Jeanette M. Fregulia, author of A Rich and Tantalizing Brew: A History of How Coffee Connected the World will appear (virtually) at the Fayetteville Public Library on Wednesday, October 21 at 6pm. She has answered four quick questions for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in advance of the lecture.
Q. Tell me about the book? Is it intended as a coffee table book? Or is it something that you hope will be in libraries as an historical source?
A. I write to be read — or at least hopefully be read! I wrote this book as a scholarly historical source for libraries that is also accessible to the public. It is my hope that it will be read by students, my academic peers and patrons of the local library who are looking for something just a bit different.
Read Dr. Fregulia’s answers to all four questions, and tune in to the virtual event at FPL tonight!
A Rich and Tantalizing Brew traces the history of coffee from its cultivation and brewing first as a private pleasure in the highlands of Ethiopia and Yemen through its emergence as a sought-after public commodity served in coffeehouses first in the Muslim world, and then traveling across the Mediterranean to Italy, to other parts of Europe, and finally to India and the Americas. At each of these stops the brew gathered ardent aficionados and vocal critics, all the while reshaping patterns of socialization.
Jeanette M. Fregulia is associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Carroll College in Helena, Montana.