Wartime rationing in the USA was a picnic in the park compared to life in the UK during the war.
Britain imported most of its food, and those shipments were now threatened by German U-boats, while the Luftwaffe was bombing British cities.
- Listen now:
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening War Theme
English Folk Song Suite
Composed in 1923 by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Public domain.
Performed by the Ulm Philharmonic Orchestra and used pursuant to an EFF: Open Audio License. Source.
Closing War Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
Interesting that coffee is making a comeback in Britain. I’ve seen it claimed that the American predilection for coffee is the older British tradition, from the coffeehouses of the 18th century. Tea was becoming the Big New Thing about the time of the American Revolution (think Boston Tea Party), so it was considered vaguely unpatriotic among large sections of the colonial population. Hence it didn’t catch on the way it did in the old country.
I’ve heard that as well. It’s probably at least part of the reason Americans prefer coffee, though I suspect it also had something to do with the proximity of Latin American coffee producing nations, whose exports could be shipped to the USA easily and economically by American shipping companies.