CAFFEINE How Caffeine Created the Modern World

Pollan is a persuasive narrator and an even better writer. Speaking in a storyteller's style, he introduces listeners to the history, culture, and science of the world's favorite addictive drug. This is a compelling performance and an intriguing subject. Pollan mixes personal experience and research. He even visits a coffee plantation and picks beans. His delivery of scientific data works well with his own personal experiment--he quits caffeine to write this work. The listener comes away with a potful of information on the worldwide economic importance of coffee and tea, and the ubiquitous presence of caffeine in the world. Ninety percent of the world imbibes. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2020]