Monday, October 7, 2013

Interesting Coffee Trivia

By Debrah Elliot


Coffee is definitely one of the most heavily consumed beverages in the world. In the United States alone, more than 400 million cups of coffee are consumed each day. If you are one of the many coffee lovers on the planet, you might be interested in some of the following coffee facts.

It's worth noting that coffee beans are not actually beans at all and, in fact, they grow on trees. The trees produce red berries, the green seeds in the middle of the berries are removed, and these seeds are roasted and the end result are the "beans" that we grind and use to make our daily cup of coffee. Hawaii is the only state in the United States that produces coffee, and all of the world's coffee trees grow in areas in between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer.

You might call it coffee or perhaps Joe or even Java or even something silly like mud or a wake-up call. There are dozens of slang terms that are used in place of the word coffee, and Java and Joe are probably the two most common. Java is a coffee-producing island in Indonesia, and coffee from this island was extremely popular worldwide during the 19th and the 18th centuries, so many people started calling coffee "Java," and the nickname stuck. So even if your coffee doesn't come from Java, you might call it by that name. It is sort of like how we tend to call all sparkling wines "Champagne," even though the only official Champagne comes from that particular region of France.

There are songs about love, dancing, political issues, hats and disposable red cups, but there are also plenty of songs about coffee, which probably comes as no surprise to any coffee lover. Why not sing about this most honorable brew? Well, Frank Sinatra sang about coffee and so did Johnny Cash. Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Bob Dylan and many others have, too. Even Johann Sebastian Bach wrote about coffee, suggesting that without his three daily cups of coffee, he would shrivel up just like a chunk of overcooked goat. While most Americans don't eat goat, we can certainly sympathize with Mr. Bach's need for his daily coffee fix.

Of course, it's not just the singers and musicians of the world that savor coffee. Many statesmen and authors were happy coffee drinkers, including Voltaire who often drank 50 cups each day and Teddy Roosevelt who guzzled down a gallon each day. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin also were big coffee enthusiasts. T.S. Eliot not only wrote about crazy singing cats, he also said, "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

If you are searching for the best cup of coffee in Los Angeles, consider taking a trip to Culver City and visiting Island Monarch Coffee. The proprietors take coffee very seriously, shipping in fresh green beans directly from Kona, Hawaii and South America. The beans aren't roasted until they reach Los Angeles, and each coffee drink features freshly ground beans and water that has been filtered seven times to ensure purity.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment