SearchResearch Challenge (7/23/25): Wake up and smell the 19th century coffee?

[Dan Russell]

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

SearchResearch Challenge (7/23/25): Wake up and smell the 19th century coffee?

There's a small shift in focus for SearchResearch... 

An AI generated image that's intentionally slightly misleading.  (So don't waste time mining this image for clues.  Read the Challenge below!)

... it's been brewing for a while, and is one that lends itself to this week's Challenge.  There are changes afoot at the old SearchResearch Rancho, and I want to keep you in the loop.  

As you probably noticed, the process of doing online research has been rapidly changing with the advent of AI methods.  Consequently, the things we talk about here are changing as well.  

Each week I'll try to focus on either:  

A. Something so interesting we have to talk about it.  You's seen these Challenges before--topics like Hummingbird Hawk-moths or why some clocks use IIII rather than IV.   

There are really two reasons to do these "interesting" Challenges:  (1) you still need to have the basic search skills to find a good, high quality answer; and (2) I'm trying to get everyone to learn to see the world around them with a bit of a curious eye.  I hope everyone will get into the habit of asking "why is this like that?" or "what is that thing anyway?"  Learning to see--rather than just look--is a fundamental skill for SearchResearch.    As Betty Edwards says, “We mostly see what we have learned to expect to see.” (In:  Color: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Colors)  I want to encourage everyone to see rather than merely look.  

B. Discussions of new (mostly AI-based) ways of doing online research and evaluating what you find.  That's what last week's Challenge was all about: So what ARE LLMs good at? What are they bad at?   

And I expect that we'll alternate the Interesting with the Discussions posts as we go forward.  

This week is one of those Interesting Challenges... 

I came across a claim in my reading that struck me as so strange and bizarre that I had to SRS the claim.  Is this true?  If so, can you find reasonable evidence for it?  

1. I read that during 19th century Germany, it was prohibited to coffee beans without official royal sanction. One couldn't import or roast or sell coffee to the masses.  What's more (and even stranger, which is what makes this a fun Challenge), the government employed people whose job was to literally sniff out illicit coffee production.  Since it's hard to hide the smell of coffee roasting, it seems unlikely!  So the big question is:  Was this a real thing?  If so, who, when, where, and most of all, WHY?  

As mentioned, the point in these Interesting Challenges is to find the answer, but JUST as importantly, to learn a method for finding the answer and validating it.  

What can you do with the Challenge this week?  Can you sniff out the answer?  

Be sure to let us know what you did to find the answer!  (Yes, all methods are good--but you should say what you did, and give some background information on why you find this plausible.)  

Keep searching! 

--

Daniel M. Russell 

Check out my book:  The Joy of Search (2019) 

Available in fine bookstores (and online) everywhere.