Todd Carmichael's Coffee Travel Series Set for Season Two Return

A Second Season with a Steadier Lens

Back in fall 2012, Todd Carmichael, co-owner of the Philadelphia roasting company La Colombe, launched “Dangerous Grounds” on the Travel Channel. The program followed him to remote coffee-producing areas—Madagascar and Borneo among them—and occasionally placed him in risky circumstances, such as avoiding armed intermediaries in Haiti. The show combined his interest in extreme travel with his work in specialty coffee.

Ahead of the second season’s premiere on Jan. 29, Carmichael says the new episodes will feel a bit more polished. He describes the first season as a crash course in adjustment: getting used to the equipment, the constant presence of cameras, the anxiety, and the strain of being filmed for 16 hours a day. “Now that I’ve had time to digest it all, we’re now able to tell a wider story about cultures, people, food and even specialty coffee in a more mature, less freaked-out way,” he says.

More Familiar Origins, Same Adventurous Spirit

Season two visits several regions more commonly associated with coffee than those in the first season, including Mexico, Guatemala and Uganda. “We hit all the regions—Asia, Central and South America and Africa—and truly found some insane coffees, some of which are being served in cafés all across the country,” Carmichael says. The adventurous element has not disappeared, however: one episode takes him to Nepal, a country he had previously visited for climbing but never for coffee.

Responding to Coffee-Industry Feedback

Carmichael acknowledges that the first season drew some criticism from within the specialty-coffee trade. He believes the new episodes’ stronger focus on the product itself may sit better with coffee professionals. “While everyone in the community realizes that an hourlong show on what might keep us coffee geeks stimulated is not possible, some still think the show should gear more toward pure coffee,” he says. “I think we responded really well in our offering in the second season.”

Balancing Coffee Geeks and General Viewers

Even as he aims to satisfy coffee workers, Carmichael knows they are not the primary audience for “Dangerous Grounds.” That audience is the typical Travel Channel viewer, who may have limited knowledge of coffee. He says he enjoys guiding those viewers toward a deeper grasp of the bean. “I think folks intuitively know that coffee is grown in foreign lands without the show,” he says. “The real impact I’m proud of speaks to the more geeky part of my nature, like how many tens of thousands of viewers now know natural from washed, for instance. … That’s the best any coffee nerd could ask for.”

With the second season about to debut, Carmichael hopes that geeky streak will help viewers develop an appreciation for specialty coffee. “At the end of the day, I’m like any other roaster or barista interested in turning people onto something better than the non-transparent C-grade stuff in the grocery stores,” he says, “and into a wider world of meaningful flavors and relationships.”