BBC World Service Online

The Why Factor

Documentaries

Factual

The extraordinary and hidden histories behind everyday objects and actions

The Why Factor: Coffee

Coffee

21/02/2014

BBC World Service - The Why Factor, Coffee

Why the production and consumption of coffee matters so much around the globe

Mike Williams explores the spread of coffee drinking, and why its production and consumption matters so much around the globe.

Why is drinking coffee so compulsive, and controversial? Mike Williams explores the spread of coffee drinking, and why its production, and consumption, matters so much around the globe. 

He hears about coffee’s dark origins as a mystical drink, its social function in café societies, and its recent spread through trends such as ‘Seattle coffee culture’. Are tea-drinking cultures willing to be converted? And, as producing nations like Brazil, face huge variations in world prices and the long-term threat of climate change, what does coffee’s future look like?

(Image: Hands holding coffee beans. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Why Factor

Coffee

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service