Ninety Plus Coffee - Impressions

THE BOOK - COFFEE STORY: ETHIOPIA

$3 of every purchase is donated
to innovative non-profits*

"Coffee is so vital to us all that it makes this book, the first modern study of coffee uniquely important--and I recommend the pages herein to anyone in quest of knowledge, enlightenment, and entertainment."

--Professor Richard Pankhurst, author, Economic History of Ethiopia (1968) and A Social History of Ethiopia (1990)

"It’s all here, and more: the Ethiopian story. The coffee maven, adventurer, climber, and anthropologist Majka Burhardt paints vivid word-pictures to accompany Travis and Helmut Horn’s breathtaking photos. Coffee Story: Ethiopia carries us into the heart of the land where coffee originated, with all its glory, mystery, contradiction, and potential."

–Mark Pendergrast, author, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

THE COFFEE STORY MOVEMENT

Ninety Plus Coffee innovates coffee processing towards maximally flavorful ends (we call this Coffee Making). The Coffee Story Movement authentically relates coffee origin culture through the work of photographers, writers, and other artists who engage with coffee communities on local terms, offering the gift of story to market-based coffee purveyors and consumers. Coffee Story: Ethiopia is the first book of our movement.

The Coffee Story Movement authentically relates coffee origin culture through the work of photographers, writers, and other artists who engage with coffee communities on local terms, offering the gift of story to market-based coffee purveyors and consumers. Coffee Story: Ethiopia is the first book of our movement.

Coffee Story: Ethiopia is a unique co-venture by US-based Ninety Plus Press and Shama Books, an Ethiopian publishing company and is thereby both about and from Ethiopia. Unfolding through photos, vignettes, and extended captions, Coffee Story: Ethiopia offers accessible insight into coffee culture on any given page.

Coffee Story Ethiopia is the second book by Majka Burhardt who in 2008 published Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa (Shama Books). A widely published magazine writer, Ms. Burhardt is a frequent speaker on the intersection of adventure, culture, and environment. Learn more about Majka at majkaburhardt.com

THE VIDEO

VIGNETTE EXCERPT - CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW 4 PAGES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Coffee Story: Ethiopia is the second book by Majka Burhardt, who in 2008 published Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa (Shama Books). A widely published magazine writer, Ms. Burhardt is a frequent lecturer on the intersection of adventure, culture, and environment, and has worked extensively in Africa examining the overlap among the three realms. Executive Producer of the documentary film Waypoint Namibia (2009), Burhardt also works as a professional climber and AMGA certified rock guide. Her work in Africa has been featured on national news programs and radio shows, and in magazines and newspapers throughout the world. Ms. Burhardt holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, and received her BA in anthropology from Princeton University.

Visit: MajkaBurhardt.com

PHOTOGRAPHY

Travis Horn has cultivated a photography career born from a pursuit of “foreign familiarity.” Horn has worked and shot extensively throughout Central and South America, Europe, Africa, and the United States. His work has been showcased by Hyatt International hotels, National Geographic Adventure Magazine, and recently in Miami’s Winward Design District. Horn’s involvement with the specialty- coffee industry has spanned multiple creative endeavors in coffee origin countries including Panama, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia.

Additional images by Helmut Horn, whose photographs of the natural world have been showcased since 1974, including exhibits at the Ansel Adams Gallery, Pebble Beach, CA, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

LECTURE TOUR

"It’s a simple question: what if a food crop—coffee—could change a nation’s future? Here are three more questions: What if that crop was something the world had grown to value starting in the sixth century as a plant, and in the fifteenth century as a brewed infusion? What if an assemblage of stories helped shine a collective light on Ethiopia’s role as the birthplace of coffee, and its centuries of coffee ritual and culture? And what if the sharing of these stories increased an understanding of Ethiopia that in turn helped this long-struggling nation toward economic bounty? Our task is Herculean; it will take an optimist. Welcome to the Coffee Story: Ethiopia Speaking Series. I’m that optimist."

Starting in April, 2011, Majka Burhardt is available to lecture in conjunction with the release of Coffee Story: Ethiopia. This tour combines discussions of food anthropology, development, adventure, and the impact of coffee on world politics and global understanding. The Coffee Story: Ethiopia tour offers an opportunity for various civic groups to collaborate on events that demonstrate coffee's reach into daily lives. Download the PDF.

PRESS

For publicity and all inquiries regarding print, TV, and online media, please contact zak[at]ninetypluscoffee[dot]com.

Download the current press release

WHOLESALE

Wholesale inquiries, please contact zak[at]ninetypluscoffee[dot]com

*We work with a group of innovate non-profits and rotate our $3/book donation to these organizations on a monthly basis. Please stay tuned for more details. We are also always happy to hear of companies doing great work that supports Ethiopia supporting itself. Please contact Zak Phillips at zak[at]ninetypluscoffee[dot]com if you would like to join this conversation.