A fair history. I would have liked a bit more detail of the early history of coffee. The last chapter in this updated version could have been better organized and even broken down into a few chapters. Otherwise, a good read. ( )

This book is the culmination of a thousand years of oral tradition, and I believe the first time these secrets have appeared in print.
Enjoying coffee is a global phenomenon with its popularity exploding throughout the world. This book will appeal both to those who make their living from coffee and those who simply can't live without it. It's written for anyone who loves coffee. The book is quite nice, with lots of details.

The book has an extensive bibliography and illustrations and serves as a road map of the history of coffee and its development into one of the most traded commodities in the world. It's an excellent resource for anyone wishing to deepen their knowledge of coffee and coffee production.
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The start of this book was really interesting, and as I got into it, it became simple light reading I could pick up from time to time. At some point I realized I was only halfway through the book, though, and couldn't keep going with the intricacies of detail about various US marketing and roasting firms. ( )

The history of coffee and how it tranformed our world. Read. Not great.

Pendergrast’s succinct yet extensive text offers a comprehensive look at coffee’s birth and progression to a beverage with global significance. Covering centuries of coffee production and consumption, Uncommon Grounds leads the reader through the turbulent history of a product rife with bloodshed, economic strife, and cutthroat politics. At times heavy on the economic side of the coffee industry, this text still offers an unintimidating glimpse into the complexities of the coffee world. ( )

Very detailed book, but incredibly boring. I fell asleep a third of the way through, which I find ironic for a book about the world's (and mine) most beloved beverage. I eventually did finish it, but it wasn't easy. ( )

Uncommon Grounds is exactly what I was looking for. I had finished a similar commodity book (Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky) and was blown away. I was hoping for the same experience and am happy to say that I found something similar. The author goes into quite a lot of detail about the origin, trade, branding and questionable medicinal qualities of coffee in a relatively entertaining fashion. It gets a little bogged down at times but overall, Pendergrast succinctly digests coffee's history in a way that is not, for the most part, overwhelmingly dragged down by minutia.

It's not an amazing book, but for coffee drinkers who are curious about the history and trade of coffee, it is most certainly enlightening. I would have preferred the final chapter to have been the first chapter, and to have more said on the science behind the substances in coffee, but otherwise, it's a good read. A example of the author's start-to-finish style of writing might help to entice possible readers:

"At the Smithsonian conference, I heard a grower ask, “We are shocked and confused that specialty roasters sell our coffee for $8 or $10, when we only receive a little over a dollar a pound. How is that just?” While their U.S. colleagues made sympathetic noises, no one really answered the question.

Later, a specialty coffee professional gave me an answer. Let us say he pays $2 a pound for Colombian Supremo green beans (and remember that this price can fluctuate). Add 11 cents for freight-in, storage, and handling, 46 cents for the 18 percent weight loss during roasting, 19 cents a pound for roasting, 35 cents to hand-pack in five-pound valve bags for wholesale shipments, and 40 cents for shipping costs. That totals $3.51. Add $2.05 to cover overhead for the roaster/distributor (everything from mortgages and machinery loans to sales commissions, repairs, and rubbish removal) and profit, and it costs $5.56 to deliver roasted coffee to a specialty retailer. Depending on the retailer’s size, rent, and other overhead costs, he or she must then charge between $9.50 and $11.50 a pound to make a reasonable profit.

If the roasted beans go to a coffeehouse outlet, the proprietor converts the $5.56 per pound beans into a twelve-ounce regular coffee at $1.75 or cappuccino or latte for $2.50 or more. If the proprietor gets twenty-four servings to the pound, that translates to a whopping $70 a pound for regular filter coffee, and $82.50 a pound for thirty-three lattes, minus the cost of the milk, stirrer, sweetener, and stale discarded coffee. On the other hand, coffeehouse owners have to pay astronomical rents, shell out $18,000 for a top-of-the line espresso machine, and allow customers to linger for long, philosophical conversations or solitary reading over their single cup of coffee." ( )

A very long non-fiction book, but frankly it's hard to see what should be cut. His other books, portions of Salt excepting, don't live up to this book. If you've every protested or boycotted Starbucks or been pressured to buy Free Trade coffee and resisted, you need to read this book. Or if you just like knowing that Dunkin' Donuts was the easiest-to-find high quality coffee in America for years. ( )

Really it should be subtitled the History of American Coffee Producers and Distributors of the 20th Century.

He spends a lot of time looking at how coffee was marketed and complaining about American's percolating coffee. It's still a fun book to read, but it is not as all-encompassing as the title would indicate. ( )