S2 Episode 11: Coffee Production

What this episode covers

Before coffee is brewed and ground, before it is roasted, sold, or traded, and before it’s processed and picked, it must first be grown. Coffee, like most commodities, is a plant. At one time it was wild, and now it’s cultivated. In previous episodes I’ve covered the history of coffee, showing that individual people were key to coffee’s spread through Africa to Europe and eventually to the Americas. The historical narrative of coffee from the time of African legends to the time of Starbucks may seem like a relatively straight trajectory, but it’s actually not. There were people ahead of their time who saw coffee for being more than simply a way to get a caffeine buzz. There were people who jumped history and made a name for themselves in coffee long before Dunkin Donuts graced the city streets of the East. In this episode I talk about coffee production. The episode is divided in two sections. In the first section, I use the story of early specialty coffee pioneers as a lens through which to view the importance of production. In the second section I discuss coffee production, and how a bean gets from the soil to your cup. Sources for this episode include The World Atlas of Coffee and this Smithsonian Magazine article . Thanks for listening! Colin Episode transcript: The more I research coffee, the more I find it woven through people’s lives and lacing the pages of history books. For example, while I was looking up a story to start this episode with I happened across something that totally blew my mind. In today’s episode I’m going to talk about coffee in the most naturalistic sense possible; I want to discuss coffee plants, why beans from different places in the world taste differently, and why this is important to you. See, before coffee is brewed and ground, before it is roasted, sold, or traded, and before it’s processed and picked it must first be grown. Coffee, like most commodities, is a plant. At one time it was wild, and now it’s cultivated. In previous episodes I’ve covered the history of coffee, showing that individual people were key to coffee’s spread through Africa to Europe and eventually to the Americas. The historical narrative of coffee from the time of African legends to the time of Starbucks may seem like a relatively straight trajectory, but it’s actually not. There were people ahead of their time who saw coffee for being more than simply a way to get a caffeine buzz. There were people who jumped history and made a name for themselves in coffee long before Dunkin Donuts graced the city streets of the East. There was a famous man, known throughout the U.S., who loved coffee so much that his drinking vessels were said to be more like bathtubs than mugs. Whether the legends are true or not, this man was said to have drank a gallon of coffee per day at his peak. His kids went on to found a chain of what today we would call “specialty coffee” shops in 1919 – a time when the world was recovering from the first global war and alcohol was about to be federally banned. Oh, and did I mention that this man had been the President of the United States? I’m talking about President Teddy Roosevelt, and I think his love of coffee builds the perfect bridge between the beverage we know and love, and the plants that it all comes from. I’m Colin Mansfield, and welcome to The Boise Coffee Podcast. I’m going to do this episode in two sections. In this first section I’d like to finish the tale of the Roosevelt family’s love affair with coffee. I think it’s a great way to show that quality coffee isn’t a byproduct ...

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