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

by Jeff Koehler

Overview

Coffee is one of the largest and most valuable commodities in the world. This is the story of its origins, its history, and the threat to its future, by the IACP Award–winning author of Darjeeling.

Located between the Great Rift Valley and the Nile, the cloud forests in southwestern Ethiopia are the original home of Arabica, the most prevalent and superior of the two main species of coffee being cultivated today. Virtually unknown to European explorers, the Kafa region was essentially off-limits to foreigners well into the twentieth century, which allowed the world's original coffee culture to develop in virtual isolation in the forests where the Kafa people continue to forage for wild coffee berries.

Deftly blending in the long, fascinating history of our favorite drink, award-winning author Jeff Koehler takes readers from these forest beginnings along the spectacular journey of its spread around the globe. With cafés on virtually every corner of every town in the world, coffee has never been so popular--nor tasted so good.

Yet diseases and climate change are battering production in Latin America, where 85 percent of Arabica grows. As the industry tries to safeguard the species' future, breeders are returning to the original coffee forests, which are under threat and swiftly shrinking. "The forests around Kafa are not important just because they are the origin of a drink that means so much to so many," writes Koehler. "They are important because deep in their shady understory lies a key to saving the faltering coffee industry. They hold not just the past but also the future of coffee."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632865113
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	11/14/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	57 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jeff Koehler is the author of Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, winner of an International Association of Culinary Professionals Award and a Gourmand Award; Spain: Recipes and Traditions; Morocco: A Culinary Journey with Recipes; and La Paella: Deliciously Authentic Rice Dishes from Spain's Mediterranean Coast. His work has appeared in Saveur, Food & Wine, NPR, the Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, among others. He lives in Barcelona.
Jeff Koehler is an American writer, photographer, traveler, and cook. His most recent book, Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, won the 2016 IACP award for literary food writing and the Gourmand Award for Best in the World for a tea book. Other titles include Spain: Recipes and Traditions, named one of 2013's top cookbooks by the New York Times; Morocco: A Culinary Journey with Recipes; and La Paella. His work has appeared in Saveur, Food & Wine, NPR.org, NationalGeographic.com, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Afar, Fine Cooking, Tin House, and Best Food Writing 2010. After graduating from Gonzaga University, he spent four years in Africa and Asia before doing post-graduate work at King's College, London. Since 1996 he has lived in Barcelona. jeff-koehler.com @koehlercooks

Table of Contents

Notes on Spelling, Names, and Abbreviations xi

Coffee Is Our Bread xiii

Part 1 In the Forest

1 Sown by the Birds 3

2 Island Ethiopia 13

3 The Kingdom of Kafa 23

4 The Last King of Kafa 34

5 Origins 45

6 Gift for King and Country 56

Part 2 Out of the Forest

7 Coffea aethiopica 71

8 City of Saints 86

9 Out of Arabia 99

10 Beyond Waves 111

11 La Roya 126

12 Impoverished 138

Part 3 Back into the Forest

13 Collecting 151

14 Ex Situ 162

15 Geisha 171

16 A Matter of Degrees 183

17 In Situ 197

18 Sacrifices 209

Acknowledgments 221

Notes 223

Bibliography 239

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

Koehler weaves an absorbing narrative of politics, ecology and economics: the spread of Arabica (which should have been known as Aethiopica) to farms and plantations around the world, and the continuing perils it faces from fungal invasions, deforestation and global warming.

The New York Times Book Review - Howard Chua-Eoan

10/16/2017
Koehler (Darjeeling) nicely captures the natural beauty and mystery of the birthplace of Arabica coffee. He begins with a poetic description of Ethiopian province of Kafa and its highland rainforest (“A tartan of paths wove through the weedy expanses... the conical tukuls sat slight askew”) before detailing the history of Ethopia. Foreign explorers found it “nearly impenetrable” for centuries, which kept coffee a local secret. In the 17th century, traders and conquerors took the plant and tried growing it throughout the Arabian Peninsula and Europe. Koehler concludes this section with the downfall of what was once the rich kingdom of Kafa in 1897. In the second half of the book, Koehler focuses on contemporary coffee commerce and cultivation, outlining Starbucks’s rise to market dominance and the new wave of artisanal coffee purveyors. Koehler then explains how coffee could completely disappear off the face of the Earth because of the perfect storm the incurable coffee leaf rust fungus, rampant deforestation of the Ethopia cloud forests, and climate change. This is a wonderfully informative book about a bean on which many people rely. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Koehler’s re-creation of this lost realm--the Eden of the misnamed CoffeaAbrabica--is enchanting and tragic. His depiction of its disappearance is almost Tolkienesque . . . Koehler weaves an absorbing narrative of politics, ecology and economics." - The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"Jeff Koehler dives deep and ranges widely as he pursues an understanding of the origins of coffee, how it spread around the world from the Horn of Africa, and what lies ahead in an era of climate change and coffee rust. It reads like an engaging multimystery detective novel . . . [We] gain a rich appreciation of the bean that so many depend on every day." - Wall Street Journal

"A deep dive into the fascinating history of coffee that meanders from the once-isolated, deep forests of Ethiopia's Kafa region to the warm embrace of your local bodega. Coffee’' path to world domination is anything but straightforward and this story might be unwieldy in the hands of a lesser talent, but Koehler is more than up to the task. A must-read for coffee enthusiasts." - Smithsonian, “The Ten Best Books About Food of 2017”

"A wide-ranging natural history [that] illuminates the pleasures and the plight of wild coffee." - Science

"Blearily sipping a morning espresso? Jeff Koehler's scientific and anthropological chronicle will lend context to your cup." - Nature, “Five of the Week’s Best Science Picks”

"Fascinating . . . Readers will walk away with a better understanding of how a local crop transformed to an essential global commodity." - Real Simple, “The Best New Books to Read This Month”

"There's a lot more that's interesting about coffee than simply its caffeine kick . . . Jeff Koehler details the history of the beloved beverage and the impact that it has had on people all around the world. You'll see why this matters as he discusses the future of coffee and the threats we should be fighting." - Bustle, “The 13 Best New Nonfiction Books of November 2017”

"An informative, lively history . . . [by] a consistently agile writer . . . Both an informative work for general readers and a page-turning seminar for would-be writers of narrative nonfiction." - Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

"Koehler nicely captures the natural beauty and mystery of the birthplace of Arabica coffee . . . A wonderfully informative book about a bean on which many people rely." - Publishers Weekly

"Tracing the origin of Coffea arabica is anything but straightforward, but Koehler confidently leads readers along that winding path, taking relevant detours to reveal the bean's rich history, dedicated stewards, rise to fame, and precarious future . . . Koehler closes his flavorful history on a hopeful note, ultimately transforming this seemingly pedestrian bean into something much more magical." - Booklist

"Well-researched . . . a mix of evocative descriptions and a scholar's eye for detail." - Library Journal

From the Publisher

11/01/2017
Coffee is ubiquitous in our society, whether it's a quick pick-me-up from a drip pot, a cappuccino with latte art, or a pour-over from single-origin, fair-trade beans. What is less known, however, is the origins of coffee. Koehler, author of the IACP-winning Darjeeling, explores the history, development, and spread of coffee throughout the globe in this well-researched book. From the remotest parts of the world to large cities, coffee is truly a global product, and the trade is a nexus for colonialism, religion, culture, economics, and agriculture. While focused on the beverage's past, this book argues that Ethiopia may also be the future of coffee, as its trees are the hardiest at battling rust and other diseases along with being the most trait-diverse, which is increasingly important as climate change is affecting various growing regions. VERDICT With a mix of evocative descriptions and a scholar's eye for detail, this is a good academic history of coffee, although perhaps too detailed for casual readers.—Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI

Library Journal

★ 2017-09-19
A bracing natural history of coffee.Barcelona-based journalist Koehler, who has published previously about tea (Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, 2015) and contributed to such publications as Saveur, Food & Wine, and the Washington Post, returns with a work about tea's stimulating cousin. This is no dull deed by a dull writer from a dusty archive—though the author certainly knows his way around an archive—but rather an informative, lively history informed by the author's visits to key sites, especially in Ethiopia, which, as we learn, is the true home of the Arabica to which so many in the world are devoted. Koehler chronicles his journeys through hazy forests; visits with pickers, growers, brewers, and scientists; the fascinating history of the spread of coffee around the world; the story of the birth and growth of Starbucks and Peet's; and the connections between failing coffee crops in Central America and the immigration crisis in the United States. Readers will come to understand the deleterious effects of climate change on coffee crops, especially the vulnerability of coffee to the diseases it faces—principally, coffee rust, a fungus. A consistently agile writer, Koehler knows when we've had enough of history—and the history of coffee goes way back—and are ready for some time in the woods, a few odd facts, or some sinuous science. We learn, for example, that coffee began as a food rather than drink, that the poet Rimbaud worked on a coffee plantation, and that it takes about 4,000 beans to produce a pound of coffee. Koehler also educates us on genetic mutations—the good, the bad, the ugly—that have affected and likely will affect the nature of our dark liquid companion.Both an informative work for general readers and a page-turning seminar for would-be writers of narrative nonfiction.

Kirkus Reviews