12 Great Facts About Coffee

Coffee is an integral part of so many peoples’ daily routine, we often don’t give it a second thought. So we thought it would be amusing to put together a list of interesting facts about coffee that you might not know….

No matter what anyone tells you, caffeine cannot help you sober up, it’s a complete myth. Shame.

Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee

Coffee was originally eaten and not drunk. It’s said to have been discovered when goat herders noticed increased energy levels after their goats had been eating coffee cherries that had fallen on the ground.

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, after oil. To give you an idea of how widely consumed it is, Starbucks alone employs 151,000 people worldwide, while in Kenya, 5 million people are reliant on the coffee industry for their income.

The price of espresso served in bars and cafes in Italy is regulated by the Italian government because it is considered an essential part of their daily life.

All of the world’s coffee is grown in the ‘bean belt’. So specific are the conditions needed to successfully grow coffee that the northernmost coffee producing country in the world is Pakistan.

An epidemic of theft and violence is sweeping the coffee industry in Kenya, a country where a kilo of dried beans can be worth a week’s wages. A special police force has been set up to deal with the problem, but raids by armed gangs are a daily occurrence. Coffee growers have being forced to sleep in their fields so they can fend off would-be thieves. The thieves aren’t subtle, with reports of security guards at coffee factories being shot with arrows and beaten to death with branches. Villagers have taken to fighting fire with fire, and criminals caught in the act have been lynched in the street.

Over 500 billion cups of coffee are drunk each year, or around 1.4 billion cups per day. Over half of this is consumed during breakfast.

Coffee can be used to fuel a car. While the technology is still in its infancy, there is something reassuring in knowing that the same cup that gets you going in the morning could one day actually get you to work as well.

A little known fact, but worth knowing anyway - brewed espresso has 2.5% fat, while filtered coffee contains 0.6% fat.

The world’s first webcam was invented at Cambridge University to let scientists in a technology group know if their coffee pot was full or not. In 1991, they aimed their camera at their coffee machine and streamed the footage live on the web to save themselves the disappointment of a fruitless trip. This picture is of the first ever broadcast.

Irish coffee was originally invented to warm up cold American airline passengers flying from Ireland.

If you have any more of your own to share, we’d love to hear them so please get in touch with us at Java Caffe.