foreword to Second Revised Edition" (November 1995), attempts to justify the complete lack of updates or revisions:"I did not want to reheat this book, this labor of love. I did not want to update it or amend it and thereby see its essential warmth go out of it. It's not just laziness that has stayed my hand, that has kept me from adding new stuff into and onto our old book. It's been love itself, and isn't love a kind of honesty? Our book's the same as it's always been. It is unaugmented and I am unrepentant; the revision is up to you."The author's feeble attempt to justify his self-admitted laziness with such ridiculous blather about love, warmth, and honesty is extremely disappointing. And to imply a comparison between a revised/updated book and reheated coffee is a pathetically absurd analogy!How incredibly ironic that the author talks of honesty. Had he chosen to be truly honest, he could have edited his statement down to simply this:"I did not want to update or amend this book. Laziness has stayed my hand—our book's the same as it's always been. It is unaugmented and I am unrepentant."So, for example, the book still retains its 1982 discussion of 1970s coffee crops and prices, and its speculation about what the future (now long past!) will bring. The word "caterpiller" [sic] is still misspelled on p.47, and Chapter 5 ends with "The instant coffee of twenty-five years ago was..." At the very least, the author or publisher should have updated things like this. In 1982, that referred to 1957, but "twenty-five years ago" in 1996 was 1971! (Also, note that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is still referred to as Zaire, both in the text and on a hand-drawn map of Africa, since the name change took place in 1997.)

Coffee is the drink of friendship, the drink of adventurers that bolsters in the face of danger and hardship. It is loved by Christians, Moslems, and Jews. By kings and commoners. By reactionaries and revolutionaries. It crosses the ties of creed, and nationality and binds men together. Tea is the drink of quiet. It is loved, by Chinese, Japanese, English, Russians, and many others, each in their own way.These two great drinks are a gift to mankind. And the author explores this gift with love. He tells of anecdotes and folklore, of local customs and of the adventurous history of both drinks, as they traveled the long road from plantation to consumer. The author also gives various bits of the lore of both drinks; methods of cultivation, the customs of merchants, and the means of preparing. There is also a list of recipes that go with both drinks.This book shows if it need be shown further that everyday items have their own romance to them. And when you put a cup of coffee or tea to your lip you are drinking the same drink that men have fought and intrigued over, and have traveled many a mile for. You are drinking in the palaces of Czars, and Emperors; in the tents of bedouin chieftains, in Turkish bazaars or in the galleys of ships and the camps of armies. When you drink coffee or tea you are drinking history, you are drinking romance. And you are drinking friendship and good cheer. And in this fascinating book, the author tells about the lore of these two great drinks.

I liked the sections on roasting and the different coffees of origin.Well detailed and altered some of my misconceptions about coffee.