Fascinating Coffee Facts and Curious Coffee Information

Exhilarating Coffee Knowledge and Tales About the Revered  Bean

That pesky King George! How dare he slap a fat tax on tea! The nerve! Colonists didn't take it lightly. Instead they decided to throw a party, the Boston Tea Party! And as a result coffee became the patriotic beverage to drink in the budding young nation!

Ugandans have a tradition of wrapping green (unroasted) coffee beans along with sweet grass and spices and then hang them in their home as talisman decorations.

About 60 countries grow substantial amounts of coffee and they are all between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer.

About how many coffee beans does it take to make one shot of espresso you ask? The answer is about forty.

Worldwide about seven million pounds of green (processed but unroasted) coffee beans are produced.

About two thousand United States retailers roast coffee right on their premises.

When a coffee plant blooms there may be tens of thousands of tiny white, fragrant flowers. Within two days of flowering the coffee berries, or cherry, begin to develop.

People love good coffee! In 2006-2007 daily coffee consumption dropped two percent but the consumption of coffee (specialty coffee) increased by three percent.

In the world of commodities trading nothing trades at a higher overall value than coffee except one commodity, oil.

Mecca's first coffee houses were called Kaveh Kanes and were places where the coffee berries were traded.

The popular coffee blend known as Maxwell House derived its name from the name of a Nashville hotel called the Maxwell House Hotel. This is where the blend was first served in 1886 and became popular.

Also see:

The Top Ten Coffees in the World

World's Best Coffee Quotes

One of the reasons that green coffee stores so well is that insects are generally repelled by the presence of the caffeine in the beans.

About seventy percent of coffee grown is of the species Coffea Arabica, commonly known as Arabica coffee, and most of the rest is Coffea canephora, often called Robusta. Some popular varietals are Brazil's Mundo Novo, the widely grown Kent first developed in India, and Blue Mountain grown in Jamaica as well as Kenya.

The King of England in 1675 was Charles II and he thought his detractors were plotting against him in the local coffee houses so he issued a proclamation to ban all coffee houses.

How much coffee does Brazil produce? Only about forty percent of all the coffee in the world!

On a national list of the most recognizable odors is coffee as well as peanut butter and beer.

Most coffee is hand picked.

There were about 108 million coffee drinkers in the U.S. in 1999 and they spent about $9.2 billion in retail coffee and another $8.7 billion in the food service sector that year. This means that that U.S. coffee drinkers each spent about $164.71 on average.

When Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his Coffee Cantata in 1732 he was critiquing the German public's concern about women drinking coffee. The Cantata involves a father scolding his daughter for drinking coffee while she insists it is her “one and only bliss” which is sweeter than kisses and even better than sparkling wine. She finally agrees to quit when he tells her that no man will marry her if she drinks coffee.

Turkey opened its first coffee house in 1554. Earlier Istanbul, Damascus, and Syria had established coffee houses.

Every year in the United States about three hundred million cups of coffee are consumed.

What is the scientific chemical name of the crystalline white powder known as caffeine? Answer: 1,4,7-trimethylxanthine. Catchy isn't it?

In 2000 about 54% of U.S. adults consumed coffee daily, with more than eighteen percent of them drinking specialty coffee beverages daily. Another 25% of the U.S. population consumed coffee occasionally.

If a coffee is grown above the 5,000 foot elevation then it is considered a Hard Bean coffee.

How many coffee beans are in a pound of coffee you ask? The answer is about 4,000. Take out about forty for one cup of coffee to ponder these facts.

Brewing Perfect Coffee and Espresso

Do you want to brew the perfect cup of coffee? Then see the Espresso Coffee Guides section on coffee brewing.

For fabulous specialty coffee drinks see our Espresso Drink Recipes as well as the How to make a Latte. Don't forget that it all starts with Pulling A Perfect Espresso Shot.

For the history of coffee and espresso see World's Best History of Coffee, and for comprehensive terminology definitions see the Coffee Terms.