Coffee: A Dark History

Wild takes the typical story of the origins of coffee - with Kaldi the goat herder - and presents a more complicated, murkier story of the history of the world's most popular commodity beverage. The book traces the history of coffee from its likely origins in Ethiopia, to its trade on international markets through the Dutch East India Company and its successors, up to the rise of instant and specialty coffee. One chapter deals specifically with Fair Trade, but the history presented works to showcase the need for a fairer trading system for growers.