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

Mark Pendergrast's "Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World" is an excellent educational work. Through this book, one not only gains knowledge about coffee (bean) cultivation, preparation, tasting, and the commercial history of coffee, but also gains insight into human nature and the world shaped by human participation, revealing aspects that are difficult to imagine while simply drinking coffee. The author's intention can be glimpsed approximately from the title of the book.

The Coffee Dissemination Map

The first revelation comes from the coffee dissemination map drawn by the author. Whether in terms of timeline, geographical distribution, intensity of commercial competition, or the eventual return to balance (coffee fair trade agreements), the coffee dissemination map closely resembles the world history map since modern times. Coffee, discovered in Ethiopia, although it crossed the Red Sea early on and entered the Islamic world, truly traveled across thousands of mountains and rivers to cover every corner of the world, with its starting point being Europe, especially the Netherlands in Central Europe and countries in Western Europe.

America's Influence on Coffee Commerce

Because after the late 19th and early 20th centuries, America's position in the global economy rose, coupled with Americans' "inexplicable" preference for coffee, leading to the fact that the commercial history of coffee in the past century is almost entirely an endless history of commercial warfare among American coffee importers, manufacturers, growing regions, and coffee business giants. The two World Wars, while changing the world history map, also changed the commercial landscape of coffee. The book reproduces this process and state in meticulous detail, making it splendid and engaging.

Colonialism and Coffee Cultivation

While bringing coffee beans to the South American continent, Europeans also scattered coffee seeds to the colonies in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The famous Java beans and civet coffee beans are remnants of this colonial movement. Almost a replica of the American continent, the migration of coffee, while changing the planting structure in South Asia and Southeast Asia, also altered their historical processes, enabling them to integrate into the global trade process through coffee cultivation and primary processing.

Coffee Trade and Globalization

In the author's words, it is not an exaggeration to say that it was coffee trade that drew various worlds into the process of globalization. Coffee trade, like other important commodity trades, triggered countless protests, conspiracies, and violence, leading to the suicide of business giants, the downfall of presidents, and even regime changes. This is another revelation that the history of coffee trade offers to readers.

The Dawn of Coffee Fair Trade

The author says that entering the 1980s, the dawn of coffee fair trade finally appeared on the horizon, which is described as a testament to humanity's self-awareness in history. Although there is a sense of tragedy in this hope, the future can be anticipated with optimism.

FrontStreet Coffee: http://www.gafei.com/

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473