A Rich and Tantalizing Brew: A History of How Coffee Connected the World (Food and Foodways)

A Rich and Tantalizing Brew: A History of How Coffee Connected the World (Food and Foodways)

Jeanette M. Fregulia
$28.30
Publication Date: March 4th, 2019
Publisher:
University of Arkansas Press
ISBN:
9781682260876
Pages:
193

Description

The history of coffee is much more than the tale of one luxury good—it is a lens through which to consider various strands of world history, from food and foodways to religion and economics and sociocultural dynamics.

A Rich and Tantalizing Brew traces the history of coffee from its cultivation and brewing first as a private pleasure in the highlands of Ethiopia and Yemen through its emergence as a sought-after public commodity served in coffeehouses first in the Muslim world, and then traveling across the Mediterranean to Italy, to other parts of Europe, and finally to India and the Americas. At each of these stops the brew gathered ardent aficionados and vocal critics, all the while reshaping patterns of socialization.

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.

About the Author

Jeanette M. Fregulia is associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Carroll College in Helena, Montana.

Praise for A Rich and Tantalizing Brew: A History of How Coffee Connected the World (Food and Foodways)

“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

“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

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