The coffee habit: Why do we love it so much?
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For millions of us around the world, the day hasn't begun until we've had our first cup of coffee.
Ruth Alexander traces our love affair with coffee back through history, to the wilds of Ethiopia where it was first discovered. She experiences some of the ancient traditions built around coffee which still endure today and asks why this bitter drink has always had such a hold over us.
And does it matter if we enjoy a coffee or three every day? Ruth finds out what's it doing to our brains and bodies, and whether we really need to worry about kicking this ancient habit.
Produced by Lexy O'Connor
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
Image: Three roasted coffee beans float on a light green background. Credit: Getty/Jose A. Bernat Bacete
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, |
| 0:23.2 | your dead to me is available first |
| 0:24.9 | on BBC Sounds, a whole |
| 0:26.8 | month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. |
| 0:29.2 | So if you can't wait another day |
| 0:30.8 | to hear the very latest in history |
| 0:32.6 | and loads of other good stuff, then listen |
| 0:34.8 | first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:44.8 | Thank you. of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. So you've popped the beans into a long-handled pan, |
| 0:47.9 | which is going on a little electric hot stove there. |
| 0:51.8 | The pan is wonderfully charred inside. It's had a lot of use, I see. Yeah, yeah. The pan is wonderfully charred inside. |
| 0:55.8 | It's had a lot of use, I see. |
| 0:57.3 | Yeah. |
| 0:58.2 | We have used it a lot of times, you know. |
| 1:03.2 | This is Samarwit Tecla, the owner of Asmarabella, |
| 1:07.5 | an Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurant in Manchester, England. |
| 1:11.4 | She's making me a coffee, and it's going to take a while, like most of the next half hour. |
| 1:17.4 | First, the light green beans have to be roasted. |
... |
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