Mark Pendergrast > Quotes

“The “coffee break”—as a phrase and concept—was invented in 1952 by the Pan American Coffee Bureau. It quickly became a part of the language, as”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“Whenever there is chaos and disorganization,” Saks observed, “that is the time to make money.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States would consume nearly half of the world’s coffee.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“When caffeine gets to the receptors first, however, it doesn’t let adenosine do its job. Caffeine doesn’t actively keep us awake—it just blocks the natural mental brake.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“A 1950 survey of 4,300 television owners showed that TV had a “far stronger effect on food sales than any other commodity.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“I am somewhat skeptical about these findings.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“Caffeine has a paradoxical effect on hyperactive children with attention-deficit disorder:”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“A few Sharps carbines were designed to hold a coffee mill in the butt stock of the gun, so that the soldier could always carry his grinder with him.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“In 1938, after eight years of experimentation, Nestlé launched Nescafé,”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“Europeans eventually took to coffee with a passion. Pope Clement VIII, who died in 1605, supposedly tasted the Muslim drink at the behest of his priests, who wanted him to ban it. “Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious,” he reputedly exclaimed, “that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it and making it a truly Christian beverage.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“Considerable self-confidence was an understatement. People knew when he entered a room… He tipped the boat. You had to scramble to keep your equilibrium.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service

“Let the not-quite-boiling water remain in contact with the ground coffee at the proper ratio—two tablespoons of coffee per six ounces of water—for four or five minutes. Pour the filtered coffee into your cup.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“I dreamed big,” she recalled. “Why not?”
― Mark Pendergrast, City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America's Urban Future

“Americans sense that something is wrong with the places where we live and work and go about our daily business,” wrote social critic James Howard Kunstler in 1996. “We drive up and down the gruesome, tragic suburban boulevards of commerce, and we’re overwhelmed at the fantastic, awesome, stupefying ugliness of absolutely everything in sight… as though the whole thing had been designed by some diabolical force bent on making human beings miserable.”
― Mark Pendergrast, City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America's Urban Future

“In 1674 The Women’s Petition Against Coffee complained, “We find of late a very sensible Decay of that true Old English Vigour.… Never did Men wear greater Breeches, or carry less in them of any Mettle whatsoever.” This condition was all due to “the Excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called Coffee, which… has so Eunucht our Husbands, and Crippled our more kind gallants.… They come from it with nothing moist but their snotty Noses, nothing stiffe but their Joints, nor standing but their Ears.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

“Yet historical roots influence contemporary behavior and decisions for a city just as childhood experiences remain crucial to adult attitudes for an individual.”
― Mark Pendergrast, City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America's Urban Future

“by 1696 one Paris doctor was prescribing coffee enemas to “sweeten” the lower bowel and freshen the complexion.”
― Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World