Honestly good coffee
Coffee Facts
Our knowledge of coffee is about 1000 years old
Coffee was first mentioned in literature by Rhazes, an Arabian physician
The espresso drink is only 100 years old
The term café-espress has been used since the 1880s, well before espresso machines existed. It means coffee made to order, expressly for
the person ordering it. It also means coffee fresh in every sense of the word:
- Made from fresh beans roasted at most two weeks prior to use,
- Ground just before brewing,
- Brewed just before drinking.
Ideally, all cafés and restaurants would serve even their regularly brewed coffee as espresso in this larger sense—freshly ground in press pots, neopolitans,
vacuum brewers or table top pourovers. The aroma of good coffee is delicate and dissipates in a matter of minutes after grinding, whether it is brewed or not.
Coffee grows in the wild in the Limu region of Ethiopia
Coffee legend tells of the discovery of the first coffee trees in Ethiopia. Indeed, it is not hard to believe that coffee originated in a land where wild coffee tree
forests are still the primary source of harvested coffee. Generally wet processed, coffee from Ethiopia comes from one of three main growing regions -- Sidamo, Harer or Kaffa -- and
often bears one of those names. In the cup, an Ethiopian coffee tends to offer a remarkable and bold statement. It is full flavored, a bit down-to-earth and full bodied.
Top grade Arabica coffee only yields 700kg to 1500kg per hectare
The average coffee drinker consumes 4-6kg of roasted coffee p/yr
The average coffee drinker consumes 4-6kg of roasted coffee per annum; South Africans only consume 0.6kg per person per annum.
It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity
It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity. The average yield from one tree is the equivalent of 500g of roasted beans.
Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum
Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum
Arabica beans contain half the caffeine of Robusta
Arabica beans contain half the caffeine of Robusta
Coffee is the earth’s biggest drink
Coffee Myths
The name coffee comes from the Arabic word “qahwah”
The name coffee comes from the Arabic word “qahwah”, meaning wine FACT and not from the town of Kaffa, in Ethiopia
(Abyssinia), as many writers have supposed.
Coffee originated in Brazil
In the Ethiopian highlands, where the legend of Kaldi, the goatherd, originated, coffee trees grow today as they have for centuries.
Though we will never know with certainty, there probably is some truth to the Kaldi legend. It is said that he discovered coffee after
noticing that his goats, upon eating berries from a certain tree, became so spirited that they did not want to sleep at night. Kaldi
dutifully reported his findings to the abbot of the local monastery who made a drink with the berries and discovered that it kept him alert
for the long hours of evening prayer. Soon the abbot had shared his discovery with the other monks at the monastery, and ever so slowly
knowledge of the energizing effects of the berries began to spread. As word moved east and coffee reached the Arabian peninsula,
it began a journey which would spread its reputation across the globe. Today coffee is grown in a multitude of countries around the world.
Whether it is Asia or Africa, Central or South America, the islands of the Caribbean or Pacific, all can trace their heritage to the
trees in the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau.
Coffee derived it’s name from the town of Kaffa in Ethiopia
The word "coffee" entered English in 1598 via Italian caffè. This word was created via Turkish kahve,
which in turn came into being via Arabic qahwa. This last is a word of uncertain etymology, which can mean
both "coffee" and "wine". There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the drink itself. One account
involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Shaikh ash-Shadhili. When traveling in Ethiopia, the legend goes, he observed
goats of unusual vitality, and, upon trying the berries that the goats had been eating, experienced the same vitality.
A similar myth attributes the discovery of coffee to an Ethiopian goatherder named Kaldi and the Legend of Dancing Goats.