Abstract
This first chapter is an attempt to blend historical fact with a number of apocryphal tales and beliefs on the origins and development of coffee to provide a light-hearted introduction to the serious text that follows. The sources from which most of the information is culled are listed in the Bibliography at the end of the chapter, and while I have integrated this material and added comments and drawn on my own experience with coffee, I am indebted to the authors of these books for simplifying my task. By virtue of their age and haphazard transmission, the apocrypha and legends are inevitably vague, but those about coffee blend with accepted facts. I trust that this chapter will provide the reader with an interesting and fascinating account of the story of coffee from the discovery of the plant up to the present day.
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Bibliography
Bürgin, E.C. Kaffee (Sigloch Edition, Künzelsau, 1978)
Davids, K. The Coffee Book (Whittet Books, 1980)
Encyclopaedia Brittanica 14th edn. (Encyclopaedia Brittanica Inc. New York, 1973)
Flower, R. and Wynn-Jones, M. Lloyds of London. An Illustrated History (David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1974)
Rosen, C. Coffee, (Penguin Books, London, 1981)
Rothfos, B. Coffea Curiosa, (Rothfos, Hamburg, 1968)
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© 1985 M.N. Clifford and K.C. Willson
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Smith, R.F. (1985). A History of Coffee. In: Clifford, M.N., Willson, K.C. (eds) Coffee. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6657-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6657-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-6659-5
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