God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee - Hardcover

Weissman, Michaele

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470173580 ISBN 13: 9780470173589

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2008

Synopsis

Can a cup of coffee reveal the face of God? Can it become the holy grail of modern–day knights errant who brave hardship and peril in a relentless quest for perfection? Can it change the world? These questions are not rhetorical. When highly prized coffee beans sell at auction for $50, $100, or $150 a pound wholesale (and potentially twice that at retail), anything can happen. In God in a Cup , journalist and late–blooming adventurer Michaele Weissman treks into an exotic and paradoxical realm of specialty coffee where the successful traveler must be part passionate coffee connoisseur, part ambitious entrepreneur, part activist, and part Indiana Jones. Her guides on the journey are the nation′s most heralded coffee business hotshots—Counter Culture′s Peter Giuliano, Intelligentsia′s Geoff Watts, and Stump–town′s Duane Sorenson. With their obsessive standards and fiercely competitive baristas, these roasters are creating a new culture of coffee connoisseurship in America—a culture in which $10 lattes are both a purist′s pleasure and a way to improve the lives of third–world farmers. If you love a good cup of coffee—or a great adventure story—you′ll love this unprecedented look up close at the people and passions behind today′s best beans.

About this title

Review:

From Ethiopia to Panama to Portland, journalist Weissman shadows today’s vanguard "coffee guys" in their pursuit of the perfect, caffeinated beverage. With increased demand for specialty roasts superior to the mass–marketed offerings at Starbucks, Weissman illustrates how the origin, flavor compounds and socioeconomic impact of a cup of coffee are relevant now more than ever. Alongside industry leaders from some of the U.S.’s top roasters—Counter Culture, Intelligentsia and Stumptown—Weismann treks to the birthplace of coffee, remote plantations, and international competitions where the best coffees in the world are cupped (or tasted), scored and where winners like Panamanian grower Hacienda La Esmeralda’s revered "Geisha" coffee earn $130 per pound. Visiting both ends of the producer–consumer spectrum, she sheds light on the partnership between those who sell premium coffee and the impoverished who farm it—examining how specialty standards enable improved production, exceptional beans, fair prices and fatter pockets across the board. On the imbibing end, Weissman penetrates today’s amped–up coffee culture: its sleek coffee bars, tattooed coffee–geeks behind the counters, fiercely competitive roasters working alongside champion baristas. Tagging along behind the main characters in today’s specialty coffee scene, Weissman travels from the exotic to the expected to artfully deconstruct the connoisseur’s cup of coffee. (May) ( Publishers Weekly , March 31, 2008)

"Weissman travels from the exotic to the expected to artfully deconstruct the connoisseur′s cup of coffee." ( Publishers Weekly , March 31, 2008)

From the Back Cover:

God in a Cup "When Geoff Watts, the buyer for Intelligentsia, tasted Hacienda La Esmeralda Special at the Panama coffee competition, the coffee was so aromatic he said he felt as if streams of light were pouring out of it. But the remark that got the coffee world′s attention came from Don Holly, quality control manager for Green Mountain Coffee in Vermont. When Dontasted Esmeralda Special for the first time, he said the coffee was so transporting that when he tasted it, he ′saw the face of God in the cup.′ "From the first moment the judges leaned over the small white porcelain ′cupping′ bowls and sniffed, Esmeralda Special demanded their attention. The coffee hit them over their heads with a crazy perfume bath of floral and citrus. Within this heady brew, they detected fragrances no one had ever smelled in Panamanian coffee: ginger, blackberry, ripe mango, citrus blossom, and exotic bergamot. Many commented that Esmeralda Special was bursting with the kind of good acidity—coffee buyers call it brightness—that is rare in Latin America, but common in the best coffees from East Africa. "Esmeralda Special quickly became one the biggest things to happen in the specialty coffee world. Soon high–end retail customers were spending crazy amounts of money for this rare little bean." — From God in a Cup

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0470173580
• ISBN 13: 9780470173589
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 268