In 2006, prominent businessman John Darch met with a man named Wicha Promyong. That meeting led to the establishment of an equal partnership business venture—a partnership that goes beyond fair trade and shows that capitalism can have a human side. Today the Doi Chaang Coffee Company's coffee can be found across the world.Mark Pendergrast takes the reader on a journey through time and place as he leads us through the history of the ancient, persecuted hill tribe, the Akha, from their very roots to their current status as makers of one of the world's top coffees. Along the way he explains the history of cash crops ranging from opium to coffee, the latter being the crop that has saved the Akha and restored a sense of pride in the Akha people. He tells the story of John Darch and Wicha Promyong and acknowledges their primary role in this story, but he also tells the story of the many people without whom this venture may never have succeeded. This is not a story about...

Uncommon Grounds tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks. In this updated edition of the classic work, Mark Pendergrast reviews the dramatic changes in coffee culture over the past decade, from the disastrous "Coffee Crisis" that caused global prices to plummet to the rise of the Fair Trade movement and the "third-wave" of quality-obsessed coffee connoisseurs. As the scope of coffee culture continues to expand, Uncommon Grounds remains more than ever a brilliantly entertaining guide to the currents of one of the world's favorite beverages.

For God, Country and Coca-Cola is the unauthorized history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it. From its origins as a patent medicine in Reconstruction Atlanta through its rise as the dominant consumer beverage of the American century, the story of Coke is as unique, tasty, and effervescent as the drink itself. With vivid portraits of the entrepreneurs who founded the company—and of the colorful cast of hustlers, swindlers, ad men, and con men who have made Coca-Cola the most recognized trademark in the world—this is business history at its best: in fact, “The Real Thing.”