Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchAlfred Peet: The Dutch Roaster Who Mentored Starbucks and Sold Only Beans
Episode 12311
Alfred Peet was born in 1920 in Alkmaar in the Netherlands, where his father ran a coffee and tea business and young Alfred roasted and ground beans.…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Alan Adler's AeroPress: The Aerobie Inventor's 176 Degree Coffee Syringe
Episode 12310
In 2004 Alan Adler, a retired Stanford engineering lecturer already famous for the Aerobie flying ring, got fed up with bitter coffee and treated it …
3 days, 9 hours ago
Coffee Substitutes: Civil War Sweet Potatoes, Yaupon Holly, Lab-Grown Beans
Episode 12309
Whenever coffee supplies collapse, people roast whatever they can find. After Napoleon's Continental Blockade of 1806 cut France off from imports, th…
3 days, 9 hours ago
The Coffee Break Invented: A 1674 Women's Petition to Maxwell House
Episode 12308
In 1674 a group of English women petitioned against coffee, claiming it left their husbands idle, gossiping, and impotent. That picture of coffee as …
3 days, 9 hours ago
The Coffeehouse as Public Square: Istanbul 1555 to Lloyd's and Luckin
Episode 12307
The coffeehouse began with Sufi monks in 15th century Yemen, who drank coffee to stay awake through all night dhikr chanting. The Arabic word kahwa h…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Biscotti's Twice-Baked Journey: Antonio Mattei, Cantucci, and Snail Stew
Episode 12306
Biscotti began as survival food. The name comes from the medieval Latin biscoctus, meaning twice cooked, and the second bake pulled out nearly all mo…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Greasy Spoon History: A Murky 1848 Rome Tavern to Blue Plate Specials
Episode 12305
The greasy spoon feels like a 20th century American invention of neon, chrome, and Formica, but the idea of naming a cheap eatery after dirty silverw…
3 days, 9 hours ago
The Zarf: Ottoman Coffee Cup Holders to Cardboard Sleeves and Scrabble
Episode 12304
Coffee was likely first discovered in Ethiopia, but it became a ritual in Turkey around the 13th century, with a formality compared to tea ceremonies…
3 days, 9 hours ago
What a Barista Really Does: Italian Bartenders to Espresso Chemistry
Episode 12303
In Italian, barista means bartender, and a traditional Italian barista runs the whole counter, serving espresso in the morning and cocktails, wine, a…
3 days, 9 hours ago
Inside the Coffee Cherry: Kahwa, Civet Processing, and Roast Chemistry
Episode 12302
Around 850 AD, the story goes, the Ethiopian goat herder Kaldi noticed his goats dancing after eating red cherries. The bean inside is a seed made mo…
3 days, 9 hours ago