The primary aim of the book is to dive into the history and mythology of coffee and tell a good story along the way.  As a result, the small island of St. Helena figures in a number of ways.  St. Helena was a way point for the European trading empires, changing hands from the Dutch to the English and some others.

St. Helena was also a way point for slave ships and then a port for the naval ships that halted the slave trade.  Slavery played a big part in the mass cultivation of coffee in the Americas, as was fairly labor intensive and the spread of coffee followed the discovery and colonization of the Americas.  While it would be an interesting historical fact, this “dark history” still affects coffee today.  Coffee is still very labor intensive and global competition has pushed coffee prices to significant lows (though prices seem to be coming back slightly since publication of the book in 2002).

Some fun facts

• Arabica is the bean-of-choice for connoisseurs, but Robusta has a much larger share of the market.
• Robusta has twice as much caffeine as Arabica.
• Espresso is a “wonderful system for making good coffee, but not a good system for making wonderful coffee.”
• Coffee beans are unique in the transformation they undergo when exposed to heat.
• Most researchers agree that coffee came out of Africa / Ethiopia and into Arabia in the 15th Century.
• Recent archeology has found coffee beans in a fire pit that appear to date to the 12th Century.
• Caffeine is a stimulant and a poison (Death by Caffeine).

(source)