The top food history podcasts of 2022
The Food Matters Live podcast loves to look to the future, but we also love to look to the past. The History of… series highlights the interesting and often turbulent food history of our favourite products.
Find some of our favourites below.
The history of tea – from ancient China to kombucha
The history of tea is as interesting and varied as the drink itself.
In this episode we delve into that history to see what the past can offer present day tea makers. The history of tea includes its use as a currency and how smuggling brought it to the masses in the UK.
Caffeine culture – how coffee shaped the world
Why is the world so obsessed with coffee? Listen to the full episode to find out more about Brazil’s defining role in the modern coffee industry, when and how the cappuccino first appeared, and when sugar and milk were first gained popularity among coffee drinkers.
Why did coffee beans spread around the world at such pace? Did early coffee-bean drinks taste like the ones we drink today? And why did coffee spread into the industrial working classes in continental Europe, whilst tea took off in the UK?
The dark history of sugar
The history of sugar is inextricably linked to the horrors of the slave trade.
It’s a dark reality of one of the world’s favourite ingredients. Listen to the full episode to hear discussion on how much modern Britain benefits from the sugar and slave trades of the past.
