Making Better Coffee

"In Making Better Coffee, Edward F. Fischer offers a compelling and nuanced story about the entanglements of commodity markets, livelihoods, and desire. In this work, you will find vibrant ethnographic accounts of the sensory worlds of high-end coffee makers and connoisseurs, the complex coloniality of Guatemalan coffee oligarchs, and the struggles and resilience of Maya farmers. With characteristic care and insight, Fischer explores the (re)making of ideologies of quality and taste, and the powerful impacts these can have on everyday lives and relations."—María Elena García, author of Gastropolitics and the Specter of Race: Stories of Capital, Culture, and Coloniality in Peru

"All of Fischer's talents are on display here. He deftly analyzes how moral aspiration takes shape in the exquisite qualities of Third Wave coffee. Traveling the global routes of coffee commodity chains, he reveals how markets and formations of race, class, and colonial power coalesce over generations and across communities in Guatemala. Making Better Coffee ultimately is a fascinating look at the power of story in economic life and the ways it produces marketable value, as well as possibilities of human dignity, for Mayans and others on the edge of the global economy."—Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, coauthor of Fast, Easy, and In Cash: Artisan Hardship and Hope in the Global Economy

"This is the first in-depth scholarly exploration of how Third Wave coffee, with its emphasis on exclusivity, artisan production, and terroir, is influencing and in turn is influenced by coffee producers. Fischer provides an ethnographically rich exploration of the historical evolution of the Guatemalan coffee market, paying careful attention to the economic values and ideologies that have combined to shape contemporary conditions in coffee-growing communities."—Sarah Lyon, author of Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets

"Making Better Coffee presents a compelling new analytical framework for understanding global interdependencies and inequalities, one that will assuredly influence conversations across the social sciences. Through highly accessible storytelling, Fischer reveals how dynamics of power and processes of value creation shape human experience in the most mundane and profound ways—from our tastes in coffee to our very life chances."—Kedron Thomas, author of Regulating Style: Intellectual Property Law and the Business of Fashion in Guatemala