Coffee cover art

Coffee

The Epic of a Commodity

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Coffee

By: H. E. Jacob
Narrated by: Contessa Brewer
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

About this listen

"A cup of coffee is a miracle, a wonderful assemblage of relationships."

This classic follows coffee's journey around the world, from London to Brazil, telling in fascinating detail and amusing anecdotes the singular history of the legendary commodity - from the discovery that chewing on the beans were keeping goats awake in Yemen to the author's own experiences with the bean in 1935.

Referred to as a "documentary novel" back to coffee's inception, H. E. Jacobs pioneered the concept of creative nonfiction. This narrative style combines the reality of nonfiction with the epic presentation and prose of fiction. This genre has exploded into popularity and remains so today. Coffee tells the story of this popular beverage in short, fun-to-hear essays that will entertain anyone who enjoys a good, strong cup of coffee.

©1935 H.E Jacob First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2015 (P)2015 Audible, Inc. Food & Wine Gastronomy Social Sciences Wine & Beverages Imperialism Nonfiction Middle Ages Latin American Middle East Africa War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 When America First Met China cover art
The Food Explorer cover art
A Short History of Power cover art
Living Planet: The Web of Life on Earth cover art
Preventable cover art
Meditations cover art
The Nuremberg Trial cover art
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art
A History of Britain: Volume 1 cover art
English History Made Brief, Irreverent, and Pleasurable cover art
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions cover art
London in the Eighteenth Century cover art
The Taste of Conquest cover art
Domina cover art
Following the Equator cover art
A Shorter History of Australia cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Love the topic, the diversity of topics, the deep history and stories and opinions of many writers and other people. Narration is also excellent. Very pleasant to listen to.

Recommended for anyone interested in the history and story behind coffee. It also includes world politics, economics and many more.

Great book, entertaining and educative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator failed to research the pronunciation of place names, geography, historical names etc so it was painful to listen to most of the time !

Interesting book, shame about the reading of it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.