1. Coffee is a fruit!
Before becoming the small dark brown coffee bean that you’re familiar with, coffee starts off as a bright red (or yellow depending on variety) “cherry”. The cherry is edible and can taste like raspberry, watermelon, hibiscus or even tobacco. However, used as is, it can have a slimy texture which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea! If you can get past the texture, the coffee cherry has some great health benefits as it’s packed full of antioxidants!
The Coffee Brewmasters produce an extract of the cherry that is packed full of antioxidant goodness
2. Coffee likes the high life!
Coffee plants grow well in a range of different conditions, but seem to really thrive at high altitude. The higher the coffee plant is grown, the more depth and flavour of the bean! At higher elevation, temperatures are colder and the plant takes longer to grow. This leads to more time for the bean to develop and build its flavour profile. The coffee plant grows to around 5m tall and has glossy green leaves and white flowers which smell a little like jasmine.
3. The coffee plant also makes tea
In fact, the coffee plant produces two very different types of tea. The coffee leaf is made into a tea after being roasted and ground or crushed. The resulting tea is similar to green tea and is very popular in Ethiopia where it is called kuti.
The second type of tea made from the coffee plant is using the dried skin of the coffee cherries - this is known as cascara tea. Cascara tea is known to be great for digestion.
4. Drinking coffee was once punishable by death!
Thankfully, we don’t live in the 1600’s. During the 17th century in Istanbul, drinking coffee in public could see you executed immediately. This law was imposed by the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV, due to his strong conviction that coffee consumption was the cause of “social decay and disunity” amongst his people. It is said that Murad IV would slink through the streets of Istanbul in disguise and personally decapitate anyone he came across who was drinking coffee.
5. Drinking coffee is an ancient practice
No one knows exactly when coffee was first consumed by humans but the earliest evidence of coffee drinking dates back to 800 AD! So, we’ve been drinking coffee for over 1,000 years! Ethiopia is widely regarded as the birthplace of coffee and is still a huge coffee producer today. Legend has it that a goat herder called Kaldi first discovered the energy-producing benefits of the coffee bean after his goats ate the whole cherries and became so energetic they couldn’t sleep!
6. Coffee drinkers generally live longer
We love this one! A 2018 study gathered the coffee drinking habits of half a million people in the UK and found that those who drank coffee daily were less likely to die than those who did not. Surprisingly, in the study, even people who drank 8 cups of coffee per day had less risk of death than people who drank no coffee. It wasn’t a small difference either - they found that coffee drinkers were 14% less likely to die during the 10-year period of the study.
Live well with our Pure Colombian!
7. The best coffee in the world comes from cat poo. Pardon?
You heard right. For a while, the most coveted coffee in the world was produced after an Asian jungle cat (called a civet) ate the coffee cherries and then excreted the beans in its faeces. Apparently the coffee is so good because the civet selects only the best cherries, which are then fermented and digested in their gut before being excreted.
Due to the hype around civet coffee (also known as kopi luwak), civets have been trapped and kept in terrible conditions in order to produce the delicacy. As such, this practice is now widely condemned.
8. Coffee actually means ‘wine’
The word coffee is derived from the Arabic word for wine, which is kahve. Coffee is still known today as the “wine of Arabia”. After its discovery in Ethiopia, coffee made its way across the Red Sea to Mecca, where the very first coffee house was established in 1511.
9. One cup of black coffee has only 1-2 calories
Black coffee is often used to help overweight and obese people with weight management. A single cup of black coffee has just 1 or 2 calories and the high caffeine content helps to burn even more calories, particularly just before exercise.
10. Brazil is the biggest coffee producer in the world
While Colombia and Ethiopia are often thought to be the largest coffee growers, it is in fact Brazil that produces the most coffee in the world. Brazil’s climate makes it the perfect place for coffee to grow and over 2 million hectares of Brazil’s land is dedicated to coffee plants. Both Arabica and Robusta varieties are produced, with approximately 43 million bags of coffee a year coming from Brazil. This is equal to about a third of the world’s entire coffee.
You Be The Barista products come from 100% Colombian Arabica beans. They’re our preferred choice because of their chocolate, nut, berry and fruity flavour notes.
