Coffee: The World in Your Cup is hitting the road

Coffee: The World in Your Cup is an exhibit providing a broad overview of the powerful influence of coffee on environments, human cultures, and economies worldwide. For nine months this year it was at the organizing institution, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, in Seattle. Now it is going on the road.

The exhibit, done in collaboration with the University of Washington, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Seattle University, Seattle Audubon, and the Specialty Coffee Industry, includes videos, photographs, and coffee tastings from local roasters. The web site describes some of what visitors learn:

Coffee explores the environmental and social impacts of the coffee industry and recommends ways for consumers to make socially and environmentally responsible coffee purchases at the grocery store or in a coffee shop. Concerned about how coffee affects human health? Learn about the impacts of caffeine, the world's most commonly-used drug, on your body. Curious about how coffee became so popular? Discover its early controversial reputation as a "revolutionary drink," and consider the culture that surrounds coffee in the twenty-first century.

Here is the current schedule:

• World Forestry Center, Portland: Oct 17, 2009 to Jan 10, 2010 (includes coffee break weekends featuring local roasters)
• University of Northern Iowa Museums, Cedar Falls: Feb 13 to May 9, 2010
• Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven: May 20 to Sep 19, 2010
• Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center, Buford, GA: Oct 9, 2010 to Jan 2, 2011
• Museum of the North, University of Alaska, Fairbanks: Jan 22 to Apr 17, 2011
• Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock: May 14 to Aug 7, 2011

This exhibit was so popular at Burke that it was extended three months beyond the initial run. If you have attended or do attend, drop a note in the comments regarding your impressions.