Introducing Coffee Canon

What this episode covers

Over the past two years I’ve been making The Boise Coffee Podcast – a show about coffee. It started out as a bit of an experiment – I was still trying to figure out if doing an audio show about coffee even made sense. I tried a variety of different formats for the show including opinion-based episodes, interviews with business owners who work in the coffee industry, and history-focused episodes centered around specific narratives. Through research for these episodes, I realized that coffee’s history isn’t at all what I thought it was. I learned about key individuals who pushed both the coffee crop and the beverage forward, and as I dug deeper and made more episodes, it became clear that these stories aren’t widely known. I decided it was time to take The Boise Coffee Podcast, which for all intents and purposes was a beta test, and turn it into a show focused on these narratives surrounding coffee. I wanted this new show to be primarily concerned with facts – real events and real people. This is where the name stems from: the word “canon” refers to agreed-upon events that are accepted as genuine and having happened the way they are described. This show is primarily concerned with history and how coffee went from essentially an unknown crop to the billion-dollar industry it is today. But, I also want to discuss the current state of that industry. To do that, from time to time I’ll invite a guest onto the show to talk about some aspect of coffee and the community that surrounds it today. If you want to look further into any of the episodes or topics that I cover, all of the sources used to research the episode will be available in both the show notes, which you should be able to read straight from your podcast client or app, as well as the accompanying blog post that I’ll post here on the blog. Coffee Canon will probably revisit some topics that I originally covered in The Boise Coffee Podcast – to be honest, some of the stories are just too good to not re-share. And on that note, all episodes of The Boise Coffee Podcast will remain live – you can always go back and listen to episodes and interviews from the last two years. Finally, there’s a super-secret email list for Coffee Canon – I’ll be sending out previews of upcoming episodes and links to articles or videos that coffee drinkers might enjoy. To get on that list, simply click here and put in your name and email. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about the show, feel free to shoot me a note on Twitter – my handle is @BoiseCoffee. Thanks for listening – and make sure you subscribe to the show! Episode 1 is launching in just a week on October 16th. Colin

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