Mmm, the sweet aroma, the flavor, the flexibility, the elixir. Some say coffee is the combination of the worlds most popular drink: water, and the world’s most traded commodity, oil. It was arguably discovered around the 500s in Ethiopia by some dude named Kaldi who after seeing his goats eat the leaves and red berries of a strange plant and start dancing decided he was gonna give it a whirl, well, he was filled with a never ending jolt of energy and soon the word got around. The plant got kind of popular after that.
“A coffee tree can continue blooming for 50 years but the best crops come between five and fifteen years”
Arabica Coffee Plant, ain't she pretty?
Since then, it’s been called many many things, java, black mamba, blackout, cuppa, joe, liquid lightning, coffee (ha that’s a ridiculous name), paint remover, hot shtuff, etc. but according to the all knowing Wikipedia “The first reference to ‘coffee’ in the English language is in the form chaoua and dates to 1598. In English and other European languages, coffee derives from the Ottoman Turkish kahve, via the Italian caffè.” But you can call it whatever you want!
There are two main species of the plant grown, the higher quality Arabica and the lower quality Robusta. Mr Robusta has more caffeine, is sort of bitter and has less flavor but is hardier and has more body, while pretty Ms. Arabica, well, let’s just say she takes the cake. The top producer in the world is by far Brazil and because it can only survive in certain climates, coffee is grown in what’s known as the “Bean Belt”, mainly between the Tropics. The US is the largest consumer, but there’s a rumor that China is catching up.
Andy Warhol's "Martinson Coffee" sold at auction for $3,824,000
According to a Turkish proverb “Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love”. (the beginning was kind of scary but we love happy endings) – Fortunately, this wonderful drink can be prepared in many different ways and customized to the drinkers preference. It can be prepared hot, cold, with a lot of milk, a little, concentrated, diluted, cold, sweetened, mixed with syrups, pretty much any way you can think of.
As far as health effects go it doesn’t cure cancer, but it does have high antioxidants and MODERATE CONSUMPTION improves attention (we’ve yet to see this), memory performance, decreases risk of heart disease and increases physical performance and muscular recovery. There’s some bad stuff but hey who wants to hear that!
We could probably go on and on about coffee but now that we got you all excited with all this nifty information let us not keep you from coming in and grabbin a fantastic cup of coffee while taking some time to wind down and relax.
