Did you know?

The Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world.

There is many legends about coffee…

Just ask Kaldi the legendary Ethiopian goatherd. Kaldi, the story goes, noticed his herd dancing from one coffee shrub to another, grazing on the cherry-red berries containing the beans. He copped a few himself and was soon frolicking with his flock.

Witnessing Kaldi’s goatly gambol, a monk plucked berries for his brothers. That night they were uncannily alert to divine inspiration.

History tells us other Africans of the same era fueled up on protein-rich coffee-and-animal-fat balls—primitive PowerBars—and unwound with wine made from coffee-berry pulp. Coffee later crossed the Red Sea to Arabia, where things really got cooking...

Coffee as we know it kicked off in Arabia, where roasted beans were first brewed around A.D. 1000. By the 13th century Muslims were drinking coffee religiously. The “bean broth” drove dervishes into orbit, kept worshippers awake, and splashed over into secular life. And wherever Islam went, coffee went too: North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and India.

Arabia made export beans infertile by parching or boiling, and it is said that no coffee seed sprouted outside Africa or Arabia until the 1600s—until Baba Budan. As tradition has it, this Indian pilgrim-cum-smuggler left Mecca with fertile seeds strapped to his belly. Baba’s beans bore fruit and initiated an agricultural expansion that would soon reach Europe’s colonies...

“The Turks have a drink of black color....I will bring some with me...to the Italians”. Thus a merchant of Venice introduced Europe to coffee in 1615. But the end product didn’t amount to a hill of beans to many traders—they wanted the means of production. The race was on.

The Dutch cleared the initial hurdle in 1616, spiriting a coffee plant into Europe for the first time. Then in 1696 they founded the first European-owned coffee estate, on colonial Java, now part of Indonesia.

Business boomed and the Dutch sprinted ahead to adjacent islands. Confident beyond caution, Amsterdam began bestowing coffee trees on aristocrats around Europe...

A SWASHBUCKLING SCHEME
(Circa 1714 to 1720)

Louis XIV received his Dutch treat around 1714—a coffee tree for Paris’s Royal Botanical Garden, the Jardin des Plantes. Several years later a young naval officer, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, was in Paris on leave from Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean. Imagining Martinique as a French Java, he requested clippings from his king’s tree. Permission denied.

Resolute, de Clieu led a moonlight raid of the Jardin des Plantes—over the wall, into the hothouse, out with a sprout.Mission accomplished, de Clieu sailed for Martinique. He might have thought the hard part was over. He would have been wrong...

CROSSING THE ATLANTIC
(Circa 1720 to 1770)

On the return passage to Martinique, wrote de Clieu, a “basely jealous” passenger, “being unable to get this coffee plant away from me, tore off a branch.”

Then came the pirates who nearly captured the ship; then came a storm which nearly sank it. Finally, skies grew clear. Too clear. Water grew scarce and was rationed. De Clieu gave half of his allotment to his stricken seedling. Under armed guard, the sprout grew strong in Martinique, yielding an extended family of approximately 18 million trees in 50 years or so. Its progeny would supply Latin America, where a dangerous liaison would help bring coffee to the masses...

Annual coffee consumption worldwide was estimated in 2003 to be over 400 billion cups. While these 2003 statistics are the most recent available, it is established that coffee consumption throughout the world continues to grow. 400 billion cups per year is a huge number. That's over 1.4 billion cups of coffee per day. The United States is responsible for almost 35 percent of the coffee consumption at 400 million cups every day.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata about coffee between 1732 and 1734. Coffee has been a popular beverage for hundreds of years and the coffee houses were a frequent gathering place throughout Europe, including Leipzig, Germany where Bach resided in 1732. The coffee cantata was more of a satirical comedy and tells an amusing story of coffee addiction considered a social problem in the eighteenth century.

If the French invented Cafe Society, the Italians definitely own the rights to Espresso Society. There are over 200,000 espresso bars throughout Italy today.

The first rudimentary espresso machine prototype was created in France in 1822. Luigi Bezzera patented the first espresso machine in 1901, a steam driven design. Desiderio Pavoni purchased the patent from Bezzera in 1905, and through additional experimentation was able to produce better results by using a more optimum brew temperature of 195 degrees at 8-9 BAR of pressure. La Pavoni was the first manufacturer of espresso machines used in coffee houses. Modern day espresso in the commercial establishment is attributed to the Gaggia piston lever Crema Caffe machine, first introduced in 1947.

The popular latte is predominantly an American phenomena. If you ask for a latte in Italy, you'll get a glass of milk, most likely warm milk. When in Italy, if you want a latte as you know it in America, you'll need to ask for a caffe latte (coffee with milk).

The first coffee filter was invented in 1908 by Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden, Germany. She created the filter using blotting paper. The Melitta Bentz and her husband Hugo Bentz started the Melitta Bentz company that same year in 1908. The Melitta brand is synonymous with coffee filters to this day.

In Japan, over 10,000 coffee cafes called "Kissaten" serve the consumer demand in just Tokyo alone. Japan is the third highest coffee consuming nation in the world today.

Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world today. In 2006, of the 44 million bags of coffee produced in Brazil, 27 million were exported for trade. Brazil harvests over 4 billion coffee trees, a staggering number. Brazil's coffee trade generates over US$3.3 billion annually. As the largest coffee producer, this does create some controversy in the coffee industry. In order to produce coffee at these significant commercial volumes, Brazil has had to shift most of it's coffee production from the more environmentally friendly shade grown plantations, to the higher yield sun grown commercial operations. This not only impacts the environment, but presents a challenge to the traditional small coffee farmer who struggles to compete with the large commercial growers.

As you might expect, coffee tastes and beverage preferences differ from one country to another. For example, 30% of coffee drinkers in the United States sweeten their coffee with sugar or some other form of sweetener. In the UK, more than 57% of coffee consumers prefer to ad a sweetener of some kind. In India, it is virtually impossible to find coffee or tea that doesn't have milk and sugar added. As a contrast to adding milk or sweetener, in Italy, the most popular form of coffee is simply a straight shot of strong espresso.

Contrary to what most people think, espresso coffee actually contains about 1/3 the caffeine level of a normally brewed cup of coffee. This is partially due to the fact that espresso is typically made using top premium arabica beans. Arabica beans have a lower caffeine content than robusta beans found in many coffee blends used for standard brewing.

On average, the live expectancy of a properly cared for coffee plant is 40 to 50 years, with some plants living as long as 100 years.

A mature coffee plant yields about 5 pounds of green (un-roasted) coffee beans per year. That results in less than one pound of coffee beans after roasting (roasting removes most of the water present in the green coffee beans). It takes about 4000 coffee beans to produce a pound of coffee. And roughly 50 coffee beans to produce one cup of coffee.

On average, an acre of coffee trees can produce as much as 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. There are two coffee beans contained within each cherry. This yields approximately 2000 pounds of beans after processing. Which translates to about 400 pounds of coffee beans after roasting. It takes a lot of coffee trees, and vast amounts of acreage to produce the volume of coffee consumed each day.


Roasted Coffee Green Coffee Packed Coffee Tea Accessories Delivery	Did you know? The Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. There is many legends about coffee… Just ask Kaldi the legendary Ethiopian goatherd. Kaldi, the story goes, noticed his herd dancing from one coffee shrub to another, grazing on the cherry-red berries containing the beans. He copped a few himself and was soon frolicking with his flock. Witnessing Kaldi’s goatly gambol, a monk plucked berries for his brothers. That night they were uncannily alert to divine inspiration. History tells us other Africans of the same era fueled up on protein-rich coffee-and-animal-fat balls—primitive PowerBars—and unwound with wine made from coffee-berry pulp. Coffee later crossed the Red Sea to Arabia, where things really got cooking... Coffee as we know it kicked off in Arabia, where roasted beans were first brewed around A.D. 1000. By the 13th century Muslims were drinking coffee religiously. The “bean broth” drove dervishes into orbit, kept worshippers awake, and splashed over into secular life. And wherever Islam went, coffee went too: North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and India. Arabia made export beans infertile by parching or boiling, and it is said that no coffee seed sprouted outside Africa or Arabia until the 1600s—until Baba Budan. As tradition has it, this Indian pilgrim-cum-smuggler left Mecca with fertile seeds strapped to his belly. Baba’s beans bore fruit and initiated an agricultural expansion that would soon reach Europe’s colonies... “The Turks have a drink of black color....I will bring some with me...to the Italians”. Thus a merchant of Venice introduced Europe to coffee in 1615. But the end product didn’t amount to a hill of beans to many traders—they wanted the means of production. The race was on. The Dutch cleared the initial hurdle in 1616, spiriting a coffee plant into Europe for the first time. Then in 1696 they founded the first European-owned coffee estate, on colonial Java, now part of Indonesia. Business boomed and the Dutch sprinted ahead to adjacent islands. Confident beyond caution, Amsterdam began bestowing coffee trees on aristocrats around Europe... A SWASHBUCKLING SCHEME (Circa 1714 to 1720) Louis XIV received his Dutch treat around 1714—a coffee tree for Paris’s Royal Botanical Garden, the Jardin des Plantes. Several years later a young naval officer, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, was in Paris on leave from Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean. Imagining Martinique as a French Java, he requested clippings from his king’s tree. Permission denied. Resolute, de Clieu led a moonlight raid of the Jardin des Plantes—over the wall, into the hothouse, out with a sprout.Mission accomplished, de Clieu sailed for Martinique. He might have thought the hard part was over. He would have been wrong... CROSSING THE ATLANTIC (Circa 1720 to 1770) On the return passage to Martinique, wrote de Clieu, a “basely jealous” passenger, “being unable to get this coffee plant away from me, tore off a branch.” Then came the pirates who nearly captured the ship; then came a storm which nearly sank it. Finally, skies grew clear. Too clear. Water grew scarce and was rationed. De Clieu gave half of his allotment to his stricken seedling. Under armed guard, the sprout grew strong in Martinique, yielding an extended family of approximately 18 million trees in 50 years or so. Its progeny would supply Latin America, where a dangerous liaison would help bring coffee to the masses... Annual coffee consumption worldwide was estimated in 2003 to be over 400 billion cups. While these 2003 statistics are the most recent available, it is established that coffee consumption throughout the world continues to grow. 400 billion cups per year is a huge number. That's over 1.4 billion cups of coffee per day. The United States is responsible for almost 35 percent of the coffee consumption at 400 million cups every day. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata about coffee between 1732 and 1734. Coffee has been a popular beverage for hundreds of years and the coffee houses were a frequent gathering place throughout Europe, including Leipzig, Germany where Bach resided in 1732. The coffee cantata was more of a satirical comedy and tells an amusing story of coffee addiction considered a social problem in the eighteenth century. If the French invented Cafe Society, the Italians definitely own the rights to Espresso Society. There are over 200,000 espresso bars throughout Italy today. The first rudimentary espresso machine prototype was created in France in 1822. Luigi Bezzera patented the first espresso machine in 1901, a steam driven design. Desiderio Pavoni purchased the patent from Bezzera in 1905, and through additional experimentation was able to produce better results by using a more optimum brew temperature of 195 degrees at 8-9 BAR of pressure. La Pavoni was the first manufacturer of espresso machines used in coffee houses. Modern day espresso in the commercial establishment is attributed to the Gaggia piston lever Crema Caffe machine, first introduced in 1947. The popular latte is predominantly an American phenomena. If you ask for a latte in Italy, you'll get a glass of milk, most likely warm milk. When in Italy, if you want a latte as you know it in America, you'll need to ask for a caffe latte (coffee with milk). The first coffee filter was invented in 1908 by Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden, Germany. She created the filter using blotting paper. The Melitta Bentz and her husband Hugo Bentz started the Melitta Bentz company that same year in 1908. The Melitta brand is synonymous with coffee filters to this day. In Japan, over 10,000 coffee cafes called "Kissaten" serve the consumer demand in just Tokyo alone. Japan is the third highest coffee consuming nation in the world today. Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world today. In 2006, of the 44 million bags of coffee produced in Brazil, 27 million were exported for trade. Brazil harvests over 4 billion coffee trees, a staggering number. Brazil's coffee trade generates over US$3.3 billion annually. As the largest coffee producer, this does create some controversy in the coffee industry. In order to produce coffee at these significant commercial volumes, Brazil has had to shift most of it's coffee production from the more environmentally friendly shade grown plantations, to the higher yield sun grown commercial operations. This not only impacts the environment, but presents a challenge to the traditional small coffee farmer who struggles to compete with the large commercial growers. As you might expect, coffee tastes and beverage preferences differ from one country to another. For example, 30% of coffee drinkers in the United States sweeten their coffee with sugar or some other form of sweetener. In the UK, more than 57% of coffee consumers prefer to ad a sweetener of some kind. In India, it is virtually impossible to find coffee or tea that doesn't have milk and sugar added. As a contrast to adding milk or sweetener, in Italy, the most popular form of coffee is simply a straight shot of strong espresso. Contrary to what most people think, espresso coffee actually contains about 1/3 the caffeine level of a normally brewed cup of coffee. This is partially due to the fact that espresso is typically made using top premium arabica beans. Arabica beans have a lower caffeine content than robusta beans found in many coffee blends used for standard brewing. On average, the live expectancy of a properly cared for coffee plant is 40 to 50 years, with some plants living as long as 100 years. A mature coffee plant yields about 5 pounds of green (un-roasted) coffee beans per year. That results in less than one pound of coffee beans after roasting (roasting removes most of the water present in the green coffee beans). It takes about 4000 coffee beans to produce a pound of coffee. And roughly 50 coffee beans to produce one cup of coffee. On average, an acre of coffee trees can produce as much as 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. There are two coffee beans contained within each cherry. This yields approximately 2000 pounds of beans after processing. Which translates to about 400 pounds of coffee beans after roasting. It takes a lot of coffee trees, and vast amounts of acreage to produce the volume of coffee consumed each day.
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The Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world.