Did you know coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world right after crude oil?
Just think about it.
How many cups have you had so far? And how many, in total, will you have once the day closes?
Quite a lot.
Our high consumption of coffee is testament to one, hard to understate fact – everybody loves coffee. While everybody might not refer to the entire world, the number is still large enough to support an industry worth over $400 billion.
Yes, you might be very familiar with Arabica and Robusta, but how much more do you know about your favorite dark drink? You’ll find that out here.
So, read on.
The plant was discovered by “excited goats”
According to legend, all we needed was a herd of excited goats and a curious herder for the world to be gifted its beloved dark stimulant.
History states that one goat herder, Kaldi, in ninth-century Ethiopia, discovered that his goats would get very excited once they consumed berries from a certain tree. He informed the abbot of their local monastery of his discovery.
The abbot then got the idea of roasting the beans, grinding them, and dissolving the final product in hot water. The rest is, well, stimulating history.
Coffee Cherries can be eaten as food
A larger demographic of coffee lovers are only aware of the effect coffee beans can have. But what of the cherries?
Well, according to PBS, coffee cherries can make very good food – with almost similar stimulating effects like the beans. And interestingly, this process has been around for a long time.
Historically, people would mix the coffee berries with fat to make snack balls full of energy. And to add a bit of tipsiness to the entire mix, the pulp would be fermented to make wine.
There have been multiple attempts to ban coffee
Coffee’s stimulating effect has been linked by various political and religious leaders to rebellious and radical behavior among people. And with that, several attempts have been made to ban the drink.
One of the first attempts to ban coffee was in Mecca, back in 1511. The leaders at that time thought the drink was inspiring idleness and radical thinking among their people.
Fast forward almost three centuries later, and Swedish leaders were taking a swing at the drink in 1746. To make matters worse, they did not just ban the drink but also any paraphernalia associated with it.
Instant coffee is 250 years old
Sorry, dear. Instant coffee wasn’t invented by Starbucks. The drink has been around for almost 2 and a half centuries.
It first appeared in England in 1771, before the US made and patented the world’s first mass-produced instant coffee in 1910. That’s 139 years later. And fast forward over 100 years later, and it’s still one of the world’s most bought drinks.
Each American spends more than $1000 per year on coffee
If you are struggling with savings, maybe you need fewer cups of coffee. Statistics show that the average American will plow through $1092 a year for the taste of the dark drink.
But this spending is not channeled the wrong way. On top of their love for coffee, Americans have a knack for picking the best coffee beans in the market for the perfect brewing experience.
This makes them read coffee review sites such as Owly Choice, just to buy the best in the market.
The good thing about this is that it gives the American coffee market a strong foothold.
The bad thing?
Even with an average expenditure of $1092 per head, America is still not the largest consumer of coffee in the world.
It’s Finland.
Three cups a day can make you live longer
An even better reason to keep spending those bucks on coffee is the fact that taking only three to four cups of coffee a day can increase your life expectancy.
This is based on medical research done by Harvard which showed that moderate consumption of coffee, 3 – 4 cups, can lead to a longer lifespan, reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, Parkinson’s disease, and type 2 diabetes.
So, drink up everybody.
