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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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