Match your favourite coffee blend with the best books

We’ve matched the best reads from the Picador Collection to pair with delicious CafePod coffee blends. 

Just like a good book, coffee can be rich with complexity. The best cups are layered with flavour and depth and are sometimes capable of packing a serious punch. When you make yourself one of these special brews, you want a compelling and conversation-starting read to stand up alongside it. So, we teamed up with the experts at CafePod to recommend the best captivating reads from the era-defining Picador Collection to pair with their delicious coffee blends. 

CafePod was born back in 2010 when 3 friends met over beers & pizzas in London. The trio had a wild vision for changing coffee. Today, over a decade later, the team continue to passionately work towards their goal of making high-quality, great-tasting coffee that’s exciting & easy to prepare at home.

Daily Grind & The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

by Oliver Sacks

Book cover for Daily Grind & The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

The best coffee is rich and full-bodied and somewhat extraordinary, just like CafePod's Daily Grind, perfect to pair with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by the late, great Dr. Oliver Sacks. In this thought-provoking read, Dr Sacks recounts some of the most incredible stories of patients with unthinkable neurological disorders. Discover the case histories of individuals who no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; or of people uniquely gifted with acute artistic or mathematical talents. 

Brunch Blend & A Manual for Cleaning Women

by Lucia Berlin

Lucia Berlin is a writer who invites you in with her extraordinary honesty and uniquely witty voice. Each of the stories in her collection, A Manual for Cleaning Women, are rich with the chaos, the pain, the beauty and the moments of joy in everyday life. This book feels like returning to a conversation with a good friend and is brilliantly accompanied by a smooth and comforting cup of CafePod’s Brunch Blend

Intense Roast & A House for Mr Biswas

by V.S. Naipaul

Roasted a little longer for a deeper flavour, CafePod's Intense Roast is for those people who want to get a little bit more out of their day, just like a certain Mr Biswas in V. S. Naipaul's heart-rending and darkly comic, A House for Mr Biswas. Born into misfortune, Mr Biswas is an inherently unlucky man. But in spite of endless setbacks, Mr Biswas is determined to finally buy a home of his own.

Ristretto & Blood Meridian

by Cormac McCarthy

Book cover for Ristretto & Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian is the bold and brutal masterpiece by Cormac McCarthy, acclaimed as one of America's greatest writers. Set in the anarchic world opened up by America’s westward expansion, meet the Kid, a fourteen-year-old boy who is witness to the relentless violence that man is capable of inflicting upon man. This savagely beautiful book goes hand in hand with a refined and powerful blend like CafePod's Ristretto, full of intensity and character.

Call Me Caramel & A Little Life

by Hanya Yanagihara

Book cover for Call Me Caramel & A Little Life

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and celebrated as ‘The Great Gay Novel’ by author Garth Greenwell, Hanya Yanagihara’s immensely powerful story of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance has had a visceral impact on many a reader. For those looking for literature that will stay with you long after the last page, this is undoubtedly the book to read. As you dive into this heartbreaking novel, you’ll need something sweet and delicious to pick you back up, like CafePod's Call Me Caramel.

Supercharger Espresso & American Psycho

by Bret Easton Ellis

Book cover for Supercharger Espresso & American Psycho

If you're only interested in intense fully roasted coffees, then you're sure to love CafePod's Supercharger Espresso, with flavours of warming spice, roasted chestnuts and sweet cedar. Just as impactful as a cup of this stuff is Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho, one of the most talked-about novels of all time. Patrick Bateman has good looks, youth, a job on Wall Street – and he just happens to be a psychopath. This modern classic is a pitch-black comedy about the dark side of the American Dream.


This article was created in partnership with CafePod.