Introduction
Amazing Coffee Facts:
• Coffee is a plant! {Coffee is a member of the genus Coffea in the family Rubiaceae}
• The world drinks about 2.25 billion cups per day - the United States alone drinks 1/5th of this.
• The first coffeehouses opened in Constantinople in 1554
• Coffee was introduced into North America in 1668.
• A pilgrim from India named Baba Budan allegedly smuggled out the first germinable seeds from Mecca to Mysore around 1600.
• Dutch spies succeeded in smuggling out coffee plants that they eventually cultivated in their colonies in Java in 1616.
• It was in a Boston coffeehouse in 1773 that citizens planned the Boston Tea Party.
• India is the 7th Largest coffee producing country in the world (1990's).
• The United States is the largest coffee-consuming nation on the planet drinking roughly 1/5th of the 13.6 billion pounds of coffee grown world-wide (1996's).
• Caffeine is one of a class of xanthine compounds found in a long list of plant products, including tea leaves, cocoa beans, & coffee beans.
Etymology of Coffee:
The word coffee comes from the Italian word caffe, which was derived the Turkish word kahve and the Arabic word qahwah, which originally meant a stimulating drink.
Coffee History:
There are numerous versions and stories on how coffee was discovered and invented. One such story, which originated from the Ethiopian highlands, is how Kaldi, a goatherd, noticed how his goats get so agitated and energetic when they ate berries from this certain plant. Kaldi then discovered the wonders of this certain plant and reported his discoveries to the head of their local monastery, which then was spread to the local townspeople, and then throughout the world!
Coffee Anatomy:
The coffee tree, native to Sudan and Ethiopia but now cultivated widely, fruits small red berries that contain the seeds which are called the coffee beans. These certain trees are capable of growing more than 30 feet high. The tree is covered with...