Peter Carty

Fit for the gods

Revered as gods, its rulers would never touch food with their own hands, while their subjects prostrated themselves in the dust — and ate it

issue 17 February 2018

  • Where the Wild Coffee Grows: The Untold Story of Coffee, from the Cloud Forests of Ethiopia to Your Cup

    Jeff Koehler

    Bloomsbury, pp. 254

  • The Philosophy of Coffee

    Brian Williams

    The British Library, pp. 80

For many of us, coffee is the lift that eases the load of our working day. Yet the sharpened mental focus it offers is rarely directed towards its origins. Coffee’s birthplace is Ethiopia and its beans remain high on caffeine aficionados’ hit lists. They produce smooth brews that carry an extraordinary range of tastes — variously, chocolate, wine, floral, spice and fruit.

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