Déjà-Brew: How Coffee Got Bad, Then Worse, and, Finally, Good Again

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Arts, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you hopped in a time machine for a cup of coffee from a 17th-century London coffeehouse, you would probably be a bit disappointed by their stale, bitter brews. We told you the story of how coffee jumped from its native soil in Africa to achieve near-world domination in Grounds for Revolution, the first episode in our two-part series. This episode, tune in for the story behind how new technologies, over-the-top advertising, and a forgotten female coffee visionary helped coffee go from bad, to a little better, to downright terrible, before reaching today’s Nirvana of coffee choice and quality. After all, why is a recipe with just two ingredients so hard to get just right? For the answer, we explore the science of coffee brewing, roasting, and flavor, and meet the people who shaped humanity’s pursuit of the perfect cup. All that plus Frank Sinatra, unicorn Frappuccinos, and a whole latte more in our fresh-brewed episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So I know how important Yemen was to the history of coffee, and I feel like I'm about to
0:06.9	taste that history.
0:07.9	I'm really excited.
0:08.9	And really like dates and not mag and all these other flavors that are not in any other
0:17.8	coffee than I've tried.
0:19.8	I visited coffee legend George Howell at his rosary outside Boston, and he put out a
0:24.3	row of coffee samples from five different countries for me to taste.
0:27.8	The Yemeni sample was the last one I spooned into my cup to try.
0:32.2	As you listeners might remember, the first commercial coffee plantation started in Yemen, but
0:37.0	there's not much growing there these days due to a combination of conflict and economics,
0:40.9	the coffee is rare.
0:42.2	It was delicious and recognizably distinct from the other countries coffee I tasted with
0:46.8	George.
0:47.8	Oh yeah, the dates are much.
0:49.6	Yeah, as that note, right?
0:52.2	It is so different from the others.
0:56.2	Totally.
0:57.2	And this is the excitement about coffee, right?
0:59.7	Is all these flavors.
1:01.8	Weirdly, I am not actually a coffee snob.
1:05.1	It's one of the few things I consume that I'm not a snob about, to be honest.
1:09.4	But even someone like me who just drinks coffee in the morning to be able to form sentences,
	...

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