I drink a lot of coffee! Thanks to the timer on my coffee maker my day usually starts by smelling freshly brewed coffee at 4:47am. Making the coffee is pretty simple task in my house; pour in some water, add some ground beans into the filter, and set the timer. But getting the roasted coffee beans to my house is not a simple process. That process is detailed in a new TED-Ed lesson titled The Life Cycle of a Cup of Coffee. 

The Life Cycle of a Cup of Coffee details the steps from coffee being grown and harvested through being turned into a beverage for our enjoyment. There are two aspects of the video that I particularly appreciated. One of those is a mention of the warehousing and customs processing of imported coffee beans. The other is at the end of the video when the faces of coffee farmers are featured along with a note to not value the end product more than the people who make it possible. The lesson page also contains a question designed to get students to think about the pros and cons of locally grown versus globally sourced products. 

I drink my coffee without sugar, milk, or cream so this TED-Ed lesson is reflective of the process to created the beverage that’s in my cup. The process would have many more elements if I included sugar or milk in my coffee. Researching the entire process to create a cup of coffee that has milk and sugar could be a good continuation of the TED-Ed lesson, The Life Cycle of a Cup of Coffee.