- Coffee has its different national days in some counties that are actually public holidays. In Japan, for instance, October 1st is 'Coffee Day'. In Ireland, it is September the 19th, and in Costa Rica it is 12th September.There's no such thing in Lebanon, at least not yet!
- A cup of black coffee does not contain any calories if served without sugar, yet is still contains the caffeine. And even if you decide to go decaf, you'll still get some of that caffeine. In fact, if you drink 5-10 cups of decaffeinated coffee, you could get as much caffeine as from 1-2 cups of caffeinated one.
- More than 1.4 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day worldwide and it takes around 40 roasted coffee beans to make just one single espresso shot!
- Caffeine is not the main bitter compound in coffee; it's just responsible for 15 % of the bitterness you taste. The rest is due to antioxidants that form during the roasting the coffee beans.
- The traditional espresso machine was actually invented in France, not in Italy, bummer! However, the Italians took this idea, perfected it & made it their own and nowadays, the best espresso coffee machines are still made in Italy. Note that espresso in Italy is rather too important to be consumed with a meal. It is treated as a separate event and is given its own time after the meal.
- The most expensive coffee in the world comes from Civet poop. Civets are cat sized mammals that only ingest fine ripe berries and excrete them partially digested. Yup the partially digested berries are those fine coffee beans! Believe it or not 1 pound (around 1/2 kg) sells between 120 and 600 $.
- Last but not least, here's a quick mini poster that would help you to decipher all those coffee options next time you're ordering/making one: Make sure to go decaf, get yourself some skimmed milk & lay low on those added sugar, cream, syrups, toppings and chocolate chips! You can read more about what to choose when ordering/preparing your coffee here.
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| Illustration by Lokesh Dhakar |
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Those are things I really didn't know about coffee!! Love the originality of the article!! thumbs up!
ReplyDelete...Point A La Ligne
We should definitely have a Coffee day in Lebanon!!
ReplyDeleteLOL Rabih, can you imagine? Everyone will be so hyper! (unless we take the decaf ones :P)
ReplyDeleteAs a coffee lover, I disagree about switching regular with decaf. Decaf is nowhere as good as non-decaf coffee, but it's ok at night. Sorry but that's the truth :) I also agree about adding sugar, it removes all the good coffee taste.
ReplyDeleteYes but I'm talking from a health perspective, cutting down your sugar & caffeine is certainly advised. So if you're a fan of both caffeinated & sugar, you can enjoy them in moderation & decrease them gradually in your diet; depending on your total caffeine & sugar total intake of course
ReplyDeleteOdd that you lifted Lokesh Dhakar's graphic and neglected to give him any credit:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lokeshdhakar.com/2007/08/20/an-illustrated-coffee-guide/
Hopefully people are kinder with the things you publish.
It's fixed, thanks!
ReplyDeleteKtir habbet haha salbe the Civet poop wel rasme kamena it makes chosing coffee easy
ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice on my blog, and great article. I can't get enough coffee!
ReplyDeleteThe best espresso machines are made in Seattle. The best brands are Slayer, Synesso and La Marzocco.
ReplyDeleteshou salbe the other post, haida only facts bas ltene helo la a3ref shou eshra, fi ktir restriction wlo
ReplyDelete