Where the Wild Coffee Grows

November 1, 2017

Coffee is ubiquitous in our society, whether it's a quick pick-me-up from a drip pot, a cappuccino with latte art, or a pour-over from single-origin, fair-trade beans. What is less known, however, is the origins of coffee. Koehler, author of the IACP-winning Darjeeling, explores the history, development, and spread of coffee throughout the globe in this well-researched book. From the remotest parts of the world to large cities, coffee is truly a global product, and the trade is a nexus for colonialism, religion, culture, economics, and agriculture. While focused on the beverage's past, this book argues that Ethiopia may also be the future of coffee, as its trees are the hardiest at battling rust and other diseases along with being the most trait-diverse, which is increasingly important as climate change is affecting various growing regions. VERDICT With a mix of evocative descriptions and a scholar's eye for detail, this is a good academic history of coffee, although perhaps too detailed for casual readers.--Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 16, 2017
Koehler (Darjeeling) nicely captures the natural beauty and mystery of the birthplace of Arabica coffee. He begins with a poetic description of Ethiopian province of Kafa and its highland rainforest (“A tartan of paths wove through the weedy expanses... the conical tukuls sat slight askew”) before detailing the history of Ethopia. Foreign explorers found it “nearly impenetrable” for centuries, which kept coffee a local secret. In the 17th century, traders and conquerors took the plant and tried growing it throughout the Arabian Peninsula and Europe. Koehler concludes this section with the downfall of what was once the rich kingdom of Kafa in 1897. In the second half of the book, Koehler focuses on contemporary coffee commerce and cultivation, outlining Starbucks’s rise to market dominance and the new wave of artisanal coffee purveyors. Koehler then explains how coffee could completely disappear off the face of the Earth because of the perfect storm the incurable coffee leaf rust fungus, rampant deforestation of the Ethopia cloud forests, and climate change. This is a wonderfully informative book about a bean on which many people rely.

Starred review from October 1, 2017
A bracing natural history of coffee.Barcelona-based journalist Koehler, who has published previously about tea (Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, 2015) and contributed to such publications as Saveur, Food & Wine, and the Washington Post, returns with a work about tea's stimulating cousin. This is no dull deed by a dull writer from a dusty archive--though the author certainly knows his way around an archive--but rather an informative, lively history informed by the author's visits to key sites, especially in Ethiopia, which, as we learn, is the true home of the Arabica to which so many in the world are devoted. Koehler chronicles his journeys through hazy forests; visits with pickers, growers, brewers, and scientists; the fascinating history of the spread of coffee around the world; the story of the birth and growth of Starbucks and Peet's; and the connections between failing coffee crops in Central America and the immigration crisis in the United States. Readers will come to understand the deleterious effects of climate change on coffee crops, especially the vulnerability of coffee to the diseases it faces--principally, coffee rust, a fungus. A consistently agile writer, Koehler knows when we've had enough of history--and the history of coffee goes way back--and are ready for some time in the woods, a few odd facts, or some sinuous science. We learn, for example, that coffee began as a food rather than drink, that the poet Rimbaud worked on a coffee plantation, and that it takes about 4,000 beans to produce a pound of coffee. Koehler also educates us on genetic mutations--the good, the bad, the ugly--that have affected and likely will affect the nature of our dark liquid companion.Both an informative work for general readers and a page-turning seminar for would-be writers of narrative nonfiction.

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October 1, 2017
In his newest endeavor, veteran food journalist Koehler makes a lateral yet organic move from his previous book, Darjeeling (2015), to the hallowed grounds of coffee. He conjures a bewitching atmosphere by opening with a traditional coffee ceremony taking place in the secluded Kafa region of Ethiopia, an area now believed to be the birthplace of coffee. Tracing the origin of Coffea arabica is anything but straightforward, but Koehler confidently leads readers along that winding path, taking relevant detours to reveal the bean's rich history, dedicated stewards, rise to fame, and precarious future. Koehler regularly links the separate pieces of his history with stories of individuals he's met during his researchfarmers who tend the wild coffee of Kafa's highlands; coffee breeders and botanists charting the plant's DNAgiving the cultural and economic importance of coffee a currency and personal resonance beyond one's morning cup of java. Though very real environmental threats face modern coffee production, Koehler closes his flavorful history on a hopeful note, ultimately transforming this seemingly pedestrian bean into something much more magical.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)