Coffee is known to be the second most traded commodity in the world, and has still been growing and getting more popular than we can ever imagine. In most of the countries, coffee is consumed by at least half or more than half the population and section of people, making it one of the most favourite hot and cold beverages of people all across the world. With various different flavours and types of coffee available today, there is hardly anyone who could resist the temptation of sipping a really sweet cold coffee or have coffee with some whipped cream or ice cream. Coffee has been introduced in many different ways to people to accustom and suit to their tastes and likings, and it has surely been successful in connecting with people in the most unique way possible. Coffee is made and used by people right from any formal or social occasion to any informal or get together meetings. Coffee as a drink has been growing over the years, with more upcoming new tastes and flavours for it, which have definitely made a place in people’s hearts pretty quick and easy. Here is a list of the top 10 awesome facts about coffee, which have helped this drink make its way to being one of the most demanded and popular drinks in the world.
1. Coffee contamination
Apart from the fungal coffee rust disease, other toxic poisons produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium fungi on the coffee plants could also lead to a life threat and result in deaths if possible. The Food and Agriculture Organization by the UN has also devised attempts to reduce the average level of such toxins in coffee exports between 1998 and 2004. People could fall adversely ill and suffer with other kinds of consequence due to the certain poison contained in the coffee plant produced by certain fungus.
2. Re-using coffee beans
Only 20 percent of the coffee bean has its contribution in giving out the flavor and aroma of coffee, and the remaining 80 percent of the bean is useless. Scientists have been trying to find out ways and means for the utilization of this 80 percent of coffee bean waste, and one of the ways is to spend the coffee grounds into fuel pellets for more energy. Also, coffee production companies send all the waste produced to a biomass plant which gets burnt along with the wood. Scientists have also come up with a way of using the waste coffee grounds to produce an alcoholic drink which could be produced by fermenting the beans and distilling them through a process similar to the production of whiskey.
3. Coffee during pregnancy
Though it is popularly believed that pregnant women should refrain from consuming coffee, there is no real evidence or studies to prove that having below three to four cups of coffee could actually do any harm to the woman or the baby in her womb. It is massively believed that women drinking less or no coffee have a smoother pregnancy and healthier babies, but no substantial evidence to support that.
4. Latte Art and Tasting
The World Cup Tasters Championship is a platform where participants smell and taste the different types of coffee available and identify them as quickly as they can. This gives birth to the Latte and Coffee Tasting art which is favoured and loved by people all over the world, especially through this annual coffee festival which took place in France this year. Designs are done on the surface of the coffee drinks such as hearts, swirls, leaves, dragons, cartoon characters and teddy bears.
5. Coffee banned in 17th century England
Coffee was first introduced in England in the 17th century, for some very odd reasons the drink was also banned by King Charles in 1675. Women in England believed that their men were getting unfruitful and that the men’s’ masculine properties were slowly and steadily lacking. Therefore, coffee as banned as a result of the campaign by ‘several Thousands of Buxome Good Women Languishing in Extremity of Want’, as the group called themselves.
6. Coffee Overdose and Addiction
Coffee which contains caffeine could actually prove to be toxic if there are no set limits of you drinking large number of cups of coffee. Caffeine is a chemical which could even make you ill in the case of over dosage, which means having seven to 10 cups of coffee a day. The point had been in the light when a young girl from England fell ill after consuming seven double espressos, claiming that she suffered from severe mood swings, raised temperature and palpitations.
7. Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
The Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony or the Bunna is a social and cultural ritual of preparing the coffee and offering coffee to guests and visitors. It is a very important ritual ceremony for Ethiopian women, whre the ceremony begins with the roasting of fresh green beans in a pan while burning fragrant flowers to give out a pleasant aroma. The coffee is then prepared and poured into cups with sugar, salt or butter.
8. Caffeine attracts bees
Coffee contains caffeine which is a toxic chemi9cal for slugs and pests, yet surprisingly, this chemical has very opposite effect on bees. The caffeine contained in the coffee plants helps the memory of these little pollinators to get more sharpened, especially enhancing their long term memory. The caffeine also makes the bees come and visit them regularly because of the caffeine acting on the brain chemistry of these bees, and helping them remember the flower in a more memorable way.
9. Coffee Rust in Central America
Coffee rust is a kind of fungal disease which grown on coffee plants and destroys the whole plant completely. Proving to be a threat to many farmers’ livelihoods, the main victim of this disease in the very famous Arabica coffee plant which is grown extensively in many countries in the world. The coffee rust disease indeed plagues farmers to a large extent when their coffee plants are attacked.
10. Coffee Crime Wave in Kenya
Coffee has been one of the most important and primary reasons for major amounts of theft and killings, because Kenya is a country with some of the most high amounts of produced coffee and therefore, a kilo of dried coffee beans could actually amount to a week’s wages for a poor person in that country. Coffee beans are stolen by some regular thieves, who sometimes even resort to killings and murdering the farmers. More than five million people in Kenya are dependent on coffee plantations; therefore a lot of living and crime revolves around this commodity increasing crime rate in the country.
Leave a Reply