Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Everything You Wanted To Know About Coffee

Original source : http://www.chacha.com
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Coffee Beans are the Pit of a Fruit
Coffee beans sure look like beans. But they're actually the pit of the fruit of the coffee tree. The fruit is like a cherry or berry, and each one usually contains 2 of the stones with their flat sides facing each other.

Discovered By a Goatherd
Kaldi is the Ethiopian goatherd who according to legend discovered coffee. The story goes that Kaldi came upon his herd of goats dancing and acting friskier than normal - while nibbling the berries of coffee bushes. He tried a few himself, and soon joined in the merriment. And so the world's love of coffee was born.

New Yorkers Drink 7 Times More
Speaking of a love of coffee, it turns out that people in some areas drink more of this beverage than others. One study revealed that New Yorkers drink around 6.7 times as much coffee as people in other big cities. Meanwhile, Philadelphians ate about 5 times more pretzels than the rest of us. Who knew?

Bach's Coffee Addiction Cantata
Did you know that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a mini comic opera about an addiction to coffee? It's commonly known as the Coffee Cantata. But Bach's work was originally named Schweigt Stille, Plaudert Nicht (meaning Be still, stop chattering). The words were written by Picander, and contain such gems as "If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat." Who knew there was such an association between goats and coffee?

Webcams Were Invented to Watch a Coffee Pot
What was the first webcam ever? If you answered the coffee webcam, you're right! It all began back in 1991 with a pot of coffee in the University of Cambridge's Computer Science Department. The coffee itself was located in the Trojan Room. But the computer science geeks were scattered throughout the building. "They would often turn up to get some coffee from the pot, only to find it had all been drunk." The webcam solved this problem by grabbing 3 images per minute, so people could instantly figure out if there was fresh coffee to be had.

No More Beer For Breakfast
If you're like many people nowadays, you like to start your mornings with a jolt of coffee at breakfast. But if you had been around in Colonial times, you may not have had that option. Back then, beer was the breakfast drink of choice. It was safer to drink than most water, and coffee was more of a luxury item.

Teddy Roosevelt Biggest Coffee Drinker
No matter how much of a dedicated coffee drinker you are, it's unlikely that you would have been a match for President Theodore Roosevelt. His love of coffee is legendary. He's rumored to have drunk at least a gallon of coffee every day.

There is a Coffee Belt
You can't grow coffee just anywhere. The Bean Belt is the name for the latitudes in which coffee can be grown. It encompasses the area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Hawaii is the only state in the US which commercially grows coffee plants.

Grounds For Divorce
According to 'The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World' by Mark Pendergrast, "By the end of the fifteenth century, Muslim pilgrims had introduced coffee throughout the Islamic world in Persia, Egypt, Turkey, and North Africa, making it a lucrative trade item." Coffee eventually became so valued in Turkey that a lack of sufficient coffee was considered grounds for a woman to divorce her husband.

George Washington Invented Instant Coffee
George Constant Louis Washington - not the President - is famous for being an early inventor of a process for making instant coffee. Having immigrated from Belgium he settled in the New York area, where he ventured into making instant coffee. He was eventually able to mass produce it. His G Washington Coffee Company was a major military supplier in World War I.

Benefits of Coffee Slide
Coffee has grown to become one of the world's most popular drinks. And it turns out there are many potential benefits associated with drinking it in moderation, including:
* Easily absorbed antioxidants
* Stress reduction
* Reduced risk of skin cancer
* Improved athletic performance
* Lower risk of type 2 diabetes
* Delayed Alzheimer's or reduced risk of getting it
* Improved focus
On the other hand, too much coffee can be a bad thing. Because it contains the stimulant caffeine, excess consumption can leave you jittery and unable to sleep. And one recent study has found a link between heavy coffee drinking in people under 55 and an increased risk of early death. So don't overdo it!

Ancient Coffee Energy Balls
Coffee wasn't always consumed as a drink. Ancient East African tribes once ground coffee berries together with animal fat. They would then roll them into energy filled power balls - perfect for warriors going into battle.

Charles II Attempted to Crush Coffeehouses
Coffee became widely available in England during the 16th century. And it quickly became enormously popular. By 1675, the country had beem overrun by more than 3,000 coffeehouses. Not everyone was happy about that. In 1674 the Woman's Petition Against Coffee bemoaned the "excessive use of the newfangled, abominable, heathenish liquor called coffee" which had turned their men into layabouts who spent all their time in coffeehouses. And even the king had had enough. In 1675 Charles II attempted to crush the coffeehouses because he felt threatened by the political discussions that took place in them.

2.25 Billions Cups Consumed
Between us all, we drink a staggering amount of coffee each day - over 2.25 billion cups worldwide. And while 90% of coffee is produced by developing nations, most coffee is drunk in the developed world. The top 5 countries with the highest coffee consumption per person are Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and The Netherlands.

Twice Popped Beans
Did you know that coffee beans are popped in a similar way to popcorn? The green coffee beans are roasted in big rotating drums at a temperature of 550 degrees F.
First they turn yellow and smell a bit like popcorn.
Then after 8 minutes they pop and become twice as large.
The beans pop for a second time 3 to 5 minutes later. That's when roasting is complete.

~Blog Admin~

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