Coffee: A Connoisseur's Companion - Softcover

Inside Claudia Roden's little book Coffee: A Connoisseur's Companion is a veritable treasure of interesting stories, anecdotes, and facts about coffee--all beautifully illustrated with lovely ink-and-color drawings by Murray Zanoni. First published in the early 1980s, Coffee offers a scholarly yet entertaining look at the history of coffee. From its exotic beginnings in Africa and Arabia, coffee swept through Europe and the Americas in the 17th century, profoundly changing patterns of life as it went. Although it suffered religious persecution, social prejudice, and fierce political opposition, coffee reigned supreme and was soon being grown in prodigious quantities around the world. Roden explains the labor-intensive processes of growing coffee and preparing the beans, provides an invaluable guide to the quality beans of the world, and dispenses expert advice on all the steps of coffee preparation, from buying to brewing. The final section is devoted to recipes: heartwarming coffee punches, refreshing iced coffee, and frothy frappes, as well as delicious coffee cakes and desserts. --Amazon.co.uk

e of the essential pleasures of life, but very few people know much about it. Fortunately for us, award-winning food writer Claudia Roden has taken it upon herself to rectify the situation with this scholarly, entertaining, and practical volume. In charming prose, she narrates the fascinating story of coffee as both crop and beverage, and opens up for us the infinite possibilities the drink has to offer.

From its exotic beginnings in Africa and Arabia, coffee swept through Europe and the Americas in the seventeenth century, profoundly changing patterns of life as it went. Although it suffered religious persecution, social prejudice, and fierce political opposition, coffee reigned supreme and was soon being grown in prodigious quantities around the world.

Roden explains the labor-intensive processes of growing coffee and preparing the beans, provides an invaluable guide to the quality beans of the world, and dispenses expert advice on all the steps of coffee preparation, from