A History of Coffee
James Harper
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S3E5 Guatemala's Inconvenient Truth, Part 2: Who does specialty serve?
Specialty coffee changes the story for the indigenous people of Guatemala. Coffee as a tool of oppression finally offers hope....and then something a bit more complicated. This episode explores the…
S3E4 Guatemala's Inconvenient Truth, Part 1: Whose land is it anyway?
When you buy a bag of coffee labelled fifth-generation family farm, it feels like a good choice. But in Guatemala, that label might actually be a signal for a more uncomfortable truth. This…
S3E3 Surrogates: Anything but the coffee
What happens when coffee disappears? This is not a thought experiment! It’s happened many times in history: War, blockades, tariffs, ideology, health panics, sanctions, supply shocks. When…
S3E2 Mother Coffee: The history and heritage of Ethiopia's wild coffee forests
Most coffee is grown on vast plantations using machines, pesticides and fertilisers. But in Ethiopia, coffee grows wild in humid forests surrounded by birds. And that wild coffee matters more…
S3E1 We Built This City…On Coffee: Hamburg and the making of Europe's coffee trade
On a long walk through Hamburg, somewhere between the fish markets and giant cranes, you might stumble a giant bronze coffee bean looks like its crash landed from space. But this giant coffee bean…
S3 Introducing: Series Three of A History of Coffee
We’re back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today. Is it possible to follow the story not just to Ethiopia, not just to a…
S2E4 4) Just Friends? America’s love affair with coffee
America is coffee-obsessed. From Central Perk’s red couch being the centre of major plot twists in Friends to the fact the average American drank more than two cups a day. And the conventional…
S2E3 3) Espresso Lungo: The slow road to Italy’s democratic espresso culture
One morning back in the ‘80s, Howard Schultz walks out of his Milan hotel, stumbles into an espresso bar, and fundamentally changes coffee history. He discovered (and then popularises) the iconic,…
S2E2 2) A Lasting Stain: Haiti, Colonialism and Coffee
Haiti was once the biggest, most profitable coffee growing region in the world. But today Haiti is one of the world’s poorest nations where you can’t get a bag of Haitian beans delivered to Berlin…
S2E1 1) It’s Just Coffee? How coffee houses changed the world
A coffee shop is a lot more than just a place to drink coffee. The seats and sofas encourage you to invite a friend, and chat. And chatting is powerful: ideas that emerge from these caffeine-fuelled…
S2 Introducing: Series Two of A History of Coffee
We're back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today. In Series Two, we reveal how the invention of the coffee shop…
S2E1 BONUS: Coffee’s Ticking Time Bomb
We have an exciting announcement....AND, a story about Sri Lanka and coffee history we think you're really going to like. Sri Lankan coffee has delicious notes of chocolate and caramel. But it’s…
S2E1 BONUS: A History of Tea
Coffee has a fascinating history stretching back hundreds of years. But tea takes it to the next level, stretching back thousands. And it too was colonised by Europeans with huge repercussions that…
S1E1 BONUS: Decolonising Coffee History
Each sip of coffee we drink is steeped in dark colonial past. The reason we can enjoy it every morning is because it's relatively cheap, and many people suffered under European colonisers to create…
S1E1 BONUS: Stimulating stories or fantastic flavours: what sells coffee?
We are hard at work on the bonus episode about decolonising coffee history. But...in the meantime, here's an episode from a sister podcast we think you'll enjoy. You can listen to more episodes…
S1E6 6) The Future of Coffee?
Do you grind your beans fresh before brewing your coffee? If so, you are helping overturn a race-to–the-bottom with deep roots in colonial extraction that today is leaving millions of coffee farmers…
S1E5 5) Desperately Seeking Sustainability
When was the last time you bought a coffee that was Fairtrade certified? Certifications make it easy for consumers to put their ethics into practice. But, hidden beneath the glossy sticker is a maze…
S1E4 4) A Dark Bitter Powder
How do you drink your instant coffee? If you’re like most of the world, you fill your mug with milk and sugar to sweeten the taste. By adding milk and sugar to your instant, you helped bring new…
S1E3 3) Coffee Catches Fire
A hundred years ago one Brazilian man owned so many coffee trees he could fill every inch of a European country with them. But why does Brazil grow so much? And who is drinking these lakes of…
S1E2 2) Slavery, Suffering and Affordable Luxury
Why do we get upset when we’re charged €36 for an ordinary cappuccino? The answer flies us to the Caribbean where white Europeans make black Africans suffer. In this second episode of A History of…
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A History of Coffee has published 22 episodes since February 2021, covering topics in Arts, Documentary.
A History of Coffee is currently active with new episodes monthly. Average episode length is 41m.
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