Coffee is actually a fruit -- it belongs to the cherry family.
| To make a roasted pound of coffee it takes around 2,000 hand-picked Arabica coffee cherries. With 2 beans per cherry - this means around 4,000 beans are in a single pound of coffee.
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| All coffee is grown within 1,000 miles of the equator, from the Tropic of Cancer in the north, to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south.
| On average, a coffee tree produces 1-2 lbs. of coffee beans per year.
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| The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about five years old. Thereafter it produces consistently for 15 to 20 years.
| In plants, caffeine acts as a natural bug repellent.
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| Green coffee beans nearly double in size during roasting.
| The best soil for growing coffee consists of leaf mould, other organic matter and disintegrated volcanic rock!
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| Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in parts of Africa.
| The Japanese have been known to bathe in coffee grounds fermented with pineapple pulp, for reducing wrinkles and improving their skin.
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| In the ancient Arab world, coffee became such a staple part of family life that one of the causes allowed by law for marital separation was a husband's refusal to produce coffee for his wife.
| In Greece and Turkey, the oldest person is almost always served their coffee first.
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| Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time.
| Coffee was first known in Europe as Arabian Wine.
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Coffee sacks are usually made of hemp and weigh approximately 132 pounds when they are full of green coffee beans. It takes over 600,000 beans to fill a coffee sack.
| Among all of the major agricultural products of the world, coffee harvesting remains virtually untouched by mechanisation. The vast majority of coffee is harvested by hand.
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| An ordinary cup of coffee contains about 150 milligrams of caffeine - what most physicians call a "theraputic dose".
| The principle psychological effects of coffee are due to caffeine, an alkaloid that acts as a mild stimulant.
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| On average, men drink more coffee than women (1.7 cups per day vs 1.5 cups)
| 37% of coffee drinkers drink their coffee black; while 63% add a sweetener such as sugar.
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| The human body will absorb just 300 milligrams of caffeine at a given time. Additional amounts are cast off and provide no additional stimulation. The human body dissipates 20% of the caffeine in it's system per hour.
| Regular coffee drinkers have about 1/3 less asthma symptoms than those of non-coffee drinkers according to a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.
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| Coffee, if it were taxed like wine would be more expensive than it.
| Coffee grows in more than 50 countries and is the second largest export in the world after oil (in dollar value).
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| The most important substitute for coffee is usually chicory, although it is often used as an extender as opposed to a substitute.
| Cappuccino is so named because of the drink's peak of foam which resembles the cowl of a Capuchin friar's habit.
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| For best flavor, cold filtered or bottled water is used to make a cup of coffee. Hot water or distilled water results to flat and tasteless coffee.
| The "strength" of a cup of coffee has nothing to do with the bean or the roast. It depends on the proportion of water to coffee used in the brew.
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| Decaffeinated coffee sales are at their highest in January due to people's New Year resolutions.
| One cup of coffee provides the daily requirement of the vitamin Niacin.
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| Hot coffee can actually help off pounds. Hot coffee makes the body sweat, thereby increasing the need of energy.
| Coffee beans can be ground right after they've been removed from a freezer.
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| Instant coffee accounts for 13% of all coffee drunk.
| 57% of coffee is drunk at breakfast; 34% between meals and 13% at other meals.
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| Wild medical contraptions used to exist to administer a mixture of coffee and an assortment of heated butter, honey and oil to treat the sick.
| The French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of coffee a day.
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Our sense of smell, more than any of our other senses makes our final judgement on coffee.
| Arabica trees can produce fruit for 20-30 years.
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| It takes 42 coffee beans to make an espresso.
| The two main suppliers of coffee in the world are Brazil and Colombia, with Brazil contributing around 30% of the total.
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