The U.S. War Department considered coffee to be an essential element of the troops' diet--lifting morale, keeping them alert for night time combat and used as a therapeutic in the field by medics. The army requisitioned 10 times more coffee in 1942 than they had in the year before Pearl Harbor was attacked which meant that back at home, families were asked to stretch their coffee supplies by reusing brewed grounds. We can only assume that Maggie Higgins was getting the coffee she needed as she competed to "get the scoop" in the male dominated world of wartime journalism. The rule that barred women correspondents from reporting from the combat zone didn't keep her from jumping in a jeep headed behind enemy lines, putting her in position to be the reporter on site as Dachau was liberated. She went on to cover the war in Korea in a way that few other reporters did--from the center of combat. In her new biography, Fierce Ambition, Jennet Conant chronicles Higgins' achievements and explores her motivations. In an NPR interview Conant recently said that although the journalist opened doors for women, she never wanted to be distinguished for her gender. "She won the Pulitzer for her daring dispatches, and the Pulitzer committee noted that she won it under extraordinary, difficult circumstances because she was a woman. But she did not want that to be what she was known for. She wanted to be seen as a good newspaper man, not woman." Truly, Maggie Higgins belongs on the WWC Wild Women billboard!

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. ~Lucille Ball Lucille Ball brought the gift of laughter to generations with her hilarious antics and ingenious wit. While she earns "wild woman" status with her acting alone, she was a force to be reckoned with off screen as well. Ball started in film but found real success in broadcast television, first in front of the camera and later as the first woman to own and run a major television production studio. Her show I Love Lucy ran for 6 years (1951-57) and was the number one show in the country for 4 of them. She also acted in The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy and Desilu productions went on to produce Our Miss Brooks, Make Room for Daddy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Untouchables, Star Trek , Mission: Impossible and other groundbreaking shows. Lucille Ball was the first woman to receive the International Radio and Television Society's Gold Medal (1971). She also won 4 Emmy awards and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. The combination of her genius and drive toward perfection made her a legend in the world of entertainment and her work paved the way for the countless women in comedy who followed her. In 1957 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz filmed a Sanka commercial. We have to believe that it was bold, caffeinated coffee that fueled her long hours, but if you prefer decaf, this is one area where we would have to say, don't take Lucy's advice. Try one of our Wild Women Coffee decaf selections instead! (Getty Images)

Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off. But if you don't have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you. ~Amelia Earhart Ninety years ago this week, that wild woman Amelia Earhart made history when she became the first woman to fly nonstop across the Atlantic solo, sustained throughout the trip by tomato juide and a few squares of chocolate. When she was flying, Amelia followed three simple "food rules:" 1. She ate just enough to “prevent fatigue, but not induce drowsiness.” 2. She ate food that was simple to access since “pilots have only two hands and dozens of things to do” and 3. She only brought the lightest weight food on a flight because “…a pilot whose land plane falls into the Atlantic is not consoled by caviar sandwiches.” Of course, she had a thermos of steaming hot coffee stowed to keep her awake on lonely, extended flights, right? Sadly, no! According to a post by the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, “She didn’t drink coffee or tea, and would use smelling salts … to stay awake on her long flights!” Well Amelia, if only you had added salt to your coffee! As it turns out, according to foodie Alton Brown (and a Turkish bridal tradition) adding salt to ground coffee before brewing (a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt to every six tablespoons of ground coffee) enhances the flavor and neutralizes the bitterness of coffee. A little salt as a substitute for milk and sugar might have made even Amelia Earhart a black coffee connoisseur! Could coffee have saved her from vanishing just a few years after her record-settting trans-Atlantic flight? For more about this Wild Woman, check out the Library of Congress Amelia Earhart Resource Guide. And to read about the benefits of salt in your coffee visit The Old Coffee Pot. Use your fear...It can take you to the place where you store your courage.

There is a hunger in this digital age to hear authors together, to participate in programs, to just be in a place, a community space. ~ Carla Hayden The Library of Congress, established in 1800, is the largest library in the world; and Carla Hayden is in charge of it. The current Librarian of Congress was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2016, becoming the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. Prior to her appointment as Librarian of Congress, Hayden served as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a rock star in the library world and served as president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. Hayden is known for her advocacy for intellectual freedom, access to information, and diversity and inclusion in the library profession. Librarian Hayden is partial to the spinach smoothies offered at the LC's Madison Café. Coffee is on the menu too--but don't even try to take a cup into the national stacks! From Hayden's National Library Week Tweet: A library’s role in our communities is more relevant and important than ever. Libraries are the pillar of democracy because we provide free and open access to information but also a place for civic engagement and dialogue. #NationalLibraryWeek 9:44 AM-Apr 28, 2023

Welcome to the Wild Women Coffee Conversations Blog: Musings about coffee, travels in the coffee belt, and women who drink coffee and inspire us. Enjoy this collection of occasional essays that always circle back to coffee. We two authors inhabit a little corner of coffee space. We love to travel in coffee growing climates and experience the cultures of coffee growing people. We dabble in coffee roasting, and learn from observing master roasters. We watch barista competitions and play at steam milk designs and surface powder stencils in our kitchen. We share our limited knowledge of the mysteries of coffee through workshops and presentations. We brew coffee in limitless iterations to share with friends and new acquaintances and try our best to learn about the world through the people who live in it with us. We laugh a lot, with each other, with our friends, and often with strangers. Our blog is a reflection of what we know, what we learn, what we admire. It is flavored by the ribbon of coffee running through it. Reading and writing both require coffee! Here are some of the coffee books that inspire us to write. A note about the WWC LogoGirls Our Logo is intended to be whimsical composites and a little unfinished. Sort of like us. The colors--a sort of orange, and a sort of purple, primary color blends--are representative of so many of us: a little of this and little of that and not fully defined in any one way. The LogoGirls represent us on our packages. They travel with us and love to get their pictures taken. Follow them on Instagram to see all their adventures Blog or newsletter or both? We publish an occasional newsletter but the blog format allows us to get our thoughts out more quickly. We'll re-publish some of our newsletter content here and post a link to full newsletter issues. We hope you enjoy reading our coffee musings. We have fun writing them. Leave comments, subscribe, and by all means, buy coffee!

I started playing clarinet in the fifth grade. It wasn’t like a dream, I was really trying to get out of a history test! We had a pop quiz one day. It was a brutal test, each student was asked questions – you were either right or wrong, pass or fail. When the first question came to me, I got it wrong. So, I looked out of the window, like I did most days, and I prayed, saying, “God, if you can get me out of this test, I’ll do anything!” Almost simultaneously, the principal spoke over the loudspeaker, and she said, “Anyone interested in joining the band, report immediately to the bandroom.” I was “saved by the bell”! ~The Clarinet 48/2 (March 2021) (photo from www.doreensjazz.org) Coffee culture in New Orleans is only surpassed by the music culture. Regarding the coffee, when you're serving coffee with steamed milk next to fried beignets, why add chicory to it? As a caffeine-free root that grinds to a texture similar to coffee, New Orleanians claim that a 70-30 brew of coffee and chicory creates a hot drink with less buzz that may lower cholesterol, control blood sugar and improve gut health. And they say, it tastes good. That's why! We say, it's not the chicory. It is the music in the streets that makes New Orleans coffee taste so good! Wild Woman Doreen Ketchens, aka Queen Clarinet, is a key to that taste enhancement, entertaining all who gather on her corner whenever she’s not on tour. Her world-renowned band, including husband Lawrence on the tuba and daughter Dorian on drums, has toured internationally and played for presidents, but has had a regular spot at Royal and St. Peter Streets for decades. Though a classically trained musician, Ketchens has played with all the jazz greats. She attended community college, then Loyola University and finally the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, studying under Ellis Marsalis and Stanley Weinstein along the way. She gives back by teaching and mentoring enthusiastic young musicians. An International Clarinet Association interview provides more insight into the life and career of one of our favorite Wild Women…Queen Clarinet!

We've all seen the silly wall plaques: "Drink coffee, do stuff," "Life begins with coffee," "Coffee: creative lighter fluid," "With enough coffee, anything is possible..." and so on. But here's a new one that was confirmed by the New York Times this summer: "Drink Coffee, Don't Die! According to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, May 31, 2022, Those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day, even with a teaspoon of sugar, were up to 30 percent less likely to die ....than those who didn’t drink coffee....and those who drank unsweetened coffee were 16 to 21 percent less likely to die....with those drinking about three cups per day having the lowest risk of death when compared with non-coffee drinkers. Ok, I left out "...during the study period.." but still, those are WILD statistics! Maybe it's not the coffee; maybe people who drink coffee make healthier choices in general. But, multiple studies have linked health advantages in the areas of Parkinson’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and heart disease to (drum roll please) ... COFFEE. I'm going to heed this latest study and stick to my morning routine. Yes, please, I'll take a refill! Coffee Drinking Linked to Lower Mortality Risk, New Study Finds

The WWCBeanletter is an occasional newsletter intended to spark conversations about coffee and the world. We hope you will read, pass along, and send us feedback!

Wait, who is Carl Lewis? He's the amazing athlete whose medal record was broken at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by Allyson Felix! She has appeared in 5 Olympic Games--beginning in Atlanta in 2004 when she was 18 years old. This wild woman doesn't leave anything on the track and has 11 medals to prove it! After her last race a message to her daughter is one we all need to hear: “No matter what it feels is stacked against you, you go out with character and integrity, you give your all, and that’s all anybody else can ask of you, and you’re proud with that.” For the record (the informational kind), she likes her coffee with cream and sugar. (http://www.thepostgame.com/allyson-felix-shares-personal-information-olympics )

I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady, activist, writer. How might one encourage newspapers to hire women journalists? Eleanor did it by hosting ladies-only press conferences at the White House. What a wild idea! Eleanor was more than a First Lady—she and FDR had a robust political partnership and her work for social reform and civil rights continued well after his death. As the U.S. Delegate to the U.N. she helped to draft the historic Declaration of Human Rights. ER was a prolific writer and speaker. What's her coffee connection? Talking to America for 15 minutes every Sunday night as host of her radio show Over Our Coffee Cups (1941-42). On her "Sunday evening visit" of December 7, she became the first public figure to comment on the attack at Pearl Harbor.

The Specialty Coffee Association: in their words: The Specialty Coffee Association is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that represents thousands of coffee professionals, from producers to baristas all over the world. Built on foundations of openness, inclusivity, and the power of shared knowledge, we foster a global coffee community and support activity to make specialty coffee a thriving, equitable, and sustainable activity for the entire value chain. The International Women's Coffee Alliance: IWCA The mission of the International Women's Coffee Alliance (IWCA) is to empower women in the international coffee community to achieve meaningful and sustainable lives; and to encourage and recognize the participation of women in all aspects of the coffee industry. National Coffee Association USA: The NCA has been around since 1911. It serves people in all aspects of the coffee business, offers webinars and annual conferences, and has a website chock full of coffee information and data

Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball. ~ Billie Jean King. One of the greatest women tennis players of all time, BJK is a tireless advocate for gender equality and a social justice pioneer. Her fierce competitiveness and great athleticism led to a slew of awards and trophies, including 129 singles titles, and a place in the Tennis Hall of Fame. In 1973 she was a founder and first president of the Women's Tennis Association. That same year King elevated the recognition of women in sport by beating Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." In 1955, she was banned from a Junior Tennis group photo because she was wearing shorts instead of a skirt. These days, Billie Jean King wears whatever she wants, especially on her annual visit to her favorite Wimbledon coffee shop!