Sunday, August 10, 2014

Coffee



"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love" 
- Turkish Proverb

Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, oil is the largest.

There are two types of oils in coffee, good oils and bad oils. The good oils are good for your body and your health, the bad oils are what give you ulcers and stomach problems. To avoid the bad oils in coffee simply use paper filters to minimize the effects.

"Without my morning coffee I'm just like a dried up piece of roast goat."
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) The Coffee Cantata

Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea, a sixfold increase since 1940.

Coffee starts out as a yellow berry, changes into a red berry and then is picked by hand to harvest. Through water soaking process the red berry is de-shelled and left inside is the green coffee bean. This bean then dries in the sun for 3-5 days where it is then packed and ready for sale.

Beethoven who was a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew.

One of a collection of inappropriate coffee ads from the past

In Africa coffee beans are soaked in water mixed with spices and served as candy to chew.

Before the first French cafe in the late 1700's, coffee was sold by street vendors in Europe, in the Arab fashion. The Arabs were the forerunners of the sidewalk espresso carts of today.

Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world today producing over 44 million bags of coffee each year.

Coffee as a medicine reached its highest and lowest point in the 1600's in England. Wild medical contraptions to administer a mixture of coffee and an assortment of heated butter, honey, and oil, became treatments for the sick. Soon tea replaced coffee as the national beverage.

The U.S. is the largest coffee consuming country in the world, estimating 400 million cups per day.


In 1675 Charles II, King of England issued a proclamation banning Coffee Houses. He stated Coffee Houses were places where people met to plot against him:

"A PROCLAMATION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF COFFEE HOUSES: Whereas it is most apparent that the multitude of Coffee Houses of late years set up and kept within this Kingdom...and the great resort of idle and disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and dangerous effects; as well for that many tradesmen and others, do herein misspend much of their time, which might and probably would be employed in and about their Lawful Calling and Affairs; but also for that in such houses...divers, false, malitious, and scandalous reports are devised and spread abroad to the Defamation of His Majesty's Government, and to the disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm; his Majesty hath though it fit and necessary, that the said Coffee Houses be (for the Future) put down and suppressed..."
-  King Charles II of England, December 23, 1675 
This rule was revoked on January 8, due to widespread citizen protest.

Coffee lends its popularity to the fact that just about all flavours mix well with it.

There are 65 countries in the world that grow coffee and they are all along the equator.

In Italy, espresso is considered so essential to daily life that the price is regulated by the government.

Coffee in the United States is only grown in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

In Sumatra, workers on coffee plantations gather the world's most expensive coffee by following a gourmet marsupial who consumes only the choicest coffee beans. By picking through what he excretes, they obtain the world's most expensive coffee -'Kopi Luwak', which sells for over $100 per kilo.  That's the unprocessed product above.  I think I'll stay with my Moccona.

In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family's pot filled with coffee.


Black coffee with no additives contains no calories.

Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time.

There are two types of coffee plants, Arabica and Robusta.


Japan ranks Number 3 in the world for coffee consumption.

An expert in brewing Turkish coffee is known as a "kahveci".

loyd's of London began as Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse.

Espresso Coffee has just one third of the caffeine content of a cup of regular coffee.

The average cup of coffee contains more than 1000 different chemical components, none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavour.


James Mason invented the coffee percolator on December 26, 1865.

The French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of coffee a day.

Instant coffee was invented in 1901 by a Japanese American chemist known as Satori Kato. Later in 1906 a more known English chemist known as George Constant Washington claimed he invented instant coffee.

The coffee filter was invented in 1908 by a German homemaker, Melitta Benz, when she lined a tin cup with blotter paper to filter the coffee grinds.

In 1822, the first espresso machine was made in France.

The heavy tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773, which caused the "Boston Tea Party," resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. Drinking coffee was an expression of freedom.


In 1933, Dr. Ernest Illy invented the first automatic espresso machine.

The most widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the goatherder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the leaves and berries of a coffee shrub.

It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach full maturity, coffee trees can live up to 100 years old

The word "tip" dates back to the old London coffeehouses. Conspicuously placed brass boxes etched with the inscription, "To Insure Promptness," encouraged customers to pay for efficient service. The resulting acronym, TIP, has become a byword.


In the 17th century when coffee came to Europe Pope Clement VIII banned coffee stating it was the "Devils Tool". This changed shortly after the Pope had a cup and pronounced coffee legal again.

The word 'cappuccino' is the result of several derivations, the original of which began in 16th century. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its Italian name came from the long, pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from cappuccino, "hood," that was worn as part of the order's habit. The French version of cappuccino was capuchin, from which came English Capuchin. In Italian cappuccino went on to describe espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream, so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar. The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948 in a work about San Francisco. There is also the story line that says that the term comes from the fact that the coffee is dark, like the monk's robe, and the cap is likened to the color of the monk's head.


Cowboy Coffee originated from Cowboys using their dirty socks out on the trail as coffee filters. They filled there sock with coffee beans, immersed the sock in boiling water then squeezed the coffee into their cups.

The British drink instant ten-to-one over fresh brewed.

Both the American Revolution and the French Revolution were plotted in coffee houses.



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3 comments:

  1. I like these pictures. I collect Black Americana, and I want to find these advertisements for my collection!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Otto, can you not remember that time we went to the that restaurant and we asked for espresso coffee and they brought us some slop and I had to get up and show them how to use machine and make real coffee?????

    ReplyDelete
  3. Damn, I must be getting CRAFT, I don't recall that.

    ReplyDelete

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