20 Coffee Facts – One of North America’s Favorite Beverages
By Paul Scobie
One of the most popular beverages in North America is a cup of hot coffee. Many North Americans consume these beverages every day, and so few know anything about the history of coffee or even how it is produced. The following 20 facts, from the very well known to the obscure, will give you a little bit of insight into that morning beverage we all love to consume – coffee:
1) Coffee is a hot beverage brewed from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant.
2) The seeds are harvested from the fruit of coffee plants, which are called coffee cherries.
3) These seeds are harvested twice a year; Once from the south of the equator between April and May and the second time from the North of the equator between September and March.
4) Once ripe, the coffee cherries are picked and the seeds are extracted. The seeds, referred to as green coffee, are then roasted where they double in size and turn into the dark chocolate brown colour to form the familiar coffee bean.
5) Roasting only begins when the temperature inside the seed reaches 200°C.
6) Once roasted the coffee beans are sorted into categories and labeled as light, medium light, medium, medium dark, dark, or very dark.
7) Darker roasts are smoother in flavor because they have less fiber content and more sugar. Lighter roasts have more caffeine and may taste bitterer.
8) Decaffeinated coffee is produced when the coffee seeds are still green by soaking the seeds in hot water or steaming them, then using a solvent to dissolve the caffeine containing oils.
9) The majority of decaf coffee is only 97 to 99% decaffeinated.
10) Coffee drinking is reported to have originated in Ethiopia in the 9th century, although the earliest credible evidence of beverages made with coffee appears in Yemen in the middle of the 15th century.
11) Coffee was used in Muslim states as an alternative to wine in religious ceremonies. As a result many Christian nations originally banned the ‘Muslim’ beverages.
12) Coffee became more widely accepted after Pope Clement VIII deemed it a Christian beverage in 1600.
13) Even though it is now considered the national drink, coffee was originally banned in Ethiopia by the Orthodox Christian Church until 1889.
14) Coffee is now grown in over 50 countries worldwide.
15) Brazil is the top exporter of coffee, followed by Vietnam.
16) As of 2006, green coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, just behind crude oil.
17) On average, total coffee intake is about a third of that of water in North America.
18) It takes approximately 140 litres of water to grow the coffee beans required for one cup of coffee.
19) The concept of fair trade coffee was developed in the Netherlands by the Max Havelaar Foundation.
20) According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, coffee contains more antioxidants than typical servings of grape juice, blueberries, raspberries and oranges.
Whether you have brewed it from home, or purchased your morning cup of coffee from the local coffee chop, the next time you take a sip of one of North America’s favorite beverages take a minute to reflect upon the 1200 years of its history and be thankful for the process that it takes to get the coffee to your lips. That morning cup of coffee may just be that much more enjoyable if you do.
For freshly roasted coffee with a great selection, check out Morning Coffee Shop’s website, Morningcoffeeshop.com.
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