History of coffee
From Kaffa to the third wave, without the myths that got attached along the way.
Culture & history
Where coffee came from, how it moves, and what it means in different places.
All categories
5 explore
Coffee culture
How a country drinks its coffee, and why the ritual differs so much from one to the next.
Trade & economics
The C price, direct trade, certifications, and who along the chain actually gets paid.
Production
Cherry to green bean: picking, processing, drying and milling, and what each step decides.
Coffee around the world
City guides, café scenes and the local styles that are worth planning a trip around.
Recipes
Espresso drinks, filter builds and everything in between.
Café bombón
Espresso floated on sweetened condensed milk in a small glass, the Valencian way. Two layers, two ingredients, and a spoon to stir them together.
- Time
- 3 min
- Difficulty
- easy
Articles
The Ethiopian coffee ceremony, from green bean to third cup
Green beans roasted in a pan, pounded by hand, boiled in a clay jebena and poured three times. How buna is made, and why it takes an hour.
The café menu, decoded
Ristretto, lungo, cortado, batch brew, single or double: what a specialty café menu is actually offering, and how to order the cup you want.
Cafe culture, and what the three waves actually mean
First wave, second wave, third wave: where the phrase came from, what each one changed about the drink and the room.
How the world actually drinks coffee
Ethiopian buna, the cezve, the Italian counter, Nordic filter, the Vietnamese phin, the Cuban cafecito and the Australian flat white.
From cherry to green bean
What happens between the tree and the sack: picking, washed, natural and honey processing, and what drying and grading do to the cup.
A history of coffee in five moments
How coffee travelled from the Ethiopian highlands to the world market, which parts of that story are documented and which are legend.