Friday, October 11, 2013

Coffee: Fun Facts About This Popular Beverage

By Debrah Elliot


For coffee lovers, there is nothing better than their cup of fresh morning coffee. This rich drink, whether it is served up black or mixed with cream and sugar, is one of the most popular beverages on Earth. Here are a few fun facts about coffee that might be of interest to you.

While we usually just see coffee as dark brown or black beans or perhaps ground, coffee beans are actually the seed of a red berry that grows on coffee trees. The berries are picked and then stripped down until all that is left is the green seed. This seed is roasted or shipped to a destination and then roasted before it's ground and used to make coffee. All of the coffee in the world is grown in the "bean belt," which lies in between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

There are dozens of nicknames for coffee, including Java, Joe, mud and brew. Java refers to the island of Java in Indonesia which is known for its high quality coffee. Obviously, not all coffee comes from Java (most of it comes from Brazil, actually), but Java's coffee was some of the most popular on Earth during the 18th and 19th centuries, and the nickname just stuck.

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.




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