author lani kingston on a blue background

Author, educator, anthropologist, & brand strategist with 15+ years shaping the global food and coffee world.

I help food and beverage businesses grow through culture-driven strategy, storytelling, and education.


My work spans continents and industries: I’ve published four best-selling coffee books translated into 17 languages; helped set up and run MAST Chocolate’s bean-to-bar chocolate factory in London; headed a cooking school in Australia focused on food waste; and worked as one of Chef Dan Barber’s senior managers at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. I’ve judged for the UK’s prestigious Great Taste Awards; launched coffee brands in Singapore; written for global publications; and spent years researching food culture, production, and ritual around the world.

Today, I help food, beverage, and travel businesses build and grow through my agency, Four Seasons of Food. I also direct education and brand strategy for Coffee Fest, serve on the board of Slow Food Portland, and teach food and coffee anthropology at Portland State University.

I’m still writing and researching – books, essays, content, scripts – always returning to the cultural thread that runs through what we eat and drink.

cover of spill the beans book by lani kingston

BESTSELLER

Spill the Beans: Global Coffee Culture and Recipes

Now in 6 languages!

NEW RELEASE

Designing Coffee: New Coffee Places and Branding

Now in 3 languages!

Curious about my books, events, or media work?

Books, events, writing, and brand work – explore some of the food, beverage, and travel projects I’ve brought to life.

Want help with your business or project?

Practical support, big-picture thinking, and brand-building for businesses across the food and beverage industries.

Want stories, insights, and occasional updates from the food & coffee world?

All my latest articles, projects, events, recipes, trips, classes, and books can be found on my Substack. Subscribe today!


LATEST NEWS

  • On the Road: A Swedish Midsummer.

    On the Road: A Swedish Midsummer.

    After a weekend in Stockholm, my friend Stina and I jumped in the car to drive out to the countryside. We were headed for Örebro, Stina’s university town, and the countryside surrounding it. We were to spend Midsommar by Lake Hjälmaren, Sweden’s fourth-largest lake. On our way, we stopped in at Sigtuna, Sweden’s first town…

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  • On the Road: A Winery From the Middle Ages and Sustainable Living in Freiburg, Germany.

    On the Road: A Winery From the Middle Ages and Sustainable Living in Freiburg, Germany.

    Home of the famous Freiburg Minster, a beautiful cathedral built in the 1200s, and the only Gothic cathedral completed in the Middle Ages to survive the bombing in the 1940s. A number of houses around the cathedral were wiped out in the raids in 1944, but the clever church staff had removed all of the…

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  • A Kinfolk Magazine Gathering: L’Esprit de la mer.

    A Kinfolk Magazine Gathering: L’Esprit de la mer.

    Kinfolk is all about sharing, living, eating, talking, and discussing. Did you know they began as communities of ‘gatherings’: long table meals held across a number of different countries around the world? This spawned the magazine, and they’ve continued the gatherings – themed around their upcoming issues. It is always a small gathering, and they…

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  • On the Road: Pork and sage three ways in Lincolnshire, England.

    On the Road: Pork and sage three ways in Lincolnshire, England.

    London was getting to me. I was writing my book, How to Make Coffee, while living out of Airbnbs and from the tables and counters of various cafes and bars. London was so.. distracting, and expensive. I’d looked around for a little studio I could rent in the countryside – it didn’t matter where – and…

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