Skip to content
Coffee — The Daily Global ConnectionLesson 13 of 17

Key Terms: Coffee

Goal: After this lesson you can define the core vocabulary from Episode 1 across all four lenses. Subject: Vocabulary | Run time: about 5 minutes

This is your word bank for the Coffee episode. Each term below appeared in a lesson. Read it the way you would warm up before a workout: quick, out loud if you can, just enough to make the words feel familiar. The full glossary lives in the course Resources.

Geography

Coffee Belt. The band around the equator, from 25 degrees north to 30 degrees south, where coffee grows commercially. About 81 countries grow coffee inside it (International Coffee Organization, 2024).

Arabica (ah-RAB-ih-kah). The coffee species in about 70 percent of what people drink. It wants mild temperatures, steady rain, and altitude, and it cannot take frost (Davis et al., 2012).

Robusta (roh-BUS-tah). The other main species, about 30 percent of production. It takes more heat and disease and grows lower down, from 200 to 800 meters (International Coffee Organization, 2024).

Terroir (teh-RWAHR). The way geography, climate, and soil show up in a crop's flavor.

Agroforestry (AG-roh-FOR-uh-stree). Growing coffee under a canopy of shade trees, which supports soil health and climate resilience.

Social Studies

Public sphere. A space where people debate ideas outside the control of the government. Coffeehouses were among Europe's first (Cowan, 2005).

Penny Universities. The nickname for English coffeehouses of the 1600s and 1700s, where one penny, the price of a cup, bought you a seat in the day's debate (Cowan, 2005).

Al-Mukha (al-MUK-hah). The Yemeni port where coffee first entered international trade. It gave the world the word "mocha."

Sufi (SOO-fee). An Islamic mystical tradition. Sufi communities in Yemen were among coffee's earliest documented users (Pendergrast, 2010).

Cultuurstelsel (kul-TOOR-stel-sul). The Dutch colonial forced-cultivation system in Java, from 1696 to the 1870s, that made farmers give over land to export crops including coffee (Topik & Clarence-Smith, 2003).

Economics

Supply chain. The set of stages that move a product from source to buyer. For coffee: farm, export, import, roaster, retail, cup.

Commodity coffee. Bulk green coffee traded on futures markets, called the C-Market. It is driven by price and volume, and it leaves the farmer exposed to swings (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).

Price elasticity. How much demand changes when price changes. Coffee's demand is inelastic, meaning a big price jump barely changes how much people buy (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).

Fair Trade. A certification that sets a price floor and a premium for farmers and adds labor standards (Fair Trade USA, 2023).

Direct trade. A sourcing model where roasters buy straight from farms, often on multi-year terms and at higher prices (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).

Local multiplier effect. The share of money that stays in the local economy. Local cafes recirculate about 68 percent, national chains about 43 percent (American Independent Business Alliance, 2023).

English Language Arts

Qahwa (KAH-wah). The Arabic word for coffee, which originally meant wine. It traveled into Turkish as kahve, Italian as caffe, and English as coffee (Weinberg & Bealer, 2001).

Buna (BOO-nah). The Amharic word that means both coffee and the Ethiopian coffee ceremony (Weinberg & Bealer, 2001).

Abol (ah-BOHL). The first round of the Buna ceremony, the strongest brew, the rising action of the gathering (Pankhurst, 1997).

Tona (TOH-nah). The second round, medium strength, the development (Pankhurst, 1997).

Baraka (bah-RAH-kah). The third round, the lightest brew, a blessing and a resolution. The word also means blessing in Amharic (Pankhurst, 1997).

Sources

  • American Independent Business Alliance. (2023). The local multiplier effect: How locally-owned businesses create more economic impact. AMIBA Research.
  • Cowan, B. (2005). The social life of coffee: The emergence of the British coffeehouse. Yale University Press.
  • Davis, A. P., Gole, T. W., Baena, S., & Moat, J. (2012). The impact of climate change on indigenous Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica). PLOS ONE, 7(11), e47981. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047981
  • Fair Trade USA. (2023). Coffee impact report: Price premiums and farmer income. https://www.fairtradecertified.org
  • International Coffee Organization. (2024). Coffee market report 2024. https://www.ico.org
  • Pankhurst, R. (1997). The Ethiopian borderlands: Essays in regional history from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. Red Sea Press.
  • Pendergrast, M. (2010). Uncommon grounds: The history of coffee and how it transformed our world (Rev. ed.). Basic Books.
  • Specialty Coffee Association. (2024). The specialty coffee almanac 2024: Market trends and pricing analysis. https://sca.coffee
  • Topik, S., & Clarence-Smith, W. G. (Eds.). (2003). The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1989. Cambridge University Press.
  • Weinberg, B. A., & Bealer, B. K. (2001). The world of caffeine: The science and culture of the world's most popular drug. Routledge.
Sign in to track your progress