{"id":5154,"date":"2018-02-18T10:02:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T10:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/book-review-the-monk-of-mokha\/"},"modified":"2018-02-18T10:02:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-18T10:02:55","slug":"book-review-the-monk-of-mokha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/book-review-the-monk-of-mokha\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Monk of Mokha"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Eggers\u2019 new book The Monk of Mokha<\/a> <\/i>tells the remarkable and inspiring story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni American in search of a dream \u2014 until, after a few false starts, he stumbles down the rabbit hole of speciality coffee. After growing up in San Francisco\u2019s tough Tenderloin neighbourhood, Alkhanshali knows he wants to do something more with his life but doesn\u2019t have a plan. Then one day, a friend tells him to check out the statue of \u201ca Yemeni dude drinking a big cup of coffee\u201d opposite the fancy apartment building where he is working as a doorman. The statue \u2014 of a man who \u201cseemed to be some mash-up of Ethiopian and Yemeni” \u2014 turns out to be located in the lobby of a building built by the Hills brothers, whose company<\/a> had a key role in popularising coffee in the United States throughout the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Intrigued, Alkhanshali begins to research Yemen\u2019s role in the origins of coffee: the country is home to the first coffee cultivation and organised coffee trade, but its exports have since withered to a negligible level. At the same time, Alkhanshali learns about the intricacies of contemporary speciality coffee production and preparation. His training ground is first the Sunday morning cupping sessions at Blue Bottle\u2019s Oakland headquarters<\/a> and then Boot Coffee<\/a>, where he becomes the ever-present, enthusiastic apprentice of Willem Boot. <\/p>\n

And soon, the apprentice has a plan: he will create the world\u2019s first Yemeni speciality coffee company, empowering farmers and growers and producing high-quality coffee beans, while maintaining high standards of ethics and transparency. To do this, Alkhanshali must first become a Q grader<\/a> \u2014 a speciality coffee expert qualified to rate and score Arabica coffee \u2014 and pass a test of 22 parts, some of which \u201cwould seem to the generalist or everyday coffee enthusiast insane\u201d, Eggers notes. And even then, starting a company in Yemen during a civil war was never going to be easy, and along the way, Alkhanshali must evade Saudi bombs, Houthi rebels and other dangers besides. I cannot imagine that anyone has ever gone through as much adversity to attend the annual Specialty Coffee Association conference as Mokhtar did.<\/p>\n

Eggers\u2019 narrative is beautifully written and hugely compelling. His description of the history of coffee is fascinating, entertaining and rich with colour, his language wonderfully evocative, from the coffee beans like \u201cpiles of red cherries like huge ruby-red beads\u201d to the Ethiopian shepherd Khaldi\u2019s over-caffeinated \u201cjumping, prancing, braying\u201d sheep. But most of all, Eggers conveys Mokhtar\u2019s passion, drive and determination in his quest to make his dream a reality. It\u2019s an inspiring story \u2014 one I didn\u2019t want to end \u2014 I wanted to spend more time in the company of this incredible man who made his dream into a reality. <\/p>\n

Naturally, the first thing I did after finishing the book was to Google Mokhtar\u2019s company, Port of Mokha<\/a>, and read more about what happened after the events depicted in the book. The coffee isn\u2019t terribly easy to get hold of in the UK, but I hope that the success of The Monk of Mokhtar <\/i>will make it more accessible. Otherwise, I hope to be able to track it down in the United States sometime. As for Mokhtar Alkhanshali himself, London readers can find him at an event to discuss the book and his story at Foyles<\/a>, Charing Cross Road, on 5 March. I might well see you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Eggers\u2019 new book The Monk of Mokha tells the remarkable and inspiring story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni American in search of a dream \u2014 until, after a few false starts, he stumbles down the rabbit hole of speciality … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pizza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aussiepizzas.com\/PIZZADELIVERY\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}