August 18, 1999
Web posted at: 5:00 p.m. EDT

Chat Moderator: Welcome Mark Pendergrast!

Chat Moderator: Could you please tell us what inspired you to write this book?

Mark Pendergrast: I love coffee, so that helped. But that is not the main reason that I wrote it. I like the fact that the coffee bean is a really insignificant thing. It is just the pit of a berry that grew wild on a tree in the mountains of Ethiopia. And yet, it is the second most valuable traded commodity on earth. I like that paradox. And the story of how that happened is extraordinarily entertaining with a huge cast of characters. It covers issues such as flavoring, environment, advertising, mass transportation, etc.

Question from Candyce: What's the earliest known use of the coffee bean, and for what?

Mark Pendergrast: Candyce, no one is sure when coffee was first roasted the way we know it today. It was probably in the 1400s. But it was certainly used before that, possibly as far back as 500 AD. They brewed a kind of coffee/tea from the leaves. They made a kind of coffee wine from the pulp, the fruit surrounding the pit. They ground up the coffee bean, mixed it with animal fat, and took it with them on long journeys as a source of quick energy.

Question from Ultram: Do you agree with the genetic modification of the coffee plant? Or should we be going down the more traditional route?

Mark Pendergrast: Ultram, I am a journalist, so I tend to quote people on all sides of issues. I doubt that genetically altered coffee is going to be superior to the old Bourbon and Typica trees. Let me just let it go at that.

Question from Obo: Is it true that coffee makes you stay awake?

Mark Pendergrast: The short answer is yes, for most people. Every individual has a different genetic reaction to caffeine. But let me give you a longer answer. The caffeine molecule docks in the brain at the same place as a natural hormone called adenosine. Adenosine, apparently, allows the brain to slow down and take a rest when it builds up and docks in the brain. Caffeine blocks the adenosine and, consequently, it does not actively keep you awake. It simply prevents the adenosine from functioning so you stay alert longer. Caffeine docks in different parts of the body, in different receptors, so it has an effect on different parts of the body.

Question from Other: Was coffee ever seen as a poison, like the tomato in America for awhile?

Mark Pendergrast: Other, Yes. In fact, coffee has been accused of being terrible for you throughout history. My favorite health story about coffee is from 1674. The men of London were frequenting coffeehouses so much that, when they got home, they were not interested in their wives. The women wrote a pamphlet called; ‘The Women's Petition Against Coffee,’ in which they said that coffee made their husbands impotent--only they put in into much raunchier terms.

I just want to tell everyone in the room that I really appreciate these interesting questions. This is an interesting way to talk to readers.

Question from Philo: Any thoughts on why some faiths have decided coffee is evil and others have welcomed it?

Mark Pendergrast: Philo, what is interesting is that coffee was first used by the faith of Islam. It was used to stay awake for midnight prayers. So, it actually had its first use in a religion. From there it trickled down to use in coffeehouses. Some dogmatists said that Mohammedans should not use coffee, however, because it was like wine, which was prohibited. So there was quite a controversy over it before it was accepted. Around 1600, Pope Clemens, I believe, had advisers who wanted him to condemn coffee as the drink of heathens. He tried it and said that it tasted so good that he was going to bless the beverage. Mormons do not drink the beverage, I think because the faith came out of a period of history (the late 1800s) when people like John Harvey Kellog, who was a Seventh Day Adventist, though that coffee was evil and harmful to health. I actually do not know why the Mormons do not drink coffee. If any one present does know, I would be glad to have them inform us.

Comment from Pjmas: Maybe those London men were doing something at those ‘coffeehouses’ to make them lose interest in their wives when they got home.

Mark Pendergrast: Pjmas, one of the reasons the women were upset is that women were not allowed in those coffeehouses. Women ran many of them, however, so perhaps your conjecture is reasonable. The men wrote an answer to the women in which they claimed that coffee ‘made the erection more vigorous.’ The men claimed that it added ‘a spiritualescency to the Sperme.’

Comment from Maeve: I believe the reason that Mormons don't approve of coffee (or any caffeinated beverage) is that it has stimulant properties.

Mark Pendergrast: Maeve, that makes sense.

Question from Calguy: Mark, why did the English stick primarily with tea and we as their colony went with coffee?

Mark Pendergrast: Good question, Calguy. The British never learned to make coffee very well. They boiled it. Tea is much easier to make. Also, the British East India Company was pushing for tea to be cheaper.

Americans adopted coffee after the Boston Tea Party in 1773. After the Boston Tea Party, it became unpatriotic for Americans to drink tea. Also, Brazil was growing a lot of coffee by the 1800s, which meant that it became cheaper and closer to the U.S. We have always been a pragmatic, cheap people.

Question from Rory: When did coffee become an important trade commodity?

Mark Pendergrast: Coffee was already an important trade commodity by the 1800s, but with the advent of steamships, railroads, and the first real mass marketing, coffee production and consumption exploded. It was a huge international industry by the 1900s.

I just want everyone to know that I am willing to take any type of question but I hope that we get some questions about the treatment of coffee laborers throughout history, the origins of some of the famous coffee brands, and even what is going on recently with Starbucks.

Chat Moderator: Does your book give the history of the coffee brands as we know them today?

Mark Pendergrast: Yes. It certainly does give the history, particularly of the American brands.

Question from Maeve: What was the first brand of coffee in the US?

Chat Moderator: Is there an interesting story behind any US brand of coffee?

Mark Pendergrast: The first really popular coffee brand was Ariosa. It was made by Arbuckle Brothers just after the Civil War. John Arbuckle is a major character in my book and was quite an interesting fellow. He was the first person to package coffee in bags made for peanuts and to understand the strength of a brand name. He also offered a huge catalog of premiums, which were gifts that you could get if you bought a certain amount of coffee. He put his signature on each bag off coffee. If you sent in those signatures, you could get a wide range of gifts, including diamond wedding rings. Arbuckle’s was very popular in the west with both cowboys and Indians.

I think all the brands have interesting stories. Folgers is a good one. In 1849, when the gold rush was just beginning in California, there was a very famous whaling family in Nantucket named Folger. By that time, most of the whales had been killed. So the three Folger boys took a ship to Panama. They were 20, 16, and 14 years old, and they went alone. The crossed the isthmus and took ship again to San Francisco, which, at that time, was a wild, muddy, rowdy town filled with whorehouses. While his two brothers went in search of gold, 14-year-old Jim Folger began roasting coffee for the miners. That's how Folgers began.

Question from Other: Didn't coffee billboards make Times Square the billboard Mecca it is today?

Mark Pendergrast: Other, they contributed to it. I love the Eight O’clock billboard with the steam coming out of it. Eight O’clock came from the A&P, the great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. My book contains a history of the A&P and the development of the supermarket in the U.S. A&P has declined now, but it deserves a lot of credit for offering whole bean coffee when other stores were selling garbage.

Question from Ultram: In what kind of conditions do coffee and tea laborers work? How bad can it get?

Mark Pendergrast: Ultram, I am going to answer this question for coffee only because that is what I know the most about. Historically, coffee laborers have been treated horribly on large plantations. They were either literally slaves or treated like slaves in Indonesia, India, and Latin America. Brazil maintained slavery until 1888 strictly because of coffee. This makes Brazil the last country in the Western Hemisphere to have slaves. Conditions have improved substantially today. Nonetheless, coffee laborers are generally living below the poverty line, making an average of three dollars a day. That is why I am a big supporter of ‘fair-trade coffee.’

Comment from Maeve: Did not know that about Brazil...thought it was US that had slaves the longest...interesting.

Question from Calguy: Mark, I understand that coffee trees in South America are on the decline. Are we to expect a worldwide shortage and much higher prices to keep up our addiction?

Mark Pendergrast: Calguy, coffee is caught in an endless boom-bust cycle. Right now, the price of raw beans, green beans exported, is about a dollar a pound, which is about what it was 30 years ago. It is barely above the cost of production. I hope very much that coffee does become more expensive. When you consider what we pay for a good cup of coffee, it really is not very much, even if we purchase roasted beans for 10 dollars a pound. That still comes out to about 40 cents a cup.

Throughout our history, Americans have acted as if cheap coffee was their birthright. Every time the price of coffee has gone up, we have had congressional hearings. This happened in 1912, 1950, 1954, and 1977. We always claim that there is some sort of Latin American conspiracy or that it is the communists making the price go up. I think it is quite xenophobic.

Question from Calguy: Mark, why do you want the price of coffee to go up?

Mark Pendergrast: Calguy, I only want it to go up if the money flows back to the camposinos who harvest the crop.

Question from Tome: Slaves were a long time ago. Today, a lot of the growers contract with the toasters to buy their beans. Let's forget the slave talk. I am from Costa Rica and the coffee growers love our work and our coffee.

Mark Pendergrast: I don't think that you should ever forget the past because it informs the present. For instance, the history of how coffee production developed in Costa Rica as opposed to Guatemala helped to determine forms of government that are still in place in both those countries. In Guatemala, there was a large Mayan Indian population that was forced to work on large plantations by the Spanish or Germans. As a result, Guatemala developed a tradition of repressive military dictatorships. In Costa Rica, where there was no such ready labor force, coffee farms were much smaller and the owners did most of the work themselves. They had to help one another. Thus, Costa Rica developed a more democratic tradition that you can be proud of.

Question from Sunny1: You said something about the current situation at Starbuck's. What exactly is that situation?

Mark Pendergrast: Sunny, I simply meant that the whole history of the rise of Starbucks and how it occurred is interesting. There are really two periods to Starbuck's history. In the first, three idealistic young pseudo-hippies began a small roastery in Seattle in 1971. The second part of the history really began in 1987 when the current CEO, Howard Schultz, bought Starbucks and had the vision to make it a national chain of espresso-based drinks.

Question from Tome: Whatever happened to Brothers Coffee out of Boca Raton? Didn't they get out of the retail and stay with grocers and wholesale?

Mark Pendergrast: Tome, Brothers Coffee has gone bankrupt. What was left of it was sold recently. The history of Brothers is told in my book and it is a cautionary tale of what not to do with coffee.

Question from Rory: How did coffee growing go from Ethiopia to Brazil?

Mark Pendergrast: Good question. First, coffee cultivation went across the Red Sea from Ethiopia to Yemen. The Arabs maintained a monopoly for quite a while by boiling the coffee beans so that they could not germinate. Eventually, however, the Dutch got hold of some plants and began to grow them in Java. In 1723, A French Lt. took a plant from a Parisian greenhouse across the Atlantic to Martinique. Most of the plants in Latin America have descended from that one tree.

Question from Tome: I heard coffee was good for sex. Stimulates blood flow and senses.

Mark Pendergrast: Tome, scientists supposedly have determined that caffeine makes the sperm move faster. Other scientists think that it might make them move faster, but it kills them. The fact is that there is no scientific proof that coffee either helps or hinders sexual impulse. However, the placebo effect is always good.

Question from Calguy: Mark, is there anything at all negative about the consumption of coffee?

Mark Pendergrast: Calguy, yes. For one thing, it is addictive. If you are addicted to it and you cannot get coffee you will suffer withdrawal symptoms, including terrible headaches. For some people, vomiting. Coffee apparently does not cause pancreatic cancer, heart disease, birth defects, or any of the other ailments that scientists once thought it might. Coffee has been given a pretty clean bill of health. If I were a pregnant woman, however, I would either avoid caffeine completely or cut down on it because caffeine flows through the placental barrier to the fetus.

Question from Maeve: Mark, do you have a personal preference in coffees?

Mark Pendergrast: Maeve, Yes. People frequently ask me what my favorite coffee is. I hesitate to name one any more than a wine connoisseur would drink only one wine. But the best coffees are high-grown Arabica beans, including those grown in places such as Antigua, Guatemala, Kenya AA, or Sumatra.

Question from Pjmas: Is it true they decaffeinate coffee by soaking it in formaldehyde?

Mark Pendergrast: Pjmas, No. That is a myth that I have heard many times on these shows. Traditionally, coffee was decaffeinated with methylene chloride, which left virtually no chemical on the roasted beans. But because people did not like the sound of it, they developed other methods such as the Swiss water method.

Question from Candyce: Does coffee have pheromone properties? The smell of coffee is just sooooo good.

Mark Pendergrast: Candyce, you are asking for a number of comments from the young men on the list. I agree that the aroma of coffee is very enticing. I think that if someone could bottle the smell of roasted coffee, it would be a very effective perfume.

Question from Calguy: Mark, so how is coffee decaffeinated?

Mark Pendergrast: Calguy, basically, they put the green coffee beans into a solution of hot water. Caffeine is soluble. Unfortunately, so are a lot of the aromatics in the coffee. The caffeine can then be taken out of that solution using methylene chloride or other methods. The first decaffeinated coffee was invented around 1905 by Ludwig Roselius in Germany. He thought his father had died from drinking too much coffee. There was a whole movement against caffeine around the turn of the century. One American named CW Post took advantage of this to become a millionaire. He invented Postum; a coffee substitute made from cereals. His advertisements for Postum were outrageous slams against coffee. But they were very effective. There is a whole chapter on Post in my book. He claimed that Postum could cure almost any disease. So, when he got appendicitis at the age of 59, it depressed him so much that he committed suicide.

Chat Moderator: You also wrote a book about Coca Cola…what is it about writing about foods that interests you and does it interest readers?

Mark Pendergrast: Many readers have told me that it interests them but I would urge people to pick up the books and judge for themselves. The Coca-Cola book will be out next spring in a second updated edition. It is called For God, Country, and Coca-Cola. I think the story of Coca-Cola it is extremely entertaining, though whether that is because it has caffeine I am not sure. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Coca-Cola originally had a small amount of cocaine.

Chat Moderator: It’s almost time to go....

Now, the moment we've been waiting for...our winner of the book tonight is Maeve! Thanks, Maeve, for all your great questions and comments.

Chat Moderator: Any final comments, Mark?

Mark Pendergrast: Thank you all for your interesting questions but we have really barely scratched the surface of coffee's lengthy and entertaining history.