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9781682260876 Academic Inspection Copy

A Rich and Tantalizing Brew

A History of How Coffee Connected the World
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The history of coffee is much more than the tale of one nonessential good-it is a lens through which to consider various strands of world history, from food and foodways to religion and economics and sociocultural history. A Rich and Tantalizing Brew traces the history of the coffee bean, beginning with its cultivation and brewing as a private pleasure in the highlands of Ethiopia and Yemen before its emergence as a common comfort, first in the Muslim world, then across the Mediterranean to Italy, other parts of Europe, and beyond to India and the Americas. At each of these stops the brew gathered ardent aficionados and vocal critics, all the while reshaping the social landscape. Taking its conversational tone from the chats often held over a steaming cup, A Rich and Tantalizing Brew offers a critical and entertaining look at how this bitter beverage, with a little help from the tastes that traveled with it-chocolate, tea, and sugar-has connected people to each other both within and outside of their typical circles, inspiring a new context for sharing news, conducting business affairs, and even plotting revolution.
Jeanette M. Fregulia is associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Carroll College in Helena, Montana.
"Jeanette Fregulia's compact but wide-ranging A Rich and Tantalizing Brew bridges a number of chronological and geographical gaps in the historical trajectory of contemporary global society's favorite addictive stimulant. ... A Rich and Tantalizing Brew, at its best, makes a powerful case that it is past time to ditch the hard distinctions between Eastern and Western civilization and instead to embrace the far more numerous conjunctures between the two spheres." --Patrick Funiciello, The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 35, Number 1 "Jeanette M. Fregulia has written a beautifully woven history of coffee, bringing together its social, spiritual, economic, and aesthetic roles with elegance and exceptional scholarship. This book is a must for scholars, students, and lovers of the 'rich and tantalizing brew' alike. It will become standard reading for anyone interested in understanding how coffee became one of the most beloved commodities on the planet." --Nancy Stockdale, University of North Texas
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