National Darkroast Day
When I read this e-mail in my inbox about National Darkroast Day, I initially thought that it was about some festival or celebration about coffee. I was wrong. It was actually a promotional e-mail about a new novel by August Adams.
So what is National Darkroast Day about? The synopsis of the book reads:
At the turn of the 21st century, the CEO of Darkroast Coffee—America’s largest and most popular corporation—launches a major holiday called National Darkroast Day. The holiday is supposed to be a national celebration complete with baristas, festivities, free coffee, and an entertaining Moon Laser Show. Secretly, National Darkroast Day is an evil plot to take over and destroy the entire country. A group of heroes must race against the clock to stop the CEO and save America. In doing so, these heroes unravel a blockbuster secret about Darkroast’s CEO and company origins—a secret that makes their battle a death-defying showdown against the ultimate enemy.
I have not gotten a copy of the book so I have not read the whole thing but reading the synopsis, it made me think of Starbucks for some reason. Now I am not saying that Starbucks is an evil empire trying to take over and destroy any country but the words “largest” and “most popular” seem to fit, don’t you think?
I went through some reviews at Amazon and it seems that people who have read the novel enjoyed it. If you like coffee and you would like an entertaining read, this novel just might do it for you.
New On My Wish List: The Various Flavors Of Coffee
Reading is my passion. I think I have mentioned that several times (well it wouldn’t really be my passion if I hadn’t mentioned it at least a couple of times, right?) but for the past year, I have not had the time to read much. Oh, there were a few weeks that I got hooked into re-reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series but my workload just prevented me from staying up late into the night reading (which I normally do if I am really hooked). I think, though, that I am about to spend considerable time reading if I get my hands on this new book that I just found out about.
Titled The Various Flavors of Coffee, this novel is set in the 1890s in London and Africa. The theme, as the title implies, is coffee and its trade back then. The novel is authored by Anthony Capella. The Seattle Times has a write up that begins with this paragraph:
It is London in the 1890s. Robert Wallis, an impoverished young poet living on his father’s allowance, eats breakfast at a cafe. “[A] well-made cup of coffee is the proper beginning to an idle day,” he comments to the waiter. “Its aroma is beguiling, its taste is sweet; yet it leaves behind only bitterness and regret. In that it resembles, surely, the pleasures of love.”
Now tell me, how can you resist a book that begins with a line about coffee? Seriously, I think this book will be a good read – and a light one, too.
The New Complete Coffee Book: A Gourmet Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Cooking
I am almost done with the book I have been reading for the past week so I thought it was time to search for some new interesting reads. I ran across this book on Google Book Search (as usual – I just love this Book Search!) and from what I have read in the preview, it looks like a good buy.
The book is quite short – a little over a hundred pages – and has 5 main chapters (introduction not included). The chapters are:
History
The Bean
The Roast
The Brew
Recipes
I think that The New Complete Coffee Book: A Gourmet Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Cooking would be perfect for your coffee table – something to browse through on a lazy Sunday morning as you sip your cup of joe while watching TV or whatever else it is that you do on lazy Sunday mornings. There is a lot of information on coffee within the pages of the book and you can get a lot of ideas for unique meals using coffee.
On the other hand, I felt that something was lacking. Sorely missing were the most basic of information, like, how to make cappuccino, latter, and the like. I know, perhaps the authors purposely left information out in order to focus on the more advanced aspects of coffee but it would have been nice to have it in the book as well.
Anyhow, I am still thinking of whether or not to buy the book – we’ll see this weekend.
