A few notes about coffee….can you imagine a world without coffee?  Although it’s not quite like taking a drink of water, the fact of the matter is that 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day worldwide.

This drug is strictly legal!

According to legend, the beverage was made possible by a
fortuitous discovery made by a Somalian goatherd.
He noticed one of his goats getting buzzed on something
and discovered that that the critter had been nibbling on berries
from a nearby coffee bush. This is said to have taken place
a little more than a thousand years ago.

Beware: coffee is highly subversive

Both the American Revolution and the infamous French Revolution were born in coffee houses. The American Revolution grew from roots planted by patriots in the Green Dragon (some say it was the Green Lion) Public House in the Lloyd’s District of London. The infamous French Revolution happened in 1789 when the Parisians, spurred on by Camille Desmoulins’s verbal campaign, took to the streets and two days later the Bastille fell, marking the overthrow of the French Government and changing France forever.

This is one delicate (coffee) bean

When the beans reach the temperature of 400 F during the roasting process, the beans “crack.” The bean develop oils in a process called pyolysis. The outer part of the beans darkens. When the beans “crack” a second time, the hot beans are then dumped from the roaster and cooled immediately, usually with cold air. During the process of roasting coffee beans, coffee oil gathers in pockets throughout the bean. This substance is forced out to the surface of the beans of darker roasts, as moisture is lost. Hence the bean has this oily appearance.

A few notes about coffee

After four cups just say no…if you don’t your body will

Special studies conducted about the human body revealed it will usually absorb up to about 300 milligrams of caffeine at a given time…about four normal-size cups. Additional amounts are just metabolically ignored, providing no further stimulation 20% of the caffeine in the system each hour is dissipated by our bodies.

Coffee School…Pass, Good Job, go to the head of the Class

Coffee beans are graded in various ways. Example: Kenya coffees are graded as A, B and C. AA is the best coffee. In Costa Rica, coffees are graded as Strictly Hard Bean, Good Hard Bean, Hard Bean, Medium Hard Bean, High Grown Atlantic, Medium Grown Atlantic, and Low Grown Atlantic. Those coffee beans from Colombia are labeled as “Supremo” “Excelso”, “Extra” and the lowest grade, “Pasilla”.

Un espress, s’il vous plait!

Cafe Procope was the first true Paris coffeehouse. It was opened in 1689 by a former lemonade vendor, Francois Procope. The cafe faces the Theatre Francais, where it drew the artists and actors of the day.