Most coffee is grown on vast plantations using machines, pesticides and fertilisers.

But in Ethiopia, coffee grows wild in humid forests surrounded by birds.

And that wild coffee matters more than most of us realise. It is the genetic ‘library’ we can turn to find new varieties to help us keep coffee thriving in the face of climate change.

But the communities who live alongside them and have safeguarded this genetic treasure often don’t earn enough from coffee to make preservation the obvious economic choice.

Could a great story be the answer to earn higher premiums for these communities? Could that story be that all the coffee we drink today can actually be traced back to a single “mother tree” in Ethiopia?

This episode is about the history of coffee in Ethiopia, how far back the evidence goes, what counts as evidence, and what we should celebrate (and pay for) when we buy “wild” Ethiopian coffee today.

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Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast) and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.

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This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.

Read Jonathan’s book, ‘Coffee: A Global History’

Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories

Discover how James makes these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to his Substack newsletter

Enjoy James’ Standart article about Avicenna and the earliest (supposed) written reference to coffee

Read the scientific paper pinpointing where wild coffee forests are in Ethiopia

Follow Solomon Tselele's work through his Facebook page

Learn more about the Ethiopian coffee ceremony on the Adventures in Coffee podcast

Series 3 of A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’.

Ethiopian forest sounds curtesy of George Vlad. Hear more nature sounds here.

On a long walk through Hamburg, somewhere between the fish markets and giant cranes, you might stumble a giant bronze coffee bean looks like its crash landed from space.

But this giant coffee bean represents a staggering fact: one in every three cups of coffee drunk in Europe has passed through Hamburg.

In the first half of this episode, we explore the many profound ways coffee shaped one of Europe’s most important cities.

But then the story flips because, once coffee changed Hamburg, Hamburg began to change coffee.

Series 3 of A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’.

Please spread the word about A History of Coffee!

Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast) and Jonathan (@coffeehistoryjm) - and tag us in an Instagram story.

Write a review on Apple Podcasts

Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify

This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe.

Read Jonathan’s book, ‘Coffee: A Global History’ (https://amzn.to/3dihAfU)

Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories

Pick up a copy of Margrit Schulte Beerbühl’s book, Kaffee Ist Fertig!

Read James’ article on Frederick the Great’s attempt to ban coffee in Standart

Go on your own Hamburg coffee tour!

Giant bean

Speicherstadt Museum

Burg Coffee Museum in the Speicherstadt

Becking, 100 year old coffee roasters

1950s Rebuilt Coffee Exchange - and an Instagram post coming on @filterstoriespodcast

Go deeper into the story of Mahlkönig’s grinders

Early EKs - post coming on @filterstoriespodcast

DK (aka Donkey Kong Dreiphasen Kaffeemühle)

Grind-by-Sync espresso grinders

EK Omnia

Guatemala

Matt Perger WBC routine demonstrating the EK

Filter Stories episode on grinding curves

We’re back with more stories about the tiny psychoactive seed that changed the world and continues to shape our lives today.

Is it possible to follow the story not just to Ethiopia, not just to a single town, but all the way back to one tree?

We’ll uncover the uncomfortable history of Guatemala — a story about who inherited the rich volcanic soil, and who was forced to work it.

We explore what happens when our worst nightmare comes true: coffee disappears from the shelves. What did people brew instead? Was any of it actually drinkable?

And we tell the story of how coffee can shape the massive port city of Hamburg, and how Hamburg then went on to shape the global coffee world.

If we want to make coffee a more equitable industry that’s also kinder to the environment, a place to start is understanding the stories and systems that put the coffee into your cup this morning.

Press the ‘Subscribe’ button so you don’t miss future episodes. A History of Coffee is a collaboration between documentary maker James Harper of the Filter Stories coffee podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’. Follow us on Instagram! Jonathan Morris @coffeehistoryjm and James Harper @filterstoriespodcast. This free educational content was made possible with the support of Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-class grinders for 100 years. Subscribe to The Science of Coffee podcast