1. Second in the world
It’s the world’s 2nd largest traded commodity. Crude oil is first. Yes, it is not a typo. People drink a lot of coffee, making it second only to water in popularity. It’s worth is over $100 billion worldwide.
2. Hawaii is the only American state that grows coffee
In order for coffee to grow well, it needs to be in high altitudes, have a tropical climate, and be in rich soil.
The only state in the US that can grow coffee is Hawaii. Hawaii has been producing coffee for a long time, even before it was a state. Farms in California have only recently started growing coffee bushes!
3. Drinking coffee was once punishable by death
People believed that coffee had mind-altering effects during the 17th century Ottoman Empire. The ruler of this period believed that it was a type of narcotic and banned it from public consumption.
4. Coffee helped Olympic athletes
The Brazilian government sent its athletes to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles on a ship full of coffee which was sold on the way to finance their trip.
5. Mecca banned coffee
Coffee was banned in Mecca in 1511. It was believed to stimulate radical thinking and idleness.
6. Add cream, keep your coffee warm
Coffee stays warm 20% longer when you add cream.
7. Divorce because of lack of coffee
. If a husband in 16th century Constantinople did not provide his wife with enough coffee, she could get a divorce.
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8. Italian “expresso”
The word espresso is Italian for “expressed” or “forced out”. The coffee beans for espresso are ground much finer than for regular drip brewing, and the grind is more compacted. Espresso is made by forcing hot water under high pressure through this compacted grind.
9. Coffee is a fruit
Coffee beans grow on a bush. They are the pit of a berry, which means they are a fruit. The two most popular types of beans are green and red.
Red beans smell nicer than other beans and are less acidic. Red beans are used to produce lighter coffees. The more roasted coffee beans are, the healthier they are.
The caffeine is removed from the beans in a decaffeination process using chemicals. The caffeine is then often sold to Coca-Cola.
10. Beethoven loved coffee
Beethoven was 60 beans per cup coffee lover.
11. The most expensive coffees are made from cat poop and elephant dung
In the West, coffee that has been eaten and then defecated by a civet cat is known as “cat poop coffee.” This coffee is very expensive, costing between $35 and $100 a cup, or about $100 to $600 a pound.
Black Ivory Coffee is the most expensive coffee in the world. It can cost up to $1,100 per kilogram. This coffee is produced from coffee cherries that have been part-digested by Thai elephants.
15. Europe loves coffee
More coffee is imported to Europe than the USA, according to the International Coffee Association. Also, Brazil is the lead exporting country in coffee. Finland consumes the most coffee in the world.
16. Oldest cat ever loves coffee
Creme Puff, who was the Guinness World record holder for the “Oldest Cat Ever,” drank coffee every morning during her entire life.
17. Does coffee dehydrate you
Coffee and tea are not dehydrating, despite what you might have heard. Although it is true that caffeine is a mild diuretic and causes your kidneys to flush extra sodium and water from the body, this does not mean that it is harmful.
18. Coffee are beans actually beans
Coffee beans are called ‘beans’ because they look like beans, but they are actually berries.
19. What did people drink in the morning before coffee
Before coffee became popular in the United States, cider or beer was the breakfast drink of choice, even for children.
At one point, the fermented pulp was used to make a wine-like concoction; incidentally, a similar beverage was made from the cacao fruit, before the advent of chocolate, which goes to show that humans are especially adept at finding new ways to imbibe.
A drink made from the whole coffee fruit, including the beans and the hull, appeared around 1000 A.D. Roasting coffee beans began in the 13th century, which is the first step in making coffee.
20. Who discovered coffee?
It is said that coffee was discovered by a goat herder in Ethiopia in the 1500s. He saw his goats eating coffee cherries. Afterwards, he observed a change in their behavior.
They had a lot of energy and couldn’t sleep at night. After the herder shared his findings with local monks, they made a drink with coffee beans and realized they could stay up all night and pray.
The Ethiopian monks then shared this news with other monks and it quickly spread across the known world.
21. Where did the word cappuccino come from?
The cappuccino was named after Capuchin friars because the color of the coffee resembles the Capuchin robe. The Capuchins were also renowned for their dress.
The monks wear a simple brown robe that has a long, pointed hood that hangs down the back. The hood on the robe worn by members of the order is the origin of their Italian name.
22. Biodiesel anyone
In the future, coffee may be used as a fuel for cars. Scientists are finding ways to turn the oil from coffee beans into biodiesel.
23. Coffee has health benefits (we know you love this one)
Coffee has been linked with reduced risk of illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.
24. Coffee wasn’t always a drink
People in east African tribes used to mix coffee berries with animal fat and eat it as food before they learned how to brew coffee.
25. There are two main categories of coffee
There’s two main categories of coffee: Robusta and Arabica. Robusta coffee has a more acidic and harsh flavor with a higher level of caffeine. Arabica is known for its delicate flavor and lower acidity.
26. How much coffee does the world drink a day
Approximately 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed all over the world every day.
27. Feeling glum
There is evidence to suggest that coffee can help to lower the risk of developing depression.
28. Lethal dose of too much coffee
We know that you would love to drink gallons of coffee. Many people believe that it would take a huge amount of coffee to kill someone, but that is not the case. It is estimated that 80 to 100 cups of coffee would be lethal for the average adult.
An overdose of caffeine can be deadly. Consuming more than 5 grams of caffeine can lead to death.
People have died from taking too much powdered caffeine or caffeine pills, like those sold as weight-loss aids.
In 2014, an 18-year-old in Ohio and a 24-year-old in Georgia overdosed on pure powdered caffeine, according to the FDA.
The deaths of these animals show how dangerous and potent this concentrated product is. One teaspoon of pure powdered caffeine contains approximately the same amount of caffeine as 28 cups of regular coffee, according to the FDA.
The FDA is warning people, especially young people, that they might use powdered caffeine to boost their energy levels, study for longer periods of time, improve their athletic performance, or lose weight.
Although the powder is just caffeine, it is still a strong stimulant that can cause an overdose if consumed in large quantities.
This makes it difficult to know how much caffeine you’re actually taking in, which could be dangerous.
The effects of caffeine toxicity can include a racing heart, sweating, seizures, vomiting, muscle tremors, and eventually respiratory collapse, according to Lane.
29. Caffeine stays in the body for hours
Within about 45 minutes of consuming caffeine, it is absorbed into the blood and tissues. Although it only takes a short while for alcohol to enter the bloodstream, it takes much longer for the body to break it down and clear it from a person’s system.
The half-life of caffeine is about 4 hours, said James Lane, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.
It may take up to 12 hours for all of the caffeine from a morning cup of coffee to be eliminated from the body, according to Lane, who has researched the health effects of caffeine.
This means that the effects of caffeine may only last for around 3 hours in smokers, Lane said. Caffeine may stay in the system of women who take birth control pills for up to four hours longer than women who do not take the pill, according to one study.
Pregnancy can impact how long caffeine stays in your system, with one study finding that it can take up to 10.5 hours to clear caffeine during the final four weeks of pregnancy.
It can take up to 12 hours to clear caffeine from the body, so the drug often wears off when a person is almost ready to go to bed. Lane said that people are more likely to develop a caffeine dependency because it is easy to keep drinking it every day.
This is because when you drink caffeine regularly, your body becomes dependent on it, and when you don’t have it, you experience withdrawal symptoms, Lane said. The symptoms go away when they drink coffee in the morning.
30. It was involved in soda snafu
A 12-ounce can of Sunkist Orange soda contains 41 milligrams of caffeine according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Other brands of orange soda are usually noncaffeinated, but Sunkist Orange has more caffeine in it than a similar amount of Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
In 2010, nearly 4,000 cases of the 12-ounce bottled version of Sunkist Orange were recalled after customers said it had a medicinal taste and caused stomachaches, vomiting, and even hospitalization, according to “Caffeinated.”
After investigating, the manufacturer found that the off-taste and sickness was caused by human error: a batch of orange soda had been blended with six times the amount of caffeine it should have, they said.
Each bottle of the energy drink contained around the same amount of caffeine as what you would find in three Red Bulls, seven cans of regular cola, or 16 ounces of coffee.
Since orange soda is a favorite among kids, the high amount of caffeine in it may have made a few children feel uneasy because they may not have understood why they felt that way.
Even though consumers were never told about the issue with the super-caffeinated product, it is classified as a Class III recall by the FDA. This means that exposure to the product is not likely to cause any adverse health consequences.
31. Caffeine withdrawal is a real condition
The DSM-5, the latest version of the psychology handbook “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” lists caffeine withdrawal as a mental health condition.
When people suddenly stop or dramatically cut back on their daily caffeine intake, they may experience a range of effects, including headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.
According to the book, some possible side effects of withdrawing from caffeine may include a headache, feeling tired, being irritable, having a depressed mood, and struggling to concentrate.
The mental health manual suggests that in people diagnosed with the condition, these symptoms are typically severe enough to interfere with a person’s ability to function properly at work or in social situations.
Lane said that people who consume caffeine every day wake up in withdrawal every morning. However, they may not view it in that manner, he continued. People tend to think of morning grumpiness, fuzzy thinking, and sleepiness as signs that they haven’t had their coffee yet.
In other words, Lane is saying that the symptoms mentioned are caused by not having caffeine. Reducing your intake of caffeine gradually over the course of a week may help you to avoid getting a withdrawal headache.
32. Caffeine resembles a brain chemical
Caffeine shares a similar molecular structure to adenosine, a neurotransmitter responsible for transmitting nerve impulses in the brain. Caffeine can bind to adenosine receptors in brain cells because its chemical structure is similar to that of adenosine.
Caffeine’s stimulant effects come from the way it interacts with the brain’s adenosine receptors.
Martin said that typically, when adenosine binds to its receptors, it leads to drowsiness and slows down nerve cell activity, which has a calming effect.
But when caffeine molecules replace adenosine and bind to its receptors, it blocks adenosine’s sleep-inducing actions and speeds up nerve cell activity. According to Martin, this causes a person to feel more awake and energetic for a short period of time.