A simple cup of coffee: Millions of people greet the morning, take a break, or end a meal with this dark brew. In these brief moments, coffee’s rich flavor and deep aroma are simple pleasures unquestioningly accepted, although few of us ever consider the origins of this evermore popular beverage.

Yet 25 million people wake up thinking about coffee, not simply as a part of their morning routine, but as the whole of their workday. In The Birth of Coffee, Daniel Lorenzetti and Linda Rice Lorenzetti explore coffee’s profound impact on people in coffee-growing nations. Spanning four continents, the Lorenzettis’ eloquent text and evocative photographs capture the places where coffee is more than a popular beverage, but a force in politics, economics, and history.

From the cloud-covered farms in Colombia to the rugged mountains of Indonesia and the bustling markets of Yemen, the Lorenzettis find themselves in landscapes dominated by the coffee industry: roads lined with beans, trails to distant fields, and wild forests of coffee trees. But the business of coffee easily flows from the fields to all aspects of life: For the people in these photographs, life too is steeped in an industry dependent on nature. Like the slow brewing of its final product, the business of coffee and the life of its workers have remained remarkably unchanged for centuries.

Despite the big business behind them, coffee often comes to us from small farms where little mechanization is used. Where fields teeming with coffee trees spring from the mountainous landscape, the process of raising, picking, sun-drying, and sorting coffee beans requires a dexterous and vigilant workforce. As the Lorenzettis observe, by the time a coffee bean is on its way to port, it has moved through dozens of hands.

The Birth of Coffee examines brown gold’s impact in Ethiopia, Yemen, Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Kenya, accompanied by 100 duotone photographs that Daniel Lorenzetti toned with actual coffee. This startling book will strike readers with the beauty and substance of the worlds and peoples behind a simple cup of coffee.

Amazon.com Review
If asked where you got your coffee beans, you’d probably say the corner Starbucks or your local grocery store. Rich and fragrant, piles of beans wait in bins for you to pack, grind, and take home (or pack, take home, and grind–whatever your preference). Before arriving on your kitchen counter, though, your coffee beans have passed through the hands of many workers. In The Birth of Coffee, Daniel Lorenzetti and Linda Rice Lorenzetti visit countries where the harvesting of coffee is not just a job or a valuable export but a way of life.

“There is something endlessly fascinating about coffee. It is almost magical in its lore, dynamic in its history, and rich in its countless traditions,” says Rice Lorenzetti. “To tell the story of coffee is to tell much about the nature of humankind…. The story of coffee rests in the faces of these people–in their labor, in their lives, in their hands.” In Ethiopia, women ring a huge mound of green coffee beans, picking through them rapidly and tossing inferior beans into shallow metal bowls. While they work, they sing, as they have for many centuries of sorting. In the evenings, they roast beans and brew strong, sweet coffee in long-necked clay vessels called jebenas. In Java, young women pulp coffee cherries using hand-cranked grinders, which, though heavy, separate the bean from the fruit pulp in just one pass. Since the 1700s Brazil has been perfecting the art and science of coffee harvesting and is now the world’s largest exporter.

The Birth of Coffee tells its story through evocative prose and stunning duo-toned photographs. Seeing the hard-working, often-poor people responsible for your coffee can set you back a step, but they are presented with pride and dignity. And these same people often end their evenings the same way you do–with a steaming cup of coffee. –Dana Van Nest

The Birth of Coffee