Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Coffee Maven Explores Chocolate and Tea

Last September, I was pleased to teach Coffee World, a four-part online course for BSU Senior College. It was a nice opportunity to develop a program that was shorter than a college course but allowed me to delve a bit deeper than I had in previous public lectures

I was delighted that at the end of this course, several participants wanted to keep exploring, and some of them mentioned being interested in tea and chocolate. I do not have maven-level experience in these, but I do know a bit and I welcomed the opportunity to learn a bit more! 

Hence this six-part course exploring the geographies a few other beverage-related crops: 

The beverage cups of the world are warmed by three beverages that grow on trees. That is not strictly true, of course, but the fruits and leaves from which coffee, tea, and chocolate are derived do grow on trees and shrubs that are cultivated and harvested by hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in dozens of countries. They make their way to customers in every country of the world through complex patterns of processing and trade that have developed over centuries.  This six-week online course begins with an introduction of all three beverages through the lens of museums dedicated to each. The next four weeks are devoted to the spatial patterns, environmental problems, and human-rights issues in chocolate and tea. We spend the final session applying the same geographic approach to other specialty crops.

The chocolate and tea course outline includes a description of each session and a link to the slides that I used. These slides, in turn, include links to many resources that I mentioned during the course and that I make available for further exploration.

Public Lectures

I thoroughly enjoyed both of these courses -- meeting weekly with some old friends and new ones via the magic of Zoom. I was delighted that my mother-in-law was able to participate all the way from Maryland. 

Having prepared these means that I now have ten new lectures that I can bring either online or in-person events at libraries, senior centers, or other venues. 

Contact me to discuss a program or short series for your organization. 

Lagniappe 

Welcome to my TED Talk (2015).

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