Introducing: Series Two of A History of Coffee

James Harper

I'm James Harper, documentary maker and the creator of the Filter Stories Coffee podcast.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

And I'm Jonathan Morris, professional historian and author of Coffee, A Global History.

James Harper

And this is the second series of A History of Coffee.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

So, James, we're back.

You have come all the way to Berlin, where I live.

You know, and it's good to see you because I never did when we were making the whole of the first series.

No, all remote.

All remote, all COVID-free.

James Harper

Thank you.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

What are we actually doing here, though?

James Harper

So we're here because we are back with more stories from the history of coffee.

But Jonathan, listeners might be asking themselves, hold on, you just did A History of Coffee.

What more is there to tell?

Prof. Jonathan Morris

Fair question.

I mean, what we did before was a kind of a chronological overview where we're weaving together many different narratives with a focus, obviously, on sustainability, social, environmental and economical.

James Harper

The problem there was there were so many fascinating stories that I had to unfortunately just cut because it just didn't serve the narrative we were trying to tell in that first series.

And so the cutting floor was just littered with hours and hours of you talking, Jonathan.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

Yeah, and that's never good.

So what we're going to do this time is a different approach.

We're going to bring four new stories.

Each one is tightly focused on a theme in coffee history, but that theme is explored over the centuries.

Absolutely.

James Harper

So the first episode is going to explore the role of coffee shops and how they've been used as these revolutionary spaces that transform societies and also how coffee shops threaten people in power and all the ways they've tried to be banned over the years.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

Then we're moving on to the dark story of Haiti, how Haiti became France's wealthiest slave plantation, how Haitians rose up in revolution, how colonialism, racism have kept Haitian coffee and Haiti poor even up to today.

James Harper

Our third episode will ask the question, where did Italy's revered espresso culture come from?

And what I found really very surprising is just how recent it is.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

And then we're going to go to the country with the great love affair of coffee, America.

And we're going to look at all the ways that Americans became great coffee drinkers.

You know that the first settlers brought over coffee and that there was the Boston Tea Party.

And all of that's great, except actually what we're going to do is blow up this story, which is what we love, because when it comes to coffee, a lot of this story is a lot more myth than it is history.

The tagline for this series really should be coffee myth busting.

James Harper

I'm on for that.

But we've actually invested hundreds of hours of work into this series alone.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

We have.

I've been doing a lot of research in libraries and archives and reading, reading, reading.

Yeah.

James Harper

And on my side, you know, I've been doing a lot of thinking around how to structure the stories, obviously the recording, the editing of it all, and the writing and the playing of the piano music.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

But who we should really thank, James, obviously, is Rancilio, because what we've done here is produce free educational content for the entire coffee community.

And we couldn't have made it without the support of Rancilio.

Absolutely.

James Harper

And if you don't know, Rancilio manufacture professional espresso machines, and you will have a chance to learn more about them in the series.

Speaking of which, when does it drop, Delica?

Prof. Jonathan Morris

Big day, James.

Monday, the 17th of April.

2023.

James Harper

And if you want to binge them all at once, go to the podcast channel, link in the show notes, A History of Coffee, or just wait on my Filter Stories channel and you'll get new episodes every two weeks.

Prof. Jonathan Morris

By the way, one more thing, of course, we are going to be celebrating the launch of the second series by preventing a short version of one of the episodes, the one on Italian espresso culture.

Live, as they say on Sky TV, live at the London Coffee Festival on the Saturday and Sunday, the consumer days.

Podcast times and locations are down there in the show notes.

So come along to that or set a reminder to download everything on Monday, the 17th of April.

Looking forward to it.