Interesting coffee facts
The aroma of coffee contains more than 700 substances, and it is rich in caffeine. The original home of coffee is presumably Ethiopia. Coffee launched in the 15th century and came to Europe in the 16th century with the contribution of the Arabs. Today, it is one of the most popular drinks in the world. But there are other facts about coffee you may have missed until now.
Coffee is the second most commercialized product in the world after oil. This makes the black drink an attractive investment product. The price of coffee is determined by the London stock exchanges and the New York Intercontinental Commodity Exchange (ICE). In 2014, its price increased by 58% in 12 months, it performed better than any raw material.
The world record of coffee consumption
Coffee is usually consumed while it’s hot and contains caffeine, which is a stimulant. It is produced from peeled, ground, dried and roasted coffee beans. These berries are called grains, but this is not correct from a botanical point of view. The coffee cherry is a stone fruit. It consists of two thick, hard cores surrounded by a thin fleshy layer. This kernel (or grain) resembles a bean but is nevertheless called a coffee bean.
But let’s investigate now an interesting question: what is the world record of coffee consumption? 82 cups in 7 hours! This is almost a fatal dose. After 100 cups, an average adult is at risk of losing his life. Yet scientists have long agreed that coffee is not necessarily bad for health and may even be beneficial. Everyone knows that it is the excess that harms, so we have to find out where is the limit.
According to Dr. Chip Lavie -a cardiologist and co-author of a Mayo Clinic Proceedings study (PDF)-, two to three cups of black drink per day are harmless and potentially beneficial to health. Rob van Dam, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health thinks that four cups of coffee a day are not harmful to your health, as long as you have a healthy lifestyle and you are not pregnant.
The Mayo Clinic study concluded that men under the age of 55 increase the risk of dying by 50% when they drink more than 28 cups per week and in the case of women the risk is twice as high. According to the Rob van Dam study, people who drink up to six cups of coffee a day do not have a higher than average risk of mortality.
The capital of coffee and the biggest coffee producer
What do you think, which place may be considered as the capital of coffee? Seattle, which is by the way also the birthplace of Starbucks. In the early seventies, the company was only a small shop on the old Pike Place Market in Seattle. Today, Starbucks, with 22,500 establishments in 64 countries and $ 21.5 billion in sales, is the world’s largest roaster and retailer of coffee.
One third of coffee production originates in Brazil. No country in the world has as much impact on the coffee market as Brazil, which is a traditionally producing country. This world power exports two billion grains annually. This amount represents one third of the world production.
The perfect moment and the ideal amount for an espresso
According to some studies, the best time for a cup of coffee is at 14:15. It is at this precise moment that we have the least energy. As we already know, caffeine has a stimulating effect. Coffee has been shown to improve alertness, concentration and endurance.
Did you know that you need 40 coffee beans to make an espresso? The roasting of coffee beans is responsible for more than 700 aromatic molecules. Roasted beans are sold ground and unmilled.
The biggest coffee consumers and the most expensive coffee
Worldwide, we drink 1.6 billion cups of coffee every day: the Scandinavians are the biggest consumers. Scandinavian countries are definitely the biggest lovers of coffee in the world. The Scandinavians drank an average of 4.3 cups of coffee per day during the period 2002-2006. The Finns were leading with 5.4 cups a day. In Belgium and Luxembourg, consumption during this period was 3.8 cups per day.
The Dutch drank 3.2 cups a day during this period. The European Union as a whole reaches 2.2 cups per day per person. The British drink mostly tea. Their coffee consumption is limited to 1.2 cups a day. Outside Europe, the largest consumers of coffee reside in the United States and Canada. Coffee consumption is not that popular in the producing countries, except Brazil and Costa Rica. What do you think, why?
In the United States, people drink 400 million cups each day. With this quantity, one could fill 14 Statues of Liberty. Not surprisingly, in terms of volume, the Americans are the biggest drinkers of black drink in the world. Together, they consume 164 billion cups a year, which corresponds to 400 million a day.
Are you curious about the coffee that you’re never likely to buy? The most expensive coffee in the world is ‘Black Ivory’ and costs more than 1,000 dollars per kilo. These coffee beans are digested for 15 to 70 hours in the stomach of an elephant before being ready for consumption.
This is a variety produced by the Black Ivory Coffee Company Ltd. from Arabica coffee in northern Thailand. These grains are first consumed by elephants. When the animals have digested them, the intact grains are collected in their feces. These grains are of course rare and this coffee is served in some luxury hotels at $ 50 a cup.
