I used to be a tea drinker. Then a black coffee drinker. Then a cream in my coffee drinker and now I am back to being a tea drinker with the occasional coffee or latté. I say occasional because compared to what I used to drink, 4-5 cups a day, it is. I did give up coffee for a while. For whatever the reasons. I know some of my friends have tried. It's hard giving it up completely because when I am in my creative mode inside the kitchen and outside of the kitchen, painting and writing, I tend to want to drink coffee. It seems that's what I want the most. The fresh aromatic smell. A nice full bodied cup... or cups of coffee. Enough to get things flowing and buzzing around the kitchen.
There is a lot of information regarding coffee. Without making this a full fledged history lesson you can always swing by your local library or search the internet to find more about the coffee bean. Here are some interesting facts I discovered:
- The country of origin Ethiopia
- Coffee is cultivated in over 70 countries
- Coffee was first thought to be used for spiritual reasons
- The process kopi luwak is the most expensive coffee at $160 per pound
- There is the story of Kaldi, a 9th century goat herder who first discovered coffee
- Folklore has it that the Oromo people would plant a coffee tree on sorcerers' graves
- During the 18th century seamen aboard British Royal Navy ships substituted coffee by dissolving burnt bread in hot water
- In 1645 the first European coffee house opened in Italy
- 1931 introduced vacuum packed cans of coffee
- Today during the decaffeination process the extracted caffeine is usual sold to the pharmaceutical industry
- Brazil is the largest exporter of coffee, Indonesia is the third largest
- Coffee is the second most traded product in the world; the first being petroleum
- Between 1998-2000 6.7 metric tons of coffee were produce each year worldwide
- Some studies suggest that coffee reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes (type 2), cirrhosis of the liver and gout
- jw
It reduces my desire to nap at my desk. ;)
ReplyDeleteI learned the origin of tobacco smoking over the weekend. It is related to calling on the spirits from the Indian rituals and that the smoke rising up is an invitation to the spirit realm.
The only spirit I want is Holy Spirit. :)