Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchMaid Cafes of Akihabara: Anna Miller's Uniforms, Moe, and the Lost Decade
Episode 12321
The maid cafe look began before any maid cafe existed. In 1979 the family restaurant chain Anna Miller's introduced a waitress uniform with a white b…
3 days, 9 hours ago
The Legend of Kaldi: Dancing Goats, a Burned Berry, and a 1671 Roman Text
Episode 12320
The best known coffee origin story is set around 850 CE, when a goatherd named Kaldi, placed in Ethiopia or Arabia, sees his goats dancing after eati…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Coffee Vending Machines: 1947 Philadelphia Five-Second Cups to Face Scans
Episode 12319
In 1947 in Philadelphia, two former servicemen, Lloyd K. Rudd and K.C. Melikian, built the first automated hot coffee vending machine, a Quick Cafe s…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Rhode Island Coffee Milk: Autocrat's Syrup War and a 1993 State Drink Vote
Episode 12318
Coffee milk, cold milk sweetened with coffee syrup, is a fixture of Rhode Island. Its roots lie with the roughly 55,000 Italian immigrants who arrive…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Coffee's Global Heist: A Pope's Blessing, de Clieu, and Palheta's Bouquet
Episode 12317
Wild Coffea arabica evolved in Ethiopia, but a 2020 genetic study found that nearly all cultivated arabica worldwide descends from a narrow group of …
3 days, 9 hours ago
Third Wave Coffee: Q-Graders, the 80-Point Line, and Direct Trade Pioneers
Episode 12316
Specialty coffee lives or dies on a 100 point scale: certified Q graders score green coffee, and anything under 80 goes to commercial blends. This ep…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Common Chicory: Roadside Weed to Belgian Endive, Inulin, and Sheep Dewormer
Episode 12315
Cichorium intybus, common chicory, is the tough, blue flowered weed growing out of highway medians, and it grows up to about a meter and a half tall …
3 days, 9 hours ago
Café du Monde: Chicory, Hurricane Katrina, and Vietnamese Grocery Aisles
Episode 12314
Café du Monde has served nearly the same menu from its open air stand on Decatur Street in the French Quarter since 1862: dark roasted coffee with ch…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Café Touba: Senegal's Guinea Pepper Coffee That Forced Nestlé's Hand
Episode 12313
Café Touba is a Senegalese coffee roasted together with djar, the dried fruit of Xylopia aethiopica, also called grains of Selim or Guinea pepper. Th…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Lavazza's Blending Empire: An 1895 Turin Grocery to Formula One Sponsor
Episode 12312
In 1895 Luigi Lavazza opened a small grocery at Via San Tommaso 10 in Turin, and the company credits him with inventing the coffee blend. By mixing b…
3 days, 9 hours ago