The Best Book on The History of Coffee

Dear readers,

Today is apparently National Coffee Day. I normally can’t keep up with all the new “holidays” celebrating everything from pancackes to patents, but this seems like the perfect opportunity for me to plug a book I loved from last year, that some of you might also enjoy.

Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast is the best book on the history of coffee that I’ve found (and I’ve read a few). It’s thorough, but captivating, expertly guiding you through three hundred years of coffee history.

If you’ve ever wanted to know how the global coffee trade began, where today’s big coffee brands came from, or how we went from drinking the questionably-not-rotten bitter brews of the 18th century to the single-origin fancy aeropress roasts of today, this is the book for you.

Wishing you a cozy, caffeine-fueled day,

Michael