Interesting Coffee Facts

• Coffee represents 75% of all of the caffeine consumed in the United States.
• The average annual coffee consumption of an American adult is 26.7 gallons, or over 400 cups.
• In early America, coffee was a drink to consume after dinner.
• It takes 40 coffee beans to make a cup of coffee.
• Only 35% of coffee drinkers drink their coffee black.
• Ludwig Van Beethoven was a big fan of coffee and it was rumoured that he was very specific about his brew. Before every cup, he counted exactly 60 coffee beans for each cup.
• The first commercial espresso machine was manufactured in Italy in 1906.
• Espresso has 1/3 of the caffeine of a regular cup of coffee.
• We say coffee beans although they are really berries.
• The three biggest coffee drinkers in the world are the Americans, the French and the Germans. They consume 65% of the total consumption of coffee in the world.
• A kahveci is a person who is skilled in preparing Turkish coffee.
• 1665 was the year when a London locksmith first introduced the coffee mill.
• A coffee bean is called “bunnu” in Arabic.
• Before people saw coffee as a stimulant, in Aden it was somewhat customary to chew on fresh “Qat” leaves in order to experience a slight high.
• Nicaragua Margogipe is the largest of coffee beans.
• The Turks brought coffee to Austria when their army surrounded Vienna in 1683, laying siege to the city.
• 1 kilogram of roasted coffee requires 4,000 - 5,000 coffee beans.
• Japan is now the third largest consumer of coffee.
• In England during the 17th century, for unknown reasons, an English king prohibited his subjects from gathering anywhere that coffee was sold.
• Dorothy Jones of Boston was the first American coffee trader.
• In Greece and Turkey, it is custom that the eldest is served coffee first.
• In 1690 the Dutch founded the East India coffee trade when they introduced coffee in Java.
• At one time there was a group of women who formed Women’s Petition Against Coffee (WPAC).
• Louis XV was rumoured to have spent USD $15,000 per year on coffee for his daughters.
• The French were the first to innovate a crude espresso machine. The Italians then perfected this machine and became the first to manufacture it.
• When coffee supplies became scarce during the American Civil War, soldiers desperate for a cup of coffee used roasted sweet potato and Indian corn as a substitute!
• Coffee was brought into Costa Rica from Cuba by a Spanish traveler, Navarro, in 1779. Hence it is not their native plant.
• The first coffee advertisement was a handbill distributed in 1651 and now housed in the British Museum.
• In 1785, a coffee revolt broke out in Prussia because coffee consumption was restricted to the nobility, the clergy and high officials.
• Coffee has been around for over 11 centuries and is currently the most widely consumed beverage in the world.