Summary of Mark Pendergrast's Uncommon Grounds

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The birthplace of coffee, the ancient land of Abyssinia, is also the birthplace of Ethiopian culture. It is likely that, as in the legend, the beans and leaves of bunn were simply chewed, but the inventive Ethiopians quickly graduated to more palatable ways of getting their caffeine fix. #2 The history of coffee is long and complex, but it all started in the fifteenth century when someone roasted the beans, ground them, and made an infusion. #3 The Arabs took to coffee, and by the end of the fifteenth century, it had become a lucrative trade item.
The drink gained in popularity throughout the sixteenth century, and it also gained its reputation as a troublemaking brew. #4 The first half of the seventeenth century saw the European adoption of coffee. Pope Clement VIII, who died in 1605, supposedly tasted the Muslim drink at the behest of his priests, who wanted him to ban it. But Europeans soon discovered the social as well as medicinal benefits of the Arabian drink.