Black Gold

The Dark History of Coffee

by

Paperback, 408 pages

English language

Published May 2, 2019 by 4th Estate, HarperCollins.

ISBN:
978-0-00-835343-8
Copied ISBN!
3 stars (2 reviews)

Your morning flat-white helped shape the modern world. It may seem like just a drink, but coffee's dark journey from the highlands of Ethiopia to the highstreets of every town in the country links alchemy and anthropology, poetry and politics, science and slavery.

Plots have been hatched, blood spilled and governments toppled to keep your mug filled with fresh espresso. In this thought-provoking expose, Antony Wild, coffee trader and historian, explores coffee's dismal colonial past, its perilous corporate present, and the environmental destruction which could limit its future, revealing the shocking exploitation at the heart of the industry.

3 editions

reviewed Black Gold by Antony Wild

A thought provoking corrective to coffee mythology

4 stars

Wild offers a deep dive into coffee history mythology and attempts to prove most of it wrong. The repeated journey back to Saint Helena was at times incongruous, but still informative. Given this is an updated version of the original book, I was still left wishing that the later part of the book, which did a good job of dismantling Starbucks, was deeper and more comprehensive. Overall a good read though, and if you're thinking of reading The Devil's Cup, then I'd do so before reading this.

Subjects

  • Coffee