God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee

Can a cup of coffee reveal the face of God? Can it become the holy grail of modern-day knights errant who brave hardship and peril in a relentless quest for perfection? Can it change the world? These questions are not rhetorical. When highly prized coffee beans sell at auction for $50, $100, or $150 a pound wholesale (and potentially twice that at retail), anything can happen.

In God in a Cup, journalist and late-blooming adventurer Michaele Weissman treks into an exotic and par…