The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee
In this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen treks three-quarters of the way around the world on a caffeinated quest to answer these profound questions: Did the advent of coffee give birth to an enlightened western civilization? Is coffee, indeed, the substance that drives history? From the cliffhanging villages of Southern Yemen, where coffee beans were first cultivated eight hundred years ago, to a cavernous coffeehouse in Calcutta, the drinking spot for two of India’s three Nobel Prize winners . . . from Parisian salons and cafés where the French Revolution was born, to the roadside diners and chain restaurants of the good ol’ U.S.A., where something resembling brown water passes for coffee, Allen wittily proves that the world was wired long before the Internet. And those who deny the power of coffee (namely tea-drinkers) do so at their own peril.Product Details
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Stewart Lee Allen is the Hunter S. Thompson of coffee, offering a wild, caffeinated, gonzo tour of the World of the Magic Bean. His wry, adventurous prose delights, astonishes, amuses, and informs."
--MARK PENDERGRAST
Author of Uncommon Grounds:
The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World -- Review
Review
"Stewart Lee Allen is the Hunter S. Thompson of coffee, offering a wild, caffeinated, gonzo tour of the World of the Magic Bean. His wry, adventurous prose delights, astonishes, amuses, and informs."
--MARK PENDERGRAST
Author of Uncommon Grounds:
The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
From the Inside Flap
In this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen treks three-quarters of the way around the world on a caffeinated quest to answer these profound questions: Did the advent of coffee give birth to an enlightened western civilization? Is coffee, indeed, the substance that drives history? From the cliffhanging villages of Southern Yemen, where coffee beans were first cultivated eight hundred years ago, to a cavernous coffeehouse in Calcutta, the drinking spot for two of India's three Nobel Prize winners . . . from Parisian salons and cafés where the French Revolution was born, to the roadside diners and chain restaurants of the good ol' U.S.A., where something resembling brown water passes for coffee, Allen wittily proves that the world was wired long before the Internet. And those who deny the power of coffee (namely tea-drinkers) do so at their own peril.
Customer Reviews
A Java-Fueled Jaunt
The Devil's Cup is the best kind of quest story -- a man in pursuit of something he loves for no reason other than to satisfy his own curiosity. In a journey that parallels the coffee bean's chronological journey through time, Stewart Lee Allen travels from Ethiopia to al-Makkah (hence the term mocha) in Yemen, Calcutta to Istanbul, and finally Vienna to Paris. Then he hops a freighter to Brazil and concludes with a car trip across the U.S. in search of the perfect cup of coffee. Along the way he visits Rimbaud's house in Harar, crosses to Yemen with a boatload of Somali refugees, turns down numerous offers of qat, conspires with smugglers of forged Rajasthani miniatures, whirls with dervishes, and tracks down the descendants of the adventurer who first brought coffee to the new world. In Brazil he tours the torture chamber of a slaveholding coffee baron, ducks a doomsday cult and communes with an ancient Ethiopian coffee spirit through an Afro-Brazilian shaman. Back home he cajoles a friend into taking a java-fueled ride across route 66 and almost lands in jail. Ultimately he does find the most "American" cup of coffee somewhere between New York and LA.
The author did a wonderful job of weaving in more coffee trivia than I ever imagined possible without bogging down his fast-paced narrative. Particularly fascinating were the myriad of ways he saw coffee prepared, his explanation of the relationship between coffee and Islam and his history of cafés in European culture and commerce. When he began making plans to attend an Ethiopian ceremony to invoke the Zar coffee spirits to perform an exorcism, I was a little concerned about where the book was going. But after his respectful recounting I found his quest to understand coffee's anthropological context to be an added dimension of the story. Anyone who enjoys travel or adventure writing will find this a worthwhile few hours. For coffee lovers, with a great cup in hand, it's even better.
funny and easy to read, but a bit watery
a hybrid between "a history of the world according to coffee" (subtitle) and stewart lee allen's research travelogue, the book follows allen who follows coffee's historical and geographical paths of adoption
the early history of coffee is largely unknown, so the first half of the story primarily narrates allen's travel snags in unsuccessful research; border problems, boat breakdowns, getting ripped off by faux art-smugglers, etc
the 2nd half of the book is content-rich and much more interesting - covering the fascinating rise and role of coffee since the ottoman empire (primarily europe, india and the americas). allen provides a lot of speculation (his and others) with his facts - for a subject as nebulous as coffee's impact on civilization, speculation feels appropriate to me
the format would work better for me if 1) his travel tales worked together to form an interesting narrative of their own and/or 2) they had anything to do with coffee. unfortunately they fail on both these counts, and become filler
overall, allen's caffeinated and irreverent writing style makes the book easy to read and i found it reliably funny. for example on page 126 he writes ->
"the main nonalcoholic source of nutrition, bread is now believed to have been plagued with the hallucinogenic fungus ergot, the base ingredient for lsd. drunk doctors, tipsy politicians, hungover generals: the plague, famine, and war. add a pope on acid, and medieval christianity starts to make a whole lot of sense"
if you're interested in the history of coffee and you're okay with some travelogue-genre fluff, you'll probably enjoy this book. i would give it 3 and half stars if i could
amp up on the mocha and read
This is a must read for Barista's. A rollicking adventure/travel/history book. Makes your everyday cup of Joe an event. This could be on Coast-to-coast radio.
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