'The Bean Belt' is where your morning coffee likely came from

European colonization contributed to coffee's spread

European colonization created channels for large-scale coffee exports with workforces based in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Trade routes throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world carried the drink to new shores and changed the agricultural and economic landscapes of the countries in the Bean Belt.

The history of coffee

From its likely origins in what is now Ethiopia to today's worldwide consumption, this video uses a map to show how coffee conquered the world. Follow along and see how pilgrimages and centuries of trade influenced the spread of the beverage we all know so well.

Cultivate your coffee taste with this interactive flavor wheel

Coffee is one of the more complex things humans consume, and taste can vary drastically based on bean genetics, roasting technique, and more. Using this flavor wheel, you can more accurately describe your coffee's aroma by starting from the center and moving outward.

Coffee is made by brewing the seeds from the coffeea plant

The cherries from the coffeea plant are milled into coffee beans. After processing, the beans are dried and roasted.

A historical deep dive into everything coffee

Can’t get enough coffee? Join documentarian James Harper and historian Jonathan Morris for an immersive dive into the history of everyone’s favorite beverage. From the highlands of Ethiopia to the streets of Vietnam to Viennese cafes, you’ll travel with the humble coffee bean as it spreads across the globe.

Understanding the distinctions between coffee types

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed looking at a coffee shop menu, you're not alone. Here's a breakdown between common coffee styles. Click through the link to see similar guides to espresso and cold drinks.

Roasting controls how your coffee will taste

James Hoffmann, winner of the 2007 World Barista Championship, is the best person to break down the importance of the roasting process. Arguably, along with where beans are grown, roasting is the most important variable in the flavor of your favorite drink.

Beanless 'coffee' is an eco-friendly alternative

As we consider the role of agriculture in climate change, many people are seeking alternatives to the most resource-hungry crops—coffee included. Are new synthetic alternatives the answer? Startups are exploring beanless “coffee” made in a variety of ways.

Why the James Beard Awards finally recognized a coffee professional

Jack Benchakul is the sole coffee maker at Los Angeles' Endorffeine and the first in the coffee world to be recognized by the prestigious food and drink awards. His attention to detail mirrors the level of craft cocktail makers whom the awards have historically praised.

Civet coffee is some of the most expensive (and bizarre) coffee in the world

Known colloquially as "cat poo coffee," the style is made from beans that have been consumed and then excreted by the Asian palm civet, a small mammal related to the mongoose. Coffee made from these beans is said to be smooth and complex, with notes of chocolate.

Why coffee prices have reached record highs in 2026

Coffee beans reached $9.46 per pound in February 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest price since the Bureau began tracking the price in 1980. Experts blame bad weather in Brazil and Vietnam (the world's largest producers) and heightened US tariffs.

There's a grading room on the eighth floor of the New York Stock Exchange where experts loudly slurp coffee and then spit it out to test its quality

Since many agricultural commodities are traded through futures, testers ensure that the physical product that reaches the market accurately reflects the price. Coffee graders at the NYSE have to pass a four-day-long exam that's only offered every five years and has a less than 10% pass rate.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

What llama beans can tell us about the Inca Empire

Fun fact: Llama bean is just another term for llama poop. Another fun fact: Scientists are using these beans and related microorganisms to learn more about the Inca Empire. Read this article to learn how.

A podcast detailing the drug markets of East and Southern Africa

The African continent plays a critical role in the global illicit drug market. Often forgotten when discussing drug trafficking, organized criminal networks in Africa have established relationships with other criminal organizations around the world....

From the surface, Mars can appear butterscotch, golden brown, and even green

Images from orbiters, landers, and rovers show that Mars has a mix of surface colors resulting from variations in the mineral compositions of different regions. The reddish tint when viewed from Earth comes from kicked up particles of rusted iron.

Less than 0.1% of the approximately 20,000 known bee species make honey

The majority of honeybee species originate in South and Southeast Asia, with the largest—Apis laboriosa—found almost exclusively in the Himalayas. The smallest is the black dwarf honeybee, Apis andreniformis, which inhabits tropical and subtropical regions of the continent.

Every regional American barbecue style, explored

You've heard of Memphis-style barbecue, and may know the difference between Central and East Texas styles. But what about North Chicago barbecue versus South Chicago barbecue? Or Kentucky's preference for mutton? This lively video takes on every American barbecue style they could find, from Virginia to Hawai'i, in 15 minutes.

Visualize every brand that AB InBev owns

The giant beverage holding company AB InBev owns many, many more brands than just Budweiser and Bud Light. From Africa to Asia and beyond, this image helps visualize the immense number of brands that AB InBev is responsible for.

Hot, semiarid, coastal, cold: An overview of the four desert types

This article describes the various characteristics of deserts, including their geography, their climate, their soil, and the wildlife and vegetation that inhabit them. All desert climates are characterized by extreme temperatures and low rainfall,...

The life of a pistachio

Pistachios—which are actually a seed, not a nut—are a superfood with lots of great fat, fiber, antioxidants, and more, and is listed as a complete protein. Originally from the Middle East, the seed was imported to the US where California has become the leading grower in the world. Harvested once a year around October, the flavor is having a bit of a moment both for its taste and nutrition. Watch more here.

How crude oil is split across oil markets based on geographic origin

Brent, West Texas Intermediate, and Dubai are the three crude oil classes and differ in terms of typical refinery uses, density, sulfur content, and suitability for financial benchmarking. Brent, which originates in the North Sea, is traders' go-to benchmark, in part, because it is easily shipped and politically stable, and used to price most of the crude sold internationally.

Asia's agriculture-focused set of 24 'small seasons'

In contrast to the four broad seasons and their basis in astronomy and climate, ancient farmers in China and Japan had many more and varied seasons (or "sekki). Take Keichitsu (March 6 to 21), for example: this means "going-out of the worms" when bugs come out from hibernation.

Which countries have the fastest internet speeds?

Ever wonder about how fast internet speeds are around the world? Take a look at this graphic which lists out the countries with the highest mobile internet speeds in 2023. Countries in the Middle East and East Asia dominate the list while America lags behind in eighteenth place. Learn more about why a high-income country like the US fall behind in speed, and why other countries are internet powerhouses.

The essential bossa nova albums

This primer from Far Out magazine offers a quick tour of the Brazilian genre through five of its most important albums, including "Getz/Gilberto," "Sergio Mendes Presents Lobo," and Roshina de Valenca's "Apresentando." Helpfully, there's plenty of critical commentary alongside the records, too, explaining how these landmark albums defined the genre.

Why Serbia produces great basketball players

The NBA phenom Nikola Jokić isn't an anomaly. Serbia and other Balkan countries have produced generations of talented basketball players. This history of the region's approach to basketball explains why. It details a community-minded approach to the sport called "positionless basketball” that emphasizes dynamic multi-talented players rather than specialized superstars.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.