What are the different types of coffee beans?
Coffee Arabica (Arabica), pronounced either a-rã-bik-a or ar-a-bë-ka. This species makes up about 70% of the world market for coffee beans. Being a higher value taste, this fancy grade coffee bean is sold mostly through specialty coffee shops. Arabica being grown on steep terrain makes mechanical harvesting impossible. The hand picking ensures a better quality of selection with less under/over ripe beans being selected.
Coffee canephora (referred to as Robusta) This high caffeine content species makes up about 27% of the world coffee bean market. It’s cheaper to produce but with a lower taste profile, this coffee is often sold for use in instant coffee. It is produced primarily in Indonesia, West Africa, Brazil, and Vietnam. It Is commonly known in the trade as Congo coffee or Congo coffee tree (USA).
LIBERIAN COFFEE: Coffee relative from West Africa. Liberian Coffee accounts for around 1% of commercially grown coffee. Taste and appearance of the beans and berries is similar to the more common coffee, although beans are often larger but contain a tough, difficult to shell skin, hindering their commercial uses.
KOOL COFFEE FACTS EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW:
Shepherds discovered coffee in Ethiopia circa 800 A.D. Legend has it that 9th century goat herders noticed the effect caffeine had on their goats, who appeared to "dance" after eating coffee berries. A local monk then made a drink with coffee berries and found that it kept him awake at night, thus the original cup of coffee was born
Coffee was the first food to be freeze-dried. The process of freeze drying — when fresh foods are placed in a dryer where temperatures drop to negative 40 degrees F — first started during World War II to preserve foods.
Coffee was originally a food. Coffee berries were mixed with fat to create an energy-rich snack ball. It was also consumed as a wine when made from the pulp of coffee berries.
The world's most expensive coffee is $600 a pound. And it comes from the feces of a Sumatran wild cat. The animal called a Luwak is unable to digest coffee beans. In the process of digesting the beans, they are fermented in the stomach. When the beans are excreted, they produce a smooth, chocolaty coffee.
There have been 5 attempts to ban coffee throughout history. Coffee was first banned in Mecca in 1511 because leaders believed it stimulated radical thinking. And, 16th century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be "satanic." However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600. But Ottoman leader Murad IV took it even further when he ascended the throne in 1623 by creating the first punishments for drinking coffee, which included beatings and being thrown into the sea. In 1746, the Swedish government made it illegal to even have coffee paraphernalia, including cups and dishes. And finally, in 1777, Frederick the Great of Prussia issued a manifesto declaring beer's superiority over coffee because he believed it interfered with the country's beer consumption.
Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that older patients with high levels of caffeine in their blood were more likely to avoid Alzheimer's. Studies have also shown that caffeine has positive effects on type 2 diabetes and Parkinson's disease. It has also been shown to protect against skin cancer in women.
Just smelling coffee can wake you up A group of scientists reported that simply inhaling the aroma of coffee can alter the activity of some genes in the brain, reducing the effects of sleep deprivation. And when you do drink that cup of coffee, caffeine reaches your blood stream and affects you within 10 minutes.
Dark roast coffees have less caffeine than lighter roasts. Even though the flavor is often stronger, roasting actually burns off some of the caffeine.
A cup of coffee contains more antioxidants than a cup of grape juice.
That wonderful scent in your corner coffee store may actually be fake. Coffee companies such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts sometimes use “fake coffee smell” to entice shoppers. ScentAir, a so-called “scent provider,” is a popular choice in the coffee industry as well as retail stores, restaurants and hotels, where methods of “aromachology” are used along with the “latest in fragrance technology.”
A cup of Starbucks exists in every scene of “Fight Club. ”David Fincher, the director of “Fight Club,” is said to have inserted a Starbucks coffee cup into every scene. Apparently, Starbucks was alright with the usage of their brand and only stopped Fincher from using their name in a shot where a coffee shop is destroyed by a giant rolling ball.
The two oldest recorded cats drank coffee every day. The Guinness-recognized “oldest cat ever” was Creme Puff, who lived to be 38 years old and died in 2005. The owner, Jake Perry, fed her coffee every morning along with bacon, eggs and broccoli. This is especially significant because Perry was also the owner of the previous record holder, Grandpa Rex Allen, who was fed the same diet and died at 34.
Drinking coffee may help save your liver from alcohol. Coffee has been found to decrease the risk of the alcohol-related liver disease cirrhosis, which can cause cancer and liver failure. One study found that “for each cup of coffee they drank per day, participants were 22 percent less likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis.” Although not directly linked to alcohol recovery, a more recent study from Italy concluded that drinking coffee can reduce the chances of liver cancer by 40 percent, while drinking three or more cups a day could reduce the risk by 50 percent.
Coffee Initiated the Invention of the First Webcam: In 1991, the University of Cambridge in England invented the first webcam. They did this because everyone was sick and tired of walking all the way to the coffee maker only to realize that the pot was empty! The webcam they created streamed the coffee pot and users could check the window online to see if there was any coffee left before making the trip there. So basically, you have coffee to thank for the invention of Skype and Facetime.