Coffee has its own history and culture by now, and today, That Coffee Roasters explores this with some of the most amazing and unexpected facts about coffee!
Some Little-Known Stories about Coffee
According to an African legend, a 9th-century Ethiopian shepherd came upon coffee’s “magical” powers when he observed his goats dancing around on a sort of hype, this right after they’d eaten berries from a coffee plant. The rest is history, this is when it began humanity’s long history of sipping and savoring one of nature’s gifts.
The origin of the word “coffee” is also enveloped in history. According to some, the Arabic word “qahwah” translates to “wine,” but others insist that it means “the wine of Islam.” For centuries, coffee was referred to as “Muslim wine” in the West. Eventually, “qahwah” became “kahve” in Turkish, which in turn became “koffie” in Dutch, and, after centuries, it resulted in “coffee” in English.
That Coffee Roasters presents: 35 Coffee-Related Facts!
Here are some unusual and fun facts that you may not (or maybe you do!) know about coffee.
- Four out of five Americans start their day with a cup of coffee
- Coffee is actually a fruit
- A cup of coffee contains more antioxidants than a cup of grape juice
- The inventor of instant coffee was named George Washington (no relation)
- The word “cappuccino” refers to the robes of a sect of Christian monks
- Other than crude oil, coffee is the world's most widely traded global commodity
- A third of all the tap water Americans drink is first brewed into coffee
- There are over four billion coffee trees only in Brazil
- The word “espresso” refers to forcing hot water through the coffee grounds
- Coffee and Homo sapiens evolved within 250 miles of each other
- The coffee industry employs approximately 25 million people, mostly farmers
- Approximately 500 billion cups of coffee are brewed and consumed each year
- One of earliest uses of coffee was to produce ecstatic religious visions
- Men who drink six or more cups of coffee a day have 20% less chance of having prostate cancer
- Robusta beans have twice as much caffeine as the more common Arabica beans
- Coffee reduces type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease
- Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata inspired by coffee addiction
- The Oromo tribe in Africa, plant coffee trees on the graves of sorcerers
- All the Earth’s coffee is grown within 1,000 miles of the Equator along the so-called “Coffee Belt”
- To fatally overdose on coffee you’d need to drink 100 cups in one sitting
- The average American worker spends nearly $1,100 yearly on coffee
- Coffee stays warm longer when you add cream
- The phrase for “coffee house” in Turkish means “school for the wise”
- The largest “cup” brewed was 3,700 gallons or roughly 60,000 regular cups
- In the 16th century, many Muslim rulers banned coffee because they were suspicious of its stimulating effects on the human brain
- A study found that women who drank two or three cups daily over ten years were 15% less likely to develop depression
- Japan has a spa where you can swim in a giant vat of coffee
- Famous authors Voltaire and Honoré de Balzac allegedly drank up to fifty cups of coffee daily
- Paper filters (unlike other methods) remove toxins connected to heart disease
- The “Americano” came about because American soldiers in WWII found espresso too strong
- Not providing your wife with enough coffee used to be “grounds” for divorce in Turkey — pun intended
- In 2010, British scientists devised a car that ran entirely on used coffee grounds. It was known as the “car-puccino”
- Merely smelling coffee can help to wake you up
- Espresso is weaker than regular coffee
- Dark roast is weaker than light roast
Were you familiar with all these amazing facts? As you see, the world of coffee is vast and deep, if you know some more facts we might have left out, please let us know in the comment section below, and don’t forget to follow us on our That Coffee Roasters social networks!
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