10 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT COFFEE
Discover the top 10 most interesting and amazing facts about coffee, and find why this fascinating drink is one of the most extended drinks around the world.
The world consumes 1.6 billion cups of coffee every day, with Americans spending $40 billion on coffee every year. 70% coffee consumed is Arabica coffee, which is mild and has a deep and full aroma, the remaining 30 percent is Robusta, which is bitterer.
Legend has it that coffee was first discovered by goatherds in Africa who noticed that their charges stayed awake and spent all night frisking and dancing after eating little red berries. The goatherds brought the little red berries to their local monks, who figured out how to remove, dry and grind the beans from their red berry shells.
Back in the first millennium, coffee was not a beverage but a food. The Oromo tribe of Ethiopia invented energy bars by mixing ground coffee beans with animal fats and eating them as a quick pick-me-up.
All commercially-produced coffee grows between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. In the United States, it only grows in Hawaii.
Coffee grows on trees which can get as tall as 30 feet. This makes it difficult to harvest the coffee beans, so most coffee trees are kept to about 10 feet tall.
George Washington invented instant coffee. Not the George Washington you are thinking of, though. Instant coffee was invented in 1906 by a Belgian man of that name living in Guatemala.
Coffee is called ‘joe’ after the American servicemen who drank it by the gallon during World War II. They are also responsible for Americano coffee which is a shot of espresso diluted with hot water.
Decaffeinated coffee contains as many powerful antioxidants as regular coffee. Antioxidants combat the free radicals which are produced by your body in response to your natural metabolic processes, like breathing, as well as to environmental toxins and pollutants. Free radicals are responsible for many of the side effects of aging and for certain cancers.
Drinking one to two cups of coffee every day may help ease the symptoms of depression in women. In 2008, Swedish scientists also discovered a possible link between drinking coffee and a lowered risk of breast cancer in women who possess the gene CYP1A2, which helps the body metabolize both coffee and estrogen.
A 22-year study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that, of the 48,000 men studied, those who drank six or more cups of coffee every day reduced their chances of dying from prostate cancer by 60 percent.
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