A beautiful world guide to the brown bean.

Taking the reader on a global tour of coffee-growing countries, The World Atlas of Coffee presents the bean in full-color photographs and concise, informative text. It shows the origins of coffee -- where it is grown, the people who grow it; and the cultures in which coffee is a way of life -- and the world of consumption -- processing, grades, the consumer and the modern culture of coffee.

Plants of the genus Coffea are cultivated in more than 70 countries but primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa. For some countries, including Central African Republic, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Honduras, coffee is the number one export and critical to the economy.

Organized by continent and then further by country or region, The World Atlas of Coffee presents the brew in color spreads packed with information. They include:

• The history of coffee generally and regionally

• The role of colonialism (for example, in Burundi under colonial rule of Belgium, coffee production was best described as coercive. Every peasant farmer had to cultivate at least 50 coffee trees near their home.)

• Map of growing regions and detail maps

• Charts explaining differences in growing regions within a country

• Inset boxes (For example, what is the Potato Defect? Is Cuban coffee legal in the United States?)

• The politics of coffee and the fair trade, organic and shade grown phenomena

• Beautiful color photographs taken in the field

The author James Hoffmann is the managing director of Square Mile Coffee Roasters, a multi-award-winning coffee roasting company based in East London. He is also the World Barista Champion 2007, having won the UK Barista competition in both 2006 and 2007. He writes a popular blog, www.jimseven.com, about coffee and the coffee business. The World Atlas of Coffee is his first book.

Product information:

Hardback   (25,4 x 19,7 x 2,2 cm)
Size:           256 pages
1st Edition  October 2014, Firefly Books (U.S.)
                   published simultaneously with Mitchell Beazley (U.K.)
Language:  English

Note:  this is the U.S. edition of the book and, unlike its U.K. counterpart, the cover page is a plain sheet