Coffee: A Connoisseur's Companion

Coffee is one 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 buying to brewing. The final section is devoted to recipes: heart-warming coffee punches, refreshing iced coffee, and frothy frappes, as well as delicious coffee cakes and desserts.

Enhanced by Murray Zanoni's watercolor illustrations, Roden's book is the perfect guide to this noble, aromatic, and sociable bean.In this scholarly, entertaining, and practical book, the Claudia Roden tells fascinating story of coffee as both crop and beverage, and opens up for us the infinite possibilities the drink has to offer.

Claudia Roden was born and brought up in Cairo. She completed her formal education in Paris and then moved to London to study art. She travels extensively as a food writer. Her previous books include Mediterranean Cookery, which was published in con; junction with her BBC TV series on the Mediterranean, A Book of Middle Eastern Food, Everything Tastes Better Outdoors, and Good Food of Italy. She has won four Glenfiddich prizes, including 1992 Food Writer of the Year for articles in the Daily Telegraph and The Observer magazine.