The Coffee Journey

Neuss on the Rhine, 1583. The towns of the North do not yet know coffee. Cornelius von Rheydt, a patrician's son with too much longing and too little patience, sets out with his Neapolitan companion Giacomo Fontana for the South - to where a black, forbidden bean is brewed into a wakeful, singing drink.In the alleys of Mocha he finds more than he sought: the secret of roasting, the cunning of the merchants who guard the monopoly with their lives - and Zaida, the daughter of the man who watches over the bean. A love that must not be. And seven beans that change a world.A journey to the end of the known world - for a cup that finally leads home."The Coffee Journey" is the first volume, in chronological order, of the omaneo Saga, which tells across five centuries how the real thing finds its way. With fourteen vignettes, thirteen character plates and a frontispiece.

Neuss on the Rhine, 1583. The towns of the North do not yet know coffee. Cornelius von Rheydt, a patrician's son with too much longing and too little patience, sets out with his Neapolitan companion Giacomo Fontana for the South - to where a black, forbidden bean is brewed into a wakeful, singing drink.In the alleys of Mocha he finds more than he sought: the secret of roasting, the cunning of the merchants who guard the monopoly with their lives - and Zaida, the daughter of the man who watches over the bean. A love that must not be. And seven beans that change a world.A journey to the end of the known world - for a cup that finally leads home."The Coffee Journey" is the first volume, in chronological order, of the omaneo Saga, which tells across five centuries how the real thing finds its way. With fourteen vignettes, thirteen character plates and a frontispiece.