Archive for the ‘coffee’ Tag
Over the years I’ve become addicted to coffee in all of it’s forms. From expresso to roasted coffee beans covered in chocolate, I love it all. It started when I was in the Army and accelerated once I left the service and became a police officer. I like it hot and strong and always desire just one more steaming cup. With all of the activity taking place this Spring it really helps me to stay focused and offers that boast of energy I absolutely require.
One of the better purchases I’ve made in recent months was a K-Kup coffee maker. I now can change the type and flavor of coffee at a moments notice and I maintain a nice assortment of coffees and teas for my enjoyment. I’m in a caffeine heaven.
As a change today rather than offering a journal entry I thought I’d pass along a little coffee trivia I’ve collected. It’s way more interesting than you might think. Enjoy the following with a nice mug of your favorite brew.
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The United States is the world’s largest consumer of coffee, importing 16 to 20 million bags annually (2.5 million pounds), representing one-third of all coffee exported. More than half of the United States population consumes coffee. The typical coffee drinker has 3.4 cups of coffee per day. That translates into more than 450,000,000 cups of coffee daily.
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Legend has it a 9th-century Ethiopian goat herder discovered coffee by accident when he noticed how crazy the beans were making his goats.
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New Yorkers drink almost 7 times more coffee than other cities in the US.
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The lethal dose of caffeine is roughly 100 cups of coffee.5. A French doctor in the 1600s suggested Cafe Au Laits for patients, inspiring people to begin adding milk to coffee.
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Espresso is regulated by the Italian government because it is considered an essential part of their daily life
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In the 1600s there was a controversy over whether or not Catholics could drink coffee, luckily Pope Clement VIII said it was okay.
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After the decaffeinating process, processing companies no longer throw the caffeine away; they sell it to pharmaceutical companies.
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Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.
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Coffee lends its popularity to the fact that just about all flavors mix well with it.
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Here is a recipe from: ‘Kitchen Directory and American Housewife’ (1844)
"Use a tablespoonful ground to a pint of boiling water [less than a quarter of what we would use today]. Boil in tin pot twenty to twenty-five minutes. If boiled longer it will not taste fresh and lively. Let stand four or five minutes to settle, pour off grounds into a coffee pot or urn. Put fish skin or isinglass size of a nine-pence in pot when put on to boil or else the white and shell of half an egg to a couple of quarts of coffee."
“My New Best Friend”
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The United States is the world’s largest consumer of coffee, importing 16 to 20 million bags annually (2.5 million pounds), representing one-third of all coffee exported. More than half of the United States population consumes coffee. The typical coffee drinker has 3.4 cups of coffee per day. That translates into more than 450,000,000 cups of coffee daily.
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LESS caffeine than medium roasts. The longer a coffee is roasted, the more caffeine burns off during the process.
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During the American Civil War the Union soldiers were issued eight pounds of ground roasted coffee as part of their personal ration of one hundred pounds of food. And they had another choice: ten pounds of green coffee beans.
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During World War II the U.S. government used 260 million pounds of instant coffee.
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If you like your espresso coffee sweet, you should use granulated sugar, which dissolves more quickly, rather than sugar cubes; white sugar rather than brown sugar or candy; and real sugar rather than sweeteners which alter the taste of the coffee.
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In 1727, as a result of seedlings smuggled from Paris, coffee plants first were cultivated in Brazil. Brazil is presently by far the world’s largest producer of coffee.
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In the 14th century, the Arabs started to cultivate coffee plants. The first commercially grown and harvested coffee originated in the Arabian Peninsula near the port of Mocha.
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In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
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In the year 1790, there were two firsts in the United States; the first wholesale coffee roasting company, and the first newspaper advertisement featuring coffee.
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Jamaica Blue Mountain is often regarded as the best coffee in the world.
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Lloyd’s of London began as Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse.
“Decaf is like masturbating with an oven mitt!” ~Robin Williams
Well we’re in day three of the Coffee Trivia marathon. I’ve explained in detail all of my past addictions, MY history with coffee over the years and finally today I’ll address my current coffee situation.
“I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.” ~Ronald Reagan
I’m in the throes of a weight-loss program which while needed is nonetheless annoying and difficult. The diet I’ve been restricted to is not easy and leaves me very few food items that are fulfilling and satisfying. I kid people when I tell them my diet consists of radishes, pudding, cashews, cereal, water, and above all coffee. Coffee is and remains my one luxury item and regardless of what any Doctor tells me it will be the last thing I ever give up.
That being said, I’d like introduce you to my two new best friends. My weight-loss program would never be as successful as it’s been without these devices.
They allow me the luxury of a large number of options in preparing my coffee and it’s helped me work through this ungodly diet. As you can also see the variety of coffee’s available is incredible and I’m really enjoying tasting as many different types and styles as I can find.
So now I’ll continue my seemingly endless list of coffee trivia. I hope you’ve learned a little about coffee and it’s tremendous effect on the world’s economy as well as the huge number of employees it supports worldwide. It appears I’m not the only coffee addict on this planet. I’m just one of many millions who loves the bean. Enjoy.
“Still One of the Best”
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65 countries in the world grow coffee. They are all along the equator, within the tropics.
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After they are roasted, and when the coffee beans begin to cool, they release about 700 chemical substances that make up the vaporizing aromas.
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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.
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Before roasting, some green coffee beans are stored for years, and experts believe that certain beans improve with age, when stored properly.
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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.
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Brazil accounts for almost 1/3 of the world’s coffee production, producing over 3-1/3 billion pounds of coffee each year.
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In 1675 Charles II, King of England issued a proclamation banning Coffee Houses. He said that they were places where people met to plot against him.
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30% of coffee drinkers in US added a sweetener of some kind to their coffee, compared with 57% in UK.
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October 1st is official “Coffee Day” in Japan.
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Scientists have discovered more than 800 different aromatic compounds in coffee.
“The more complicated the order, the bigger the asshole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a ‘decaf grandee, half soy, half low-fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n’-Low and one NutraSweet,’ ooooh, you’re a huge asshole.” ~ George Carlin
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Black coffee with no sugar contains no calories.
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Coffee represents 75% of all the caffeine consumed in the United States.
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Coffee sacks are usually made of hemp and weigh approximately 132 pounds when they are full of green coffee beans. It takes over 600,000 beans to fill a coffee sack.
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Coffee trees are evergreen and grow to heights above 15 feet but are normally pruned to around 8 feet in order to facilitate harvesting.
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Coffee trees are self-pollinating.
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Coffee trees produce highly aromatic, short-lived flowers producing a scent between jasmine and orange. These blossoms produce cranberry-sized coffee cherries. It takes four to five years to yield a commercial harvest.
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75% of the world’s coffee comes from the Coffea Arabica plant.
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Drinking a single cup of coffee that has been brewing for 20 minutes provides the body with 300 phytochemicals which act as antioxidants and stay in the body for up to a month.
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In days gone by, Turkish bridegroom had to promise that they would always provide their new wives with coffee.
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Worldwide, more 1400 millions cups of coffee are drunk every day.
This will be the final installment of the Coffee Trivia postings. I have to admit that I’ve collected enough information for a few more but I don’t want to overdue it. Possibly in the near future I’ll put together additional ones but I’ll let enough time pass so as not to bore everyone.
MORE TO COME EVENTUALLY
“That’s something that annoys the hell out of me- I mean if somebody says the coffee’s all ready and it isn’t” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Yesterday in Coffee Trivia I I had quite a lot to say about my previous addictions as well as my fondness for coffee. Today you’ll receive more useless coffee information that I’m required to supply because of my addiction. All addictions have a downside and besides tasting wonderful so does coffee. It gives me that extra energy burst and ability to talk for long periods of time without taking a breath. Lucky you, your here for the lecture.
My love affair with coffee didn’t start at an early age like you might think. I wasn’t permitted to drink all that much coffee as a kid because my father felt it might effect my ability to play sports. Once I left for college his control over my beverage intake was finally at an end. I found coffee to be that best friend I’d been missing. The love affair began in earnest at that time and I’ve never looked back, not once. At the time I lived with five other guys in an apartment and there wasn’t a minute of the day that the coffee pot wasn’t full, steaming hot, and available for drinking. We never kept track but I can almost bet we drank more coffee than alcohol during those years and that’s saying something.
I eventually left school and enlisted in the army since the draft board was hot on my heels. For the next three years both in the United States and overseas I drank enough coffee to float a battleship. There’s nothing like Army coffee, it can almost eat the enamel right off your teeth. I won’t even begin to try and explain how the Korean’s made their coffee, it was indescribable. I also learned how to make instant coffee from C-ration packets and it sucked so bad I was forced to cut my coffee consumption in the field by 10%. For me that was a major concession.
Skipping ahead a few years and all of a sudden I’m a police officer working in a profession that is known for coffee and donuts. I was never too concerned with the donuts but I thrived on the coffee for seven years. I carried a thermos of hot coffee in the car with me and I’d stop when necessary to refill during my shift. Night shifts were another story altogether. My partner and I were never without a steaming hot coffee in the car or during our lunch stops at restaurants.
So you can see how my addiction to coffee has been the one consistent thing in my life for decades. All of my other addictions were just distractions but my love of coffee remains constant and still does. So let’s get this show on the road. I thought I knew a lot about coffee but I really had no clue. Some of these facts are humorous and some aren’t but they’re all interesting. I’ve found so much information on coffee I may be forced to increase the number of Coffee Trivia postings to four or five.
- Flavored coffees are created after the roasting process by applying flavored oils specially created to use on coffee beans.
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Frederick the great had his coffee made with champagne and a bit of mustard.
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Hard Bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.
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Hawaii is the only state of the United States in which coffee is commercially grown. Hawaii features an annual Kona Festival, coffee picking contest. Each year the winner becomes a state celebrity. In Hawaii coffee is harvested between November and April.
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The Nicaraguan Margogpipe is the largest of all coffee beans.
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It takes 40 coffee beans to make an espresso.
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One coffee tree yields less than half a kilo of coffee per year.
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A coffee tree lives for between 60 and 70 years.
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By 1850, the manual coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens of the U.S.
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Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world (oil is the first.)
“It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity.” ― Dave Barry
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Brazil produces around 40% of the world’s coffee supply.
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A Belgian named George Washington invented instant coffee in 1906.
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Coffee has been used as a beverage for over 700 years.
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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.
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Coffee beans are similar to grapes that produce wine in that they are affected by the temperature, soil conditions, altitude, rainfall, drainage and degree of ripeness when picked.
“There are three intolerable things in life – cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women…” ― Orson Welles
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Brewed espresso has 2.5% fat, while filtered coffee contains 0.6% fat.
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Johan Sebastian Bach wrote an opera about a woman who was addicted to coffee.
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There is a way to brew coffee with marijuana in it and it is described as producing a “dreamy” kind of coffee buzz.
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More than 20 million people worldwide, work in the coffee industry.
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There are two species of coffee plant: Arabica and Robusta.
MORE TO COME
“Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love.” Turkish Proverb
Let’s talk about coffee. It’s the only major addiction I have left and I cherish it. When I stopped smoking twenty-eight years ago it was coffee that helped me through all those terrible days without nicotine. That and Tootsie Pops of course. I don’t know for sure how many Tootsie Pops are in a pound but I gained thirty-five pounds eating them over the course of five months. Coffee helped to keep me going until I was free of the damn nicotine and then the Tootsie Pops. Unfortunately by the time that was all over I was also addicted to the coffee as well. I replaced one killer addiction with a much milder version and was happy as hell about it.
My second major addiction was alcohol. I never drank enough to join that infamous club of alcoholics but I drank my share. Now at this stage of my life I’ve given up up drinking almost completely. Coffee again has been there to help replace the stimulation I received from alcohol with a much milder version.
My third big addiction was eating. Not the food itself but the eating of the food. I’ve been a nervous eater for most of my life and once my metabolism slowed it became a problem. With each passing year it became more of an issue but I waged a good battle to maintain my weight. My good buddy “Coffee” again came to my rescue and for that I’m grateful.
I decided to take a closer look at coffee and to learn as much as I could in the context of this blog.. Today will be Coffee Trivia Day. I’m celebrating my last great addiction that has made it possible for me to defeat three others. Here is a list of twenty trivia tidbits, the first of three Coffee Trivia planned postings.
“A 41-inch bust and a lot of perseverance will get you more than a cup of coffee – a lot more.” ~Jayne Mansfield
- Until the 18th century coffee was almost always boiled.
- Until the late 1800’s, people roasted their coffee at home. Popcorn poppers and stove-top frying pans were favored.
- When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit.
- William Penn purchased a pound of coffee in New York in 1683 for $4.68.
- Hawaii is the only state that commercially grows coffee.
- In the ancient Arab culture there was only one way a woman could legally divorce: If her husband didn’t provide enough coffee.
- 52% of Americans drink coffee.
- A acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.
- A scientific report form the University of California found that the steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amounts of antioxidants as three oranges. The antioxidants are heterocyclic compounds which prevents cancer and heart disease.
- Adding sugar to coffee is believed to have started in 1715, in the court of King Louis XIV, the French monarch.
- Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the beverage was a cure for scurvy, gout and other ills.
“Decaffeinated coffee is the devil’s blend.” ~Author Unknown
- Espresso Coffee has just one third of the caffeine content of ordinary coffee.
- Coffee beans are really berries. Each berry contains two beans (pips).
- An expert in preparing Turkish coffee is known as a “kahveci”.
- Irish coffee was actually invented to warm up cold American plane passengers leaving from Ireland.
- And lastly, Teddy Roosevelt is and was the greatest American coffee drinker, consuming a gallon a day. But you probably shouldn’t attempt to do that.
- An Arabica coffee tree can produce up to 12 pounds of coffee a year, depending on soil and climate.
- Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea, a six-fold increase since 1940.
- Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances. Athletes who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level may be reached after drinking about 5 cups of coffee.
- Citrus has been added to coffee for several hundred years.
“Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised.” ~Star Trek: Voyager
MORE TO COME
We’ve spent most of the last two months preparing for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since it was the first holiday season where the grandson was aware of what was going on, we went a little overboard with gifts and preparations.
On top of all of that my fiasco with this broken leg made everything that much more difficult and put more pressure on my better-half. We survived the insanity we created but just barely. I’m really hoping that next year we can learn from our mistakes and move forward just a little bit smarter. It’s hard not getting caught up in the excitement caused by having a young child in the mix because the holidays are more for him than the rest of us.
The let down with Christmas being over is unbelievable. The better-half has fallen into a post Christmas comma. She’s been sleeping for most of the day today just trying to rest and regain some normalcy. I haven’t done much better myself. I’m slowly recovering but I’m like a effing zombie today. I’m drinking a lot of coffee because my energy level is non-existent and all of my motivation to do anything else has evaporated.
We have New Year’s coming soon and thank God we don’t celebrate that holiday like these others. Two of our Christmas guests are now enroute to the Big Apple for the ultimate Times Square New Year’s Eve experience. They must be out of there freaking minds. My better half and I both get claustrophobic in a room with no more than 10 people, I can’t imagine rubbing elbows with millions of people in Times Square. That would scare the bejesus out of us both.
I’m hoping that our quiet time will continue for at least two more days where we can kick back, relax and enjoy the snowy scenery. I haven’t mentioned but we received another 4 1/2 inches of snow over the last 24 hours. It’s one of the times every winter that I enjoy the most, having a cover of fresh white snow over all the slush and dirt. These pictures were taken earlier this morning and you can see what I’m talking about.
It’s about time for me to put this computer to bed so I can get to what I’m really thinking about doing today, a long, warm and quiet nap. I’ll worry about New Year’s when it gets here.
NO MORE SHOPPING DAYS – HOORAY!
I’m celebrating a little today because finally the freaking drywall job has been completed. If I never see another sheet of the damn stuff again it will be too soon. I estimate about an hour of sanding and smoothing before we can do a whole-house cleanup which could take a very long time. That insidious white dust can be found in every room of the house even though I took great pains to control it. Some things just can’t be avoided I guess. The mere fact that I’m actually looking forward to doing the priming and painting should tell you how much I won’t be missing drywall. DONE AND DONE!
Other than the remodel things have been very quiet around the house of late. My better-half’s been working a couple of weeks of some really weird shifts making our time together somewhat limited. The grand child has brought an illness home from daycare and their entire family has been sick for more than a week. I’ve been pretty much left alone except for the cat who is also not too happy about the lack of attention.
Today was first day in a while when I didn’t have to get up early and work on the remodel. A day where I could sleep in and lounge around and even get out of the house to run a few errands. Why did I ever think that things would happen as I’d hoped. The better-half left early for work and it wasn’t long before I wished she’d taken that damn cat with her.
The feline nagging started immediately since she left without feeding him. He was unhappy and made sure I was too. He walked slowly around the bed meowing at the top of his lungs until I brained him with a pillow. Just as I was getting back to sleep he started his old routine of jumping on the bed, walking all over my body, meowing loudly, and then running away before I could grab another pillow. He repeated this at least eight times before I found myself wide awake and none too happy. Once he realized I was awake he disappeared from the bedroom and planted his furry little ass next to his food dish and just waited. I made my way to the kitchen, fed the little bastard, cursed at him a few times and went back to bed.
Now I’m lying here writing this because I couldn’t get back to sleep. Does the term "urge to kill" come to mind? I think a few hours away from this place will allow me to clear my head a little and keep me from drop kicking the cat into next week. The older he gets the more like my ex-wife he’s becoming.
This appears to be the beginning of what I fear could become a very bad day. I think a few cups of really strong and tasty coffee just might do the trick to turn that around. I’m willing to try just about anything to improve my day before the better-half returns from work. The last thing we need is to have is a stupid argument instigated by the cat.
I think a quick trip to the discount book store might help. I can calm myself with an hour of browsing through the racks to find a few interesting mysteries I haven’t read before. This has been one helluva winter. I been reading two books a week all winter but with the weather finally breaking that should slow down a bit. I find myself actually looking forward to starting the yard work and preparing this years garden.
I’m out the door searching for a better day.
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