Why Coffee Is Getting Better  A new book explains how the
average cup of joe went from good to bad to good again
September 9, 2008 RSS Feed Print   • Comment (6) Cover of 'God
in a Cup' by Michaele Weissman.  In God in a Cup: The Obsessive
Quest for the Perfect Coffee, journalist Michaele Weissman goes
behind the scenes of the specialty coffee industry—a booming
business that brings high-quality beans grown near the equator
to popular coffee shops around the world. Weissman also explains
why so much of the coffee we drink is, well, bad. (So bad, in
fact, that many of us might not even realize what we're
missing.) Weissman spoke with U.S. News about why consumers
settle for low-quality beans, how the growing popularity of
high-end coffee is affecting growers around the world, and when
coffee snobbery crosses the line. Excerpts:  Is it elitist to
focus on the specialty coffee business? Does good coffee really
matter? When a human story comes together with a culinary story
comes together with a business story,