51. Finely grinding coffee beans and boiling them in water is still
known as "Turkish
Coffee." It is still made this way today in Turkey and Greece or
anywhere else
Turkish Coffee is served.
52. In the 14th century, the Arabs started to cultivate
coffee plants. The
first commercially grown and harvested coffee originated in the Arabian
Peninsula near the
port of Mocha.
53. In 1554 in Constantinople, two coffeehouses opened. They did very
well. Soon there
were many.
54. By 1600 A.D., coffee drinking had come to the Orient. It soon
became very popular.
55. The Venetians first introduced coffee to Europe in 1615.
56. Lloyd's of London began as Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse.
57. It was during the 1600's that the first coffee mill made its debut
in London.
58. In 1670, Dorothy Jones of Boston was granted a license to sell
coffee, and so became
the first American coffee trader.
59. William Penn purchased a pound of coffee in New York in 1683 for
$4.68.
60. Adding sugar to coffee is believed to have started in 1715, in the
court of King Louis
XIV, the French monarch.
61. The year was 1716 when Venetian coffee shop merchants began
distributing leaflets
exalting their new product: coffee. This may be the first example of
advertising for
coffee shops.
62. In 1727, as a result of seedlings smuggled from Paris, coffee
plants first were
cultivated in Brazil. Brazil is presently by far the world's largest
producer of coffee.
63. Before the first French cafe in the late 1700's, coffee was sold by
street vendors in
Europe, in the Arab fashion. The Arabs were the forerunners of the
sidewalk espresso carts
of today.
64. The vacuum pack, invented in 1898, made it possible to preserve
roasted coffee.
Preserved coffee, though, not fresh coffee.
65. Espresso is to Italy what champagne is to France.
66. The French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of
coffee a day.
67. Retail espresso vendors report an increase in decaffeinated sales
in the month of
January due to New Year's resolutions to decrease caffeine intake.
68. Scandinavia has the world's highest per capita annual coffee
consumption, 26.4 pounds.
Italy has an annual consumption per capita of only 10 pounds.
69. The modern day espresso street vending cart evolved from a Boeing
Company shuttle
cart, purchased from surplus, and was first utilized to serve people
espresso at an arts
and crafts fair in Edmonds, Washington.
70. Coffee trees are evergreen and grow to heights above 15 feet but
are normally pruned
to around 8 feet in order to facilitate harvesting.
71. Coffee trees produce highly aromatic, short-lived flowers producing
a scent between
jasmine and orange. These blossoms produce cranberry-sized coffee
cherries. It takes four
to five years to yield a commercial harvest.
72. Coffee beans are similar to grapes that produce wine in that they
are affected by the
temperature, soil conditions, altitude, rainfall, drainage and degree
of ripeness when
picked.
73. Brazil accounts for almost 1/3 of the world's coffee production,
producing over 3-1/3
billion pounds of coffee each year.
74. Coffee is grown commercially in over forty-five countries
throughout the world.
75. Hawaii is the only state of the United States in which coffee is
commercially grown.