From the fifteenth-century coffee houses of Constantinople to the twenty-first-century coffee bars across the United States and Europe, coffee's golden age stretches for more than six hundred years. Americans brew 235 million cups of java every day, making it the most popular social drink in the country. What drives our obsession for this beloved brew--the rich aroma of the roast, the peppy caffeinated zing, or coffee's astonishing versatility? Few other beverages can be served piping hot, icy cold, light and frothy, dense and sweet, or wickedly spiked. And nowhere is coffee more imaginatively explored or more elegantly presented than in this custom-crafted compilation. Recipe contributors include notable coffee purveyors and a highly competitive cadre of award-winning baristas. Each one of the fifty recipes is sure to keep your senses alert and percolating.