15 Facts That Make Coffee Cooler!

Welcome to the wonderful world of coffee! Coffee might be the most interesting beverage on the planet - it is planted, harvested, picked, sorted, dried, roasted, ground, and finally brewed before it is ready to drink. Aside from being versatile and allowing for customization to guzzle down your caffeinated drink from your local coffee shop, there are many other aspects to coffee besides its "wake me up” affect that are also beneficial to your body and mind. 

Here are some fun facts about coffee that you may not have known (and that we think – makes coffee even cooler!):

1.      Coffee was discovered by a pack of goats!

Well sort of… back in the 9th century in Kaffa Ethiopia, a goat herder named Kaldi noticed his goats weren’t sleeping at night, followed them the next day and found them eating coffee berries, which he then gathered and took to a group of nearby monks who brewed them into a drink. That’s the short version – if you want to read the whole story, check out our blog “The Invention of Coffee”.

2.      Coffee Beans aren’t beans at all – they are seeds that come from “coffee berries”.

Coffee berries are little, red, and round berries (also known as “coffee cherries”). They grow on coffee bushes. Coffee beans are actually the pits of these berries which, technically, makes coffee a fruit!

3.      Before Coffee was a drink, it was the first “energy bar”.

Before it was discovered that coffee beans could be brewed into a beverage, east African tribes used to pick coffee berries and mix them with animal fat, then eat them to provide energy on long journeys.

Source How Stuff Works

4.      Drinking coffee used to be illegal and punishable by death.

In the 1600’s the Ottoman Emperor made it illegal to operate a coffee house or be seen drinking coffee in public. The punishment for being caught was death by beheading!  Apparently, he didn’t want his enemies to be able to gather and plot against him, and he thought that taking away favorite public gathering places and practices was a good way to keep his throne.

Source Twisted Food

5.      Women used to be able to divorce their husbands if they didn’t provide enough coffee to them!

Before coffee was illegal in Turkish culture in the 15th century, if a husband didn’t provide enough coffee for his household, his wife could easily file for divorce due to “insufficient amounts of coffee in the home”.

Source Youngisthan

6.      Beethoven loved coffee and took his coffee drinking very seriously!

A regular drinker of coffee, Beethoven didn’t just love this delicious and energizing liquid, he was also quite picky about how it was prepared! One biographer of Beethoven described his coffee habits as “oriental”, detailing how he would count out 60 individual coffee beans by hand for every cup he drank!

Source: GreenFarmCoffee

7.      The Boston Tea Party helped to make it so drinking coffee in America was considered “Patriotic”

After the Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773, drinking tea became less popular, and coffee began to take over. Drinking coffee became a sort of act of American liberty and freedom. Thomas Jefferson even said about coffee “it is the favorite beverage of the civilized world”.

Source TheQueenBean.

8.      Hawaii and California are the only two states in America that grow coffee.

America is one of the smallest producers of coffee in the world, but we do make some! Both Hawaii and California participate in growing this delicious “bean”. Additionally, Puerto Rico (a territory of the United States), produces coffee as well!

Source Trung-Nguyen

9.      Brazil grows more coffee than any other country in the World.

Brazil hands down is the top coffee bean producer in the world (and they have been for over 150 years!). With over 27,000 square km of land on which coffee berries are grown, Brazil produces around 2,595,000 metric tons of coffee beans alone!

Source CafeDirect.

10.  The World consumes over 2 BILLION cups of coffee a day!

Whether it’s espresso, drip coffee, instant coffee, etc, that’s a ton of coffee no matter how you look at it!

Source BritishCoffeeAssociation

11.   Your coffee will stay warmer for longer if you put cream in it!

It will stay warmer for 20% longer in fact. Why? Because adding cream adds viscosity (it makes it thicker), which means it evaporates slower – and when your coffee evaporates, the heat goes along with it. So maybe if you have a long meeting and would like your cup to stay warmer for longer, add a dash of cream to it next time!

Source ModernistCuisine

12.  Coffee is a big player in the Soda Industry.

Coffee and soda? Two totally different drinks! Except for the fact that when coffee beans are decaffeinated, that leftover caffeine is then sold to soda companies who use it to make their bubbly sugar beverages.

Source: NPR.

13.  Cars running on coffee grounds exist!

Well, one such car exists. It’s called the “Car-puccino”, and it runs on leftover coffee grounds! Achieving about 1.4 miles per pound of coffee grounds, this “eco-friendly” car is a great excuse to drink coffee before hitting the road (needing approximately 56 espressos per mile).

Source PCWorld.

14.  The most expensive coffee in the world is made from cat excrement.

As weird as it sounds, the most expensive coffee in the world – Kopi Luwak – is coffee that is technically made from Cat Excrement. Makers of this “special” coffee blend, feed coffee berries to certain cats, and after it passes through their system, harvest the “leftovers”, clean them and process them into said coffee. A cup of Kopi Luwak coffee can go for up to $100, and a pound for up to $600!

Source Business Insider

15.  Regular coffee drinkers live longer!

Finally, an excuse to drink as much as you want! Research has shown that people who drink around 6 cups of coffee a day have longer life spans and reduced risks of certain medical ailments like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, infection, etc.

Source Health Harvard