The global coffee trade is a collision between the rich world and the poor world. A group of graduate students is about to experience that collision head-on. Angela, Alex, Rich, and Sofia bring to their summer research project in Guatemala more than their share of grad-school baggage - along with clashing ideas about poverty and globalization. But as they follow the trail of coffee beans from the Guatemalan peasant grower to the American coffee drinker, what unfolds is not only a stunning research discovery, but an unforgettable journey of personal challenge and growth. Based on an actual research project on fair trade coffee funded by USAID, The Taste of Many Mountains is a brilliantly-staged novel about the global economy in which University of San Francisco economist Bruce Wydick examines the realities of the coffee trade from the perspective of young researchers struggling to understand the chasm between the world's rich and poor.