The following is an excerpt from the new book “The Home Barista: How to Bring Out the Best in Every Bean,” by Simone Egger and Ruby Ashby Orr

Source: The Home Barista

For most of us, coffee is what gets us out of bed in the morning, and it’s what makes us happier people. How do you put a price on that?! Here’s how. 

Coffee gets hundreds of millions of people around the world out of bed because their livelihoods depend on it — working in the cultivation, processing, trading, transportation or marketing of the stuff. It’s also one of the most valuable primary products in world trade; for years, it was the second-most-traded commodity after oil.

Prices for coffee in the world market are determined by market conditions such as supply and demand.

Speaking very broadly (and so sparing us all an economics lecture), it is out of this climate — where farmers, most of whom live in developing countries, are frequently crushed by world economics (factors beyond their control) — that specialty coffee has developed.

Excerpt from The Home Barista: How to Bring Out the Best in Every Bean, copyright © Simone Egger and Ruby Ashby Orr, 2015. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Experiment. Available wherever books are sold. theexperimentpublishing.com