bAbsolutely riveting . . . Essential reading for foodies, java-junkies, anthropologists, and anyone else interested in funny, sardonically told adventure stories.brb--Anthony Bourdain, author of bbiKitchen Confidentialib pbFull of historical insights and laced with humor, bbi The Devil's Cupibb is not only a history of coffee, but a travelogue of a risk-taking seeker.bb pIn this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen treks three-quarters of the way around the world on a caffeinated quest to answer these profound questions Did the advent of coffee give birth to an enlightened western civilization Is coffee, indeed, the substance that drives history From the cliffhanging villages of Southern Yemen, where coffee beans were first cultivated eight hundred years ago, to a cavernous coffeehouse in Calcutta, the drinking spot for two of India's three Nobel Prize winners . . . from Parisian salons and caf s where the French Revolution was born, to the roadside diners and chain restaurants of the g