20 Awesome Facts About Coffee

20 Awesome Facts About Coffee 1 Coffee Is Actually A Fruit! That's right, coffee beans are actually the pits of berries. The coffee berries, sometimes called coffee cherries, are an edible fruit that have coffee beans inside. They are only called 'beans' because of their resemblance to beans. Did you know you were actually drinking fruit when you were throwing back those lattes? It explains why the Brazilian acai berry shares so many properties with the coffee 'bean'. 2 Hawaii is the Only U.S. State That Commercially Grows Coffee Coffee tends to grow better at equatorial climates, so you can't really grow coffee in the contiguous United States. Hawaii, however, has an optimal climate for harvesting java beans. Hawaii is known for their Kona coffee which is widely exported and popular around the world. As if people in Hawaii didn't have it good enough, they have some of the world's most beautiful beaches and some of the world's best coffee! 3 It used to be custom in Turkey that if a husband did not provide his wife with coffee, it was grounds for divorce "Until death or lack of quality coffee beans do you part?" This is an odd requirement, no doubt, but it sort of makes sense, and we bet the required coffee drinking makes for a much happier marriage, anyway! Thankfully this custom isn't practiced anymore today. Now we live in a world of equality where husbands and wives alike should do the right thing and make coffee for their spouse. Ever made a single cup of coffee for yourself while your significant other was home? Then you've probably also suffered the consequences . . . 4 Despite what most people think, an espresso has 1/3 the caffeine of a cup of coffee due to serving sizes Consider throwing a double- or triple-shot into your favorite beverage, because just one might not cut it for the more hardcore caffeine addicts. Or you could make a Red Eye- a shot of espresso inside a cup of coffee, or as we like to call it, beanception. Some people actually prefer drinking espresso to drip-coffee or French press for that very reason: you can actually control your own caffeine consumption. So if you're reaching for that late night cup of coffee, try an Americana with 1 shot instead of a whole cup of coffee, you'll sleep much sounder. 5 Brazil is the world's biggest producer of coffee by a wide margin, followed by Vietnam and Colombia In fact, in 2011 Brazil produced nearly twice as much as Vietnam and Colombia combined and a third of all of the coffee produced in the entire world. This statistic has remained fairly constant for the last 150 years! Brazil is also one of the only countries on earth that grows both Arabica and Robusta beans. It should come as no surprise that Brazil is the number one exporter of coffee in the world, and coffee makes up a decent chunk of Brazil's whole economy. 6 It would take around 100 cups of coffee for a lethal dose of caffeine Unimaginable. We get the jitters after just two or three cups, so what would cup 90 feel like? Would we be able to fly and fight crime? Probably not, and we definitely don't recommend trying it out! Most cases of coffee overdose do not come from conventional coffee drinking, but from more, erm, creative ways of consuming coffee, such as coffee enemas. Having that much caffeine in your system could lead to a heart attack or seizure. 7 There Are Two Kinds of Beans The two kinds of beans are Arabica and Robusta. The have different tastes and different caffeine content; Arabica beans are more popular around the world. In fact, 70% of coffee drank on earth is Arabica. Robusta beans grow in different climates and are found largely in Africa and Indonesia. Although most people prefer the taste of Arabica, Robusta has it's fans, and Robusta beans have twice as much caffeine as Arabica! 8 The drink "Americano" comes from when American GIs in WWII would order their espresso with water because it was too strong Sort of funny when you think about how tough soldiers are supposed to be: Asking for your hosts to water down their coffee because it's too strong for you definitely isn't the most rugged of requests! When preparing an Americano, you always pour the hot water on top of the espresso in the glass. If you are instead pouring espresso over hot water you are making a different drink, commonly referred to as a long black. 9 New York drinks about 7 times as much coffee as the rest of the world Well, they DO call it the city that never sleeps....maybe this is why? You know, New Yorkers, we've heard it helps if you don't drink any coffee after sunset. Just a tip. There's some speculation as to why the Big Apple drinks so much coffee; a lot of it might have to do with population density. Since it is such a packed city, there are literally coffee shops everywhere. It also doesn't hurt that coffee is such a large part of the American culture. 10 U.S. Prez Theodore Roosevelt Drank A TON of Coffee Seriously, this is not an exaggeration: Teddy was known to drink a gallon of coffee a day. No wonder he was able to get so much done in the wake of the American Civil War! Good old Teddy also helped Maxwell House come up with their famous slogan, 'Good Till The Last Drop'. He actually came up with that slogan while drinking coffee in Andrew Jackson's living room! 11 The first webcam was invented to monitor how much coffee was left in the pot at the University of Cambridge Sounds bizarre, but from 1991 until 2001, the world's first webcam stood proudly telling all of the residents of the University's Computer Science department whether they could get their caffeine on at that moment. Little known fact: this is actually not what most webcams are used for nowadays. We can only imagine the types of stand-offs this webcam system created. Just imagine: the coffee pot is empty and everyone can see that from their computers. No one wants to be the one who has to get up and brew the fresh pot of coffee, but everyone wants to drink a cup: what a dilemma. 12 Coffee is a Major Commodity In fact, coffee is the #2 most traded commodity on earth, coming only second to oil! On the NYBOT stock exchange coffee futures are one of the most popular commodities. Coffee consumption is actually great for the developing world, because 90% of coffee farming happens in developing countries, while most coffee is consumed in the developed world. The coffee trade funnels money from richer countries to poor countries. 13 The two most popular beverages on Earth, in order, are water and coffee. Really not that surprising when you think about it. After all, it's hard for everyone to wake up all across the world, isn't it? Coffee has become, in the modern day, a staple of countless cultures worldwide for a variety of reasons. Coffee is also a large part of the world's economy for this reason. This would be alarming if coffee was as bad for you as we used to think, but research now shows that coffee is a healthy habit that people around the world should happily indulge in on a daily basis. 14 The word "coffee" comes from the Arabic "qahhwat al-bun," meaning "wine of the bean." This tidbit brought to you by the people who want you to feel classier while drinking your morning beverage. Remember; you're not desperately trying to get yourself awake for work after a sleepless night, you're enjoying a little wine of the bean! The word 'espresso' comes from the Italian term 'caffe epsresso' which means 'pressed coffee'. So when you order an espresso these days, you are actually just asking for a 'pressed' . . . Sounds weird when you translate it, huh? 15 Coffee May Replace Fossil Fuel Coffee beans are combustible and scientists have suggested that coffee beans could replace fossil fuels as one of our main sources of energy and motor fuel. In fact, British engineers created a car that runs on coffee beans in 2011 and it broke the record as the fastest car in existence to run on organic fuels. One day all of us AND our cars will be fueled by coffee beans! 16 Coffee Was Originally a Food, Not a Drink The first African tribes to consume coffee did not make the delicious drink as we know it today. They combined coffee beans with fat to make 'energy balls' which were munched on for a caffeine boost. Okay, so fatty energy balls probably don't sound as delicious as your daily cup of iced espresso with a squirt of hazelnut syrup; but they sound like a great portable way to get an energy boost. We wonder if there's some company out there that will sell us energy balls . . . 17 George Washington Invented Instant Coffee! Okay, so it's probably not the George Washington you are thinking of: A Belgian/American inventor named George Washington invented instant coffee in 1906. The original ads for instant coffee claimed that it was healthier and had a different caffeine content then the normal stuff (both untrue) and it was largely considered a novelty because of it's terrible taste. It wasn't until 50+ years later that good instant coffee came into being and became a household staple. 18 People who drink a moderate amount of coffee are less likely to develop Alzheimers or dementia in old age This is all according to a 2009 study that validates our favorite chemical habit. By the way a "moderate amount" is defined to be between three and five cups per day, so if you don't have a coffee pot (and corresponding webcam) in your office, get one immediately! There are also health benefits of coffee associated with exercise: People who drink coffee before their workout tend to have a better workout and push themselves harder than those who abstain. Don't skip that cup of joe before your next workout! 19 Prolific French writer and philosopher Voltaire was said to drink 50 cups of coffee per day Francois Marie Arouet AKA Voltaire was certainly an eccentric and energetic figure, so he must have gotten his energy from somewhere, right? Still, this one seems a little fishy. We can only assume 50 cups was a smaller serving size then, because this probably would've made for digestive problems, no? 50 cups is actually half of the lethal dose, so Voltaire must have been living on the edge! It's also likely that the coffee Voltaire drank was not as strong and concentrated as what we sip on today, so although 50 cups sounds like a lot, it may have been 50 cups of watered-down joe. 20 Legend has it that coffee was discovered by Ethiopian shepherds who discovered their goats dancing around after eating the beans How exactly do goats dance? In any case, we're forever grateful for the contribution of these anonymous, possibly-fictional 9th century goat herders; without them, restless New Yorkers would have no way to wake up in the morning! Bless you dancing goats, for giving us a discovery that's literally better than every other discovery in the history of the world. Every day when you drink your daily cup (or five) of coffee, make sure to get on your knees and thank the goat gods that brought us coffee. ............

11 The first webcam was invented to monitor how much coffee was left in the pot at the University of Cambridge

Murtaza Rangwala

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