The Various Flavours Of Coffee (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
Expelled from Oxford for too much partying and cast out by his father, Robert Wallis lives in 19th century London on nothing but his charm. He considers himself a poet and quite fashionable. Hedonistic as Robert is, he is still endearing. Robert's adventures begin while sitting in a cafe, where he meets Mr. Pinker. Mr. Pinker is a coffee merchant and trader who hires Robert to develop a reference manual to describe the tastes and smells of various imported coffee beans. Robert soon meets Mr. Pinker's beautiful daughter, Emily, and later, in order to avoid a scandal, Robert is sent to Africa.The Various Flavors of Coffee is a story as luxurious and rich as coffee, with many compelling themes such as love, loss, the women's suffrage movement, slavery and travel. It's all about coffee, well and then there is a love story, but was it really?! "Coffee blossom" - this is the sweet perfume of the lovely white flowers of the coffee tree that used to be called Arabian jasmine in the seventeenth century because the two plants are so similar. The essential oil of Jasminium grandiflorum, fruitier and more highly perfumed than that of Sambac jasmine, is what gives us this cheerful note in coffee."In regard to the passing of time:"It was like the Ingersoll watch Pinker had given me before I left London, and which I had tried to keep to European time. Once it would down in Zeilah (Africa), there was no easy way to reset it. It seemed easier to adapt to the local hours, and ultimately to abandon the use of a watch altogether, for watches are like the Guide: only of use if the person you are talking to has the same equipment as you. That is how it was with Emily. I did not suddenly fall out of love with her, but the part of my heart which should have kept ticking away with the thought of her ran down, and somehow never got restarted.""When a woman gives a man coffee, it is a way of showing her desire. Abyssinian proverb
What do You think about The Various Flavours Of Coffee (2008)?
I read it -not listened to it so I cannot review an audio edititon. I loved the book however.
—edward125
Hilarious! Very apt. My favourite line "Every time you ponitficate, I shall flatulate"
—maryjayne530
Capella just gets better with each book
—pretty22626
