Some Facts About Coffee

What’s the world’s second most popular drink after water? That’s right, it’s coffee!

During the American Civil War, soldiers, having used up all their coffee supplies, used roasted sweet potato and Indian corn as a substitute.

The only US state in which coffee is grown commercially is Hawaii.

After petroleum coffee is the second-most-traded physical commodity in the world.

The first coffeehouses in historical Constantinople were called qahveh khaneh (schools of wisdom) since they were the gathering places of men of arts and literature.

To commit suicide with the help of coffee one should have a 100 cups of it in a row.

Roasting coffee in batches is quite a recent thing. Before the1870’s most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire.

On the contrary to popular belief, coffee does not grow in plain brown beans. It actually grows in red berries, which normally carry two green beans each. Sometimes there’s only one bean in the berry – this single bean is called a peaberry. The anomaly of coffee berries carrying three beans are considered to bring good luck.

On a diet? Have black coffee, without milk or sugar it has almost no calories (less than 1 Kcal).

Cowboys are said to have had one of the most peculiar ways of making coffee – they put ground coffee in a clean sock and put in a pot of cold water over a campfire. When ready, they would enjoy this coffee in tin cups.

Nowadays the second largest coffee consumer is Japan. The Japanese are even known for bathing in coffee grounds fermented with pineapple pulp to improve their skin and reduce wrinkles. Amazing! Beats mud-bathing anytime.

1 kilogram of roasted coffee contains 4,000 - 5,000 coffee beans.

Being a meticulous coffee lover, Beethoven always counted 60 beans for each cup of coffee he prepared.

To prepare a really tasty espresso one needs 42 coffee beans.

Caffeine burns off during the coffee roasting process, so the darker the roast the less caffeine it contains.

There isn’t a coffee drinker in the world who wouldn’t know that the author of Père Goriot, the famous nineteenth-century French writer Honoré de Balzac had as much as 40 cups of coffee a day?

In December 2001 Brazil came up with a clever idea to promote its coffee – they produced a scented stamp which should smell like coffee during the next 3 to 5 years.

Up until the tenth century, coffee was used as food. On their nomadic journeys Ethiopian tribesmen were known to eat little balls of coffee berries mixed with animal fat.

In 18th century Germany coffee was believed to cause sterility in women. To increase their fertility women were advised to drink beer…

According to a research, a cup of coffee may contain up to 20 per cent of the advised amount of calories per day. The BBC writes that some of the coffees tested contained up to 400 calories caused by the rich milk, cream and chocolate added to it.

Related posts:

1. Coffee vs. Music Is music better than coffee or vice versa? Yes, it's...
2. 19 Waking Quotes About Coffee I put instant coffee in a microwave and almost went...
3. Size Doesn’t Always Matter There are situations when you can't do without caffeine. Maybe...
4. 21 Odd and Fun Facts About Music The only guy in ZZ Top who doesn't have...
5. How about some coffee syrup? I don't drink coffee with sugar, even though I use...