Coffee (2004)

Drawing upon his experience as a former coffee buyer, Antony Wild leads an unflinching expedition along the caffeinated trade corridors connecting the Ethiopian highlands and Ottoman coffeehouses to Caribbean slave plantations. The narrative uncovers how a stimulating African bean sparked Enlightenment debate in London while fuelling the ruthless machinery of European colonial exploitation. It serves as both an atmospheric travel narrative and a searing geopolitical investigation into how one addictive crop became a cornerstone of global commerce.