Climate Change and Coffee Beans
In Climate Change and Coffee Beans, presenter Cherry Healey visits a coffee historian to learn how climate change is impacting one of the most popular coffee beans, the Arabica bean. Then she looks through a coffee archive to learn how the coffee of the past might help us create a coffee bean that can withstand and thrive in a hotter climate. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Inside the Factory, a series that takes viewers behind the scenes in the factories that make our favorite products.
Lesson Express
Q: How is climate change impacting coffee plantations?
A: Areas of drought are impacting how coffee grows. The temperature is changing and the rainfall is changing which impacts how well coffee grows and where coffee grows best.
Q: How are coffee farmers responding to climate change?
A: They are moving coffee plants farther up hills to provide the conditions coffee plants need to grow.
Q: How are scientists using information from the past to inform the future?
A: Scientists are studying coffee plants from the past to learn about coffee plants that did grow in hotter climates that might be able to be grown in changing climates.
More Like This

In The Science of Common Food Reactions, host Harith Iskander presents some simple science behind everyday breakfast tips. Among these great tips: Why drinking orange juice right after brushing your teeth tastes awful, how to remedy bitter coffee, and even how to tell if an egg is fresh or rotten. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Got Science?, a science magazine series that explores and explains science in everyday life.

In Caffeine and the Brain, presenter Cherry Healey visits the University of Bristol to learn more about how her daily cup of coffee impacts her brain. Then she stops drinking coffee cold turkey to see how she feels. Learn how caffeine impacts the receptors in the brain, and why it feels awful when we stop drinking caffeine. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Inside the Factory, a series that takes viewers behind the scenes in factories that make our favorite products.

In The Science Behind Roasting Coffee Beans, presenter Cherry Healey visits a coffee roaster. Learn about the physical and chemical changes that occur when coffee beans are roasted for differing amounts of time, creating the light, medium, and dark roasts that we see in coffee stores. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Inside the Factory, a series that takes viewers behind the scenes in the factories that make our favorite products.

In The Science of Common Food Reactions, host Harith Iskander presents some simple science behind everyday breakfast tips. Among these great tips: Why drinking orange juice right after brushing your teeth tastes awful, how to remedy bitter coffee, and even how to tell if an egg is fresh or rotten. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Got Science?, a science magazine series that explores and explains science in everyday life.

In Caffeine and the Brain, presenter Cherry Healey visits the University of Bristol to learn more about how her daily cup of coffee impacts her brain. Then she stops drinking coffee cold turkey to see how she feels. Learn how caffeine impacts the receptors in the brain, and why it feels awful when we stop drinking caffeine. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Inside the Factory, a series that takes viewers behind the scenes in factories that make our favorite products.

In The Science Behind Roasting Coffee Beans, presenter Cherry Healey visits a coffee roaster. Learn about the physical and chemical changes that occur when coffee beans are roasted for differing amounts of time, creating the light, medium, and dark roasts that we see in coffee stores. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Inside the Factory, a series that takes viewers behind the scenes in the factories that make our favorite products.