THIRTY-EIGHT FACTS ABOUT COFFEE

 
1. A Saudi Arabian woman may divorce her husband if he refuses to give her coffee.


2. When you are drinking coffee you are drinking fruit juice.  Coffee is not made from beans, but rather the pit of a cherry.
   

3. Americans consume 4,848 cups of coffee per second, 24 hours a day.
  

4. According to Dr. Bruce Ames, University of California at Berkeley, there are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.


5. The world's costliest coffee, at $130-$300 a pound , is called Kopi Luwak. It is in the droppings of a type of marsupial that eats only the very best coffee beans. Plantation workers track them and scoop their precious poop.
  

6. According to Archives of General Medicine, coffee drinkers have sex more frequently and enjoy it more than non-coffee drinkers.
 

7. In Turkey, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, anyone caught drinking coffee was put to death.
 

8. Coffee creamer is extremely flammable.
  

9. Coffee is the second largest item on international commerce in the world.
  

10. According to the National Safety Council, coffee is not successful at sobering up a drunk person, and in many cases it may actually increase the adverse effects of alcohol.
 

11. A single coffee tree yields only one pound of roasted, ground coffee annually.
  

12. The darker the coffee bean, then the less caffeine. The longer the bean is roasted, the more the caffeine gets cooked away.
  

13. A cup of drip brewed coffee has 115 mg of caffeine, an espresso has about 80 mg, instant coffee has about 65 mg, and decaffeinated coffee has about 3 mg.
  

14. With more than 25 million people employed in the industry, coffee is second only to oil in world trade.
  

15. Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines.
  

16. A survey of Americans showed that coffee was the most memorable smell followed by peanut butter and Vick's Vaporub.


17. The word "tip" is also related to coffee. It comes from old London coffeehouses where the waiters' brass boxes were etched with the inscription, "To Insure Promptness."
  

18. The US Navy used to serve alcoholic beverages on board ships. However when Admiral Josephus "Joe" Daniels became Chief of Naval Operations, he outlawed alcohol on board ships, except for very special occasions. Coffee then became the drink of choice, hence the term "Cup of Joe".
  

19. 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.
  

20. Finland consumes the most coffee per capita at 12.82 kg.
  

21. Originally, coffee beans were used as a food and not as a beverage. East African tribes would grind the coffee cherries together, mix it into a paste with animal fat, then roll it into little balls. The mixture was said to give warriors much-needed energy for battle.
  

22. Around the year 1000 AD, Ethiopians concocted a type of wine from coffee berries, fermenting the dried beans in water.
  

23. The heavy tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773, which caused the "Boston Tea Party," resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. Drinking coffee was an expression of freedom.
  

24. For reducing wrinkles and improving their skin, the Japanese have been known to bathe in coffee grounds fermented with pineapple pulp.
  

25. Frederick the great had his coffee made with champagne and a bit of mustard.


26. It takes five years for a coffee tree to yield its first crop.
    

27. The first European coffee was sold in pharmacies in 1615 as a medicinal remedy.
  

28. Average costs (2001 AD, USA money) to consume beverages in the home: coffee $0.05, milk $0.16, bottled water $0.25, orange juice $0.79, beer $0.44, soft drinks $0.13, table wines $1.30.
  

29. A Starbucks tall mocha contains 510 calories and 27 g. of fat.  That is more fat than 3 bags of M&Ms.  Even the soy milk version has 290 calories and 12 grams of fat.


30. You can use coffee or tea to tenderize meat, flavor liquor, and color eggs (to make them look roasted or marbled).
  

31. Coffee and tea are great cleaning agents. Just a teaspoon or so of coffee or tea mixed with water can be used to dissolve grease and oil. Don't try this on anything you don't want stained, though.
  

32. Sprinkle dried Maxwell House coffee grounds outside doors and cracks. Coffee deters ants.
  

33. Add one-quarter to one-half teaspoon of instant Maxwell House coffee to spaghetti sauce. Coffee gives store-bought spaghetti sauce brown coloring and a less acidic flavor.
  

34. Cafes/coffee houses were originally (since the 1900s) known as "Penny Universities," providing real education and promoting Enlightenment ideals.
  

35. Coffee beans, banned in the fifteenth century, were initially sold by pharmacists before they were sold by cafes.
  

36.  If you lined up side by side every cup of coffee sold by Dunkin' Donuts in one day, the line would stretch 85.23 miles.
  

37.  How much do you NEED that cup of coffee? In 1683 William Penn spent $4.68 on a pound of coffee in New York.  That amount translates to $108.11 in 2001.
  

38. Coffee plants grown in the shade can produce bean crops for up to 50 years, while sun grown coffee plants produce crops for only 10 to 15 years.


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