gourmet coffee trivia

Interesting gourmet coffee facts:

• The Boston Tea Party was planned in a coffee house – the Green Dragon Coffee House
• 27% of U.S. coffee drinkers and 43% of German drinkers add a sweetener to their coffee.
• The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil with over 3,970 million coffee trees. Colombia comes in second with around two thirds of Brazil's production.
• Hard bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.
• Arabica and Robusta trees can produce crops for 20 to 30 years under proper conditions and care.
• Most coffee is transported by ships. Currently there are approximately 2,200 ships involved in transporting the beans each year.
• In Turkey a husband who refused to provide his wife with the drink could be divorced by her!
• Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee in terms of volume at 16 pounds per person. Second to the United States at 19 pounds per person.
• Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.
• An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.
• The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil the coffee producing a bitter tasting brew. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their coffee.
• With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.
• Up until the 1870's most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire. It wasn't until recent times that batch roasting became popular.
• Each year some 7 million tons of green beans are produced world wide. Most of which is hand picked.
• The popular trend towards flavored coffees originated in the United States during the 1970's.
• Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee is the most satisfying cup of coffee - it donates all its profits to children.
October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.
• The first coffee tree in the Western Hemisphere was brought from France to the Island of Martinique in the 1720's