Hi Jeff,

I've enjoyed his books also. (Its Jared Diamond)

Yes, I stand corrected - honestly, sometimes I cannot remember my
wife's first name when I introduce her to people - I never address her
by it myelf.

Perhaps it is because my formal
education was in Zoology that I find him interesting but I admit to
being disappointed that he made no mention that North Americans have
only descended from the trees more recently than the population in the
Antipodes.

??? Are you claiming that Aborigines are an earlier branch of
primates and not the same species as Homo Sapiens? (I'm sure you're
joking here.)

I was indeed jesting. I intended to portray that we (all peoples of
the Antipodes) were higher, more developed and more sophisticated
forms of being due to our greater familiarity with espresso coffee.
Neither the Australian Aborigines nor the New Zealand Maori crossed my
mind. If they had perchance attempted to do so, they would have become
hopelessly lost as I myself do sometimes during thought.

A century ago people throughout the US home roasted and thus drank
quality coffee. Then the large companies started "improving" it,
first with pre-ground, then percolators, and as the final insult,
instant coffee. Instant was developed for the soldiers in WWII, where
anything warm was appreciated. It unfortunately created a generation
of Americans for whom percolator coffee is a step up. Then we
suffered through a wave of flavored "gourmet" coffee, and now
over-roasted, over-priced, milk based concoctions are in vogue.

As a general statement, during my childhood, only we Greeks in New
Zealand drank coffee - not espresso but the heat and wait for the mud
to settle type. But we were Wogs and had wierd dining habits such as
the eating of squid and octopus, eating rotten milk (yoghurt), cooking
in olive oil instead of beef fat and prefering wine to beer. Everyone
else, being of English origin, drank tea - brewed/ stewed in a
teapot. The reason for the popularity of espresso coffee machines in
Australia - the cities especially, was due to the huge influx of
Italian migrants after WWII. as Australia could not get enough of the
prefered northern Europeans to come.


However, that said, there has been for the last 30 years a small but
growing cadre of true coffee lovers in the US. In every area of the
country there is a high quality roaster, producing coffee that is the
equal of any in the world. Every city has several cafes that serve
high quality coffee and European style espresso.

Here's a roaster local to me:

http://www.terroircoffee.com/

George Howell was the founder of Coffee Connection years ago, and more
recently created the Cup of Excellence program, where small farmers
are encouraged to produce the highest quality beans with country wide
competitions and small lot auctions based on the results.

Thanks. An interesting site.
I had heard of programmes like this in countries such as Costa Rica
where small famers are resisting growing Cocaine crops. They are being
encouraged to grow high quality, high value specialist coffee crops.
I know that I would pay extra if I knew that it was in a good cause.

Most of Jared Diamond's works are still in print and available at
Amazon, etc. I found "The Third Chimp..." interesting, but a warmup
from "Guns, Germs, and Steel" which goes into great detail in the
question of why Western civilization evolved on a different track from
Native American, and ultimately dominated.

Yes, I enjoyed that book also.

cheers
Peter