The Various Flavours Of Coffee

Excellent descriptions of people, places with emphasis on the senses.Learnt a great deal about the history of coffee trading.It would have been improved if the last section about the suffragettes had not been included as it went off at a tangent rather. However, well worth a read.

This was the first Anthony Capella book I read and I knew nothing about the book or the author before reading it. I read it over one weekend and everything else was neglected. No housework got done, no university work got done, the children were left, more or less, to their own devices and dinner came out of the freezer!The main character, Robert Wallis is, at the beginning a foppish dandy, seemingly without any redeeming features. He is offered a job he does not particularly want but ends up falling in love with the coffee merchant's beautiful, enigmatic daughter. He is sent far overseas to catalogue coffee and whilst abroad, becomes obsessed with a slave woman, Fikre. Angst, heartbreak and danger follow.There are many strands to this story; womens' suffrage, slavery and emancipation, colonialism, 19th Century morals and double-standards and lesbianism. Above all though, it is a love story written with Capella's unparalleled verve and sensual descriptions.Flavours, tastes and sensations come alive. He truly paints pictures with words.I would have liked to award this book 4 1/2 stars, only because I thought the epilogue was slightly disappointing;the book would have been better without it. As it stands I have given it four stars which is to take nothing away from a truly excellent book.If I could only keep one book...this could well be it...

this was a great book! i love thrillers generally, but this book is very informative about an era that i, otherwise, woulnd't have known about. the romance is complicated, just my kind of drama, and the business world of coffee is extraordinary. some of the basic question that i was afraid to ask have all been answered by Capella: where coffe comes from, how is it procesed, how flavours are selected?! the process is much complicated now, but to see the beging of something as big as coffee is amazing. the characters are all very well defined. adding human flaws like Capella did with the characters of this book just makes everything real. would recommend the book!

This book was recomended from an article in the Time Out magazine, and I wasn't dissapointed. It takes you on a wonderfull journey from London to Africa and Brazil and back to London again. This starts off as a very easy to read story about a young man who doesn't really know what he wants to do, until he gets involved in the world of coffee. Historically it feels correct and is a very interesting, fun and informative read. It has also great passion, humour and saddness too. I haven't read anything so easy and enjoyable to read for ages.

Delivered in good time and as expected