The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee Paperback – March 4, 2003

Stewart Lee Allen has written a delightful book about the influence of coffee in all sorts of societies. Delightful and quite a light read. I suppose if this book were a woman I would call her an airhead. Nonetheless, from the very origins of humanity in Ethiopia and Eritrea, passing through the markets of Yemen, where the aroma of the smoothest of Arabica beans awaits the tired traveler; then Europe, with its typical French cafés and Viennese coffee with cream on top; to the darkest of roasts in Brazil, and finally our very own North America, the reader is sure to enjoy this journey to the last drop.I would be very interested to know Allen's credentials (they are conspicuously absent throughout the book), but his wit is indeed unique, with passages that made me laugh out loud. An example of such is given within the first chapters of the book, when he is inquiring about the epitome of Ethiopian coffee in a conversation with his friend Abera in the most casual of dialogues:"This is only drunk in the home. Hardly anyone in Harrar drinks it today. You must visit the Ogaden. They still drink it.""Where do they live?""The Ogaden? They live now in Jiga-Jiga." He made the place sound like a disease. "But you can't go there. It's very, very dangerous. And those Somalis, those Ogaden, are very arrogant. So rude!""Why? What is the problem?""They are rude people!" Abera shook his head angrily at the Ogaden's poor manners. "Why, just not too long ago they did a bad thing to a bus going there. To all the men.""Bad? How bad?""Why, very bad. They killed them.""That's pretty bad," I agreed. (Page 15).The pursuit of coffee continues with Allen traveling to Yemen via Djibouti, a place where the rule of law is still that of one's own, and where thieves are crucified pretty much in Jesus Christ style if caught. The author delights in rambling through the streets of Sanaa in the wee hours of the morning without a care in the world that anybody is going to rob or assault him in any way.But the book reaches its climax upon Allen's arrival in Germany, where he has a philosophical chat - over coffee, of course - with Dr. Josef Joffe. Dr. Joffe explains that in order to determine whether a nation is rich and powerful, one need only look at the way the society makes its coffee. Have we not noticed how, as Americans started learning to make designer coffee with the advent of Starbucks, their world supremacy has dwindled considerably? Much in the same way, nations like China, who do not know how to make a good cup of the fragrant drink are now booming. Thus, Allen arrives to the conclusion that coffee is, in fact, evil - hence "the devil's cup" (page 135). Joffe's conclusion does not deter our author however, who continues his treacherous but adventurous trail in search of coffee in a cargo vessel and on to America. He visits Brazil in search not only of coffee but also of African spirits responsible for its brewing and traditions.Allen goes even further on his thesis about coffee, claiming that the fabled grain has, after all, a "ridiculous" history, and lays down the premise that is no coincidence that both coffee and humanity originated in Ethiopia, the place where "those early ape-men nibbled on the bright red berries" (page 133). It is up to the reader to decide whether coffee has been a good or bad influence on humanity, and even if it is an intelligent decision to decide to drink it.Although I have enjoyed "The Devil's cup" to a certain point, the book falls short as a treatise on how coffee changed the world, making one feel as if one were reading a poorly treated thesis. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable read that will do whenever in need to clear the mind while still cultivating it.

At the end of the Reagan Era, after "hitchhiking through the Congo," Stewart Lee Allen determined to travel along the historic Coffee Trail from the origins of the coffee plant in Ethiopia, to the early medieval Sufi mystics in Yemen, to Turkey during the Ottoman Empire, to Renaissance and Revolutionary Europe, and finally to the New World, where coffee plantations were worked by generations of slaves in Central and South America in numbers that dwarfed the count of cotton-field slaves in the American South.Allen sort of succeeds in his quest, through a series of adventures that are hilarious, harrowing, and sometimes both. One problem is that coffee has long been supplanted by tea in the Arab world, so, for example, it was hard to even find a cup of coffee in Yemen. Undeterred, in order to observe some semblance of the religious ecstasy that coffee brought to the Yemeni Sufis around the turn of the second millenium, Allen traveled all the way to Turkey to watch Whirling Dervishes perform in a basketball stadium. That's dedication.Most interesting to me was how Allen stumbled onto a spiritual link to the 2,000-year-old Oromo coffee gods of Ethiopia and the Umbanda gods of western Brazil, notably Preto Velho, the tortured spirit of an old African slave of the coffee plantations, whose favorite offering is a basket of fresh-roasted coffee beans.Allen had the door literally slammed in his face more than once in his search for answers to the truth of various coffee legends, with the result that "The Devil's Cup" is as much a travel guide to the Coffee Trail as "Midnight Express" is a travel guide to Istanbul. Still (except for the last, kind of off-putting chapter), the book is a rollicking tale of one man's journey through coffee history. Four stars.

I enjoyed this book by Mr. Allen. It is basically a personal narrative on his travels so it can also be considered a travel essay. As he experiences various regions, he stops and samples various brews. The "History of the World" portion of the title comes from amusing anecdotes throughout the book relating to coffee. I enjoyed learning about some of the regions where coffee was outlawed at a time and the reasoning or lack of behind it. I am only giving it four stars because I wanted more as was related to the title and less narrative. Some chapters are amusing, but there are portions of the book I just skipped over, but all in all a nice effort and I would recommend it. This book appeared to have been written very quickly with quick tidbits of humour. I am convinced Mr Allen was intoxicated with double shot's of espresso while writing this text. After I finished, I brewed up some coffee of my own!- David Carlin

In The Devil's Cup, Stewart Lee Allen decides to travel the world in search of the history of coffee. He travels on a budget that leads to many interesting scenarios, such as crossing the Atlantic on a cargo ship with a handful of other passengers, that have little to nothing to do with coffee. Much of his info on the history of coffee in Europe is a recitation (although amusingly told) of more staid histories of coffee. He spends most of his travels looking for either the best or worst cup of coffee. After I finished the book, I felt like I had read several good anecdotal stories and legends about the origins and history of coffee, and had also read a rather crazy, but interesting, travelogue that loosely related to the spread of coffee from Africa to the rest of the world. It was a fun read and worth reading, but I am still looking for a more focused and complete history of coffee.

This is one of the greatest non-fiction books I've ever read. It felt adventurous, raucous, riotous. Then peppered with truly astonishing historical tales, facts and origin stories. If you love coffee, reading and fun, read this book.

Essential on a barista handbook but on the other hand I was so much more inspired by "God in The Cup" if you are after a "general coffee knowledge" book.

Interesting travelogue and history of coffee

This wont download and I cannot see where I can contact Amazon to take the matter up!!! No more orders until this is sorted out

Good book.