Interesting Coffee Quotes and Facts

Some archaeological evidence shows that humans were eating the coffee berries as long ago as a hundred thousand years.

One legend says that a goat herder in Ethiopia observed his charges eating the red berries from a nearby tree and became excited. Trying them himself, he too felt a great lift. By 600 AD that magical berry, and the brew made from drying and grinding its seeds, had found its way to what is now Yemen, on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.

Stories tell of a native of India smuggling the precious seeds of the tree out of Arabia around 1650 AD, then planting them in the hills of Chikmagalur. Arabian law forbad the exporting of beans that could germinate, effectively controlling coffee trade for centuries. Whether myth or history, the fruit of those seeds now forms a third of India's large coffee output.

- The first Espresso machine was introduced in 1822 by the French, but it was the Italians who perfected and distributed it.

-There is less caffeine in dark roast than in medium roast. It is because, the longer the beans are roasted, the more caffeine burns off.

- During the American Civil War, soldiers, having used up all their coffee supplies, used roasted sweet potato and Indian corn as a substitute.

-On the contrary to popular belief, coffee does not grow in plain brown beans. It actually grows in red berries, which normally carry two green beans each. Sometimes there's only one bean in the berry - this single bean is called a peaberry.The coffee berries are often called cherries.

-Cowboy coffee? well, yes, cowboys are said to have had one of the most peculiar ways of making coffee - they put ground coffee in a clean sock and put in a pot of cold water over a campfire.

- Ants don't like coffee, so you can use coffee to keep them away from you plants or out of your rooms. Just put the used coffee grounds around the plants or on the ant tracks in your house.

-When Admiral Josephus "Joe" Daniels became Chief of Naval Operations he forbid to serve alcohol on board ships. As a result, coffee became the drink of choice, thus the term "Cup of Joe".

-At first in Europe the coffee was known as Arabian Wine.

-When beans begin to cool after roasting, they release approximately 700 chemical substances which make up the vaporizing aromas.

-The most expensive coffee in the world is called Kopi Luwak. Kopi is the Indonesian word for the coffee and luwak is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet. Also known as Civet coffee it is made from coffee berries that have been eaten and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The beans inside the berries pass through the system undigested and are then defecated. The beans are then washed and given only a light roast to avoid destroying the complex flavors that are developed through the process.

-The word "coffee" entered the English language in 1598 via Italian word caffé, which in return is derived from Turkish kahve that came into being via Arabic qahwa, a truncation of qahhwat al-bun meaning wine of the bean.

-The first coffee house was opened in 1471 in Istanbul and was called Kiva Han. The first European coffee house was opened in Italy in 1645.

-At first coffee was mostly grown in Ethiopia where it was cultivated by highlanders.

Amount of caffeine in one average cup (200 ml/7 oz):

Brewed coffee: 60-130 mg
Instant coffee: 65-100 mg
Decaf coffee: 2-5 mg
Black tea: 40-50 mg
Green tea: 15-25 mg
Hot chocolate: 3 - 35 mg

Shot of espresso (30ml/1oz) contains 25-30 mg caffeine

Red Bull Energy Drink (250 ml/8.3 oz): 80mg
Can of Cola (350 ml/12 oz): 35-45 mg

Dark chocolate: (100 g/3.3 oz) 66 mg
Milk chocolate: (100 g/3.3 oz) 20 mg

Do you know how helpless you feel if you have a full cup of coffee in your hand and you start to sneeze?
- Jean Kerr

I put instant coffee in a microwave and almost went back in time.
- Steven Wright

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
- Abraham Lincoln

I don't have a problem with caffeine. I have a problem without caffeine!
-Unknown

I like my coffee strong, not lethal!
- M*A*S*H

I bought a decaffeinated coffee table, you can't even see a difference.
-Unknown

Caffeine isn't a drug, it's a vitamin!
-Unknown

Forever: Time it takes to brew the first pot of coffee in the morning.
-Unknown

You know you've been playing too much Nethack when you refer to coffee as a potion of sleep resistance.
-Sweeney Todd Lundgren

In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running.
-Jeff Bezos

Retirement is one great big giant coffee break.
-Unknown

A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.
-Paul Erdos

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee.
- Flash Rosenberg

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
- Unknown

A girl in a bikini is like having a loaded pistol on your coffee table - There's nothing wrong with them, but it's hard to stop thinking about it.
- Garrison Keillor

Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.
- Earl Wilson

*Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org

Coffee Time Is Anytime Art Print
8 in. x 10 in.
Buy at AllPosters.com

It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity. I bet this kind of thing does not happen to heroin addicts. I bet that when serious heroin addicts go to purchase their heroin, they do not tolerate waiting in line while some dilettante in front of them orders a hazelnut smack-a-cino with cinnamon sprinkles.
- Dave Barry

Over second and third cups flow matters of high finance, high state, common gossip and low comedy. [Coffee] is a social binder, a warmer of tongues, a soberer of minds, a stimulant of wit, a foiler of sleep if you want it so. From roadside mugs to the classic demi-tasse, it is the perfect democrat.
- The New York Times, 1949

The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995

The coffee is prepared in such a way that it makes those who drink it witty: at least there is not a single soul who, on quitting the house, does not believe himself four times wittier that when he entered it.
- Charles de Secondat Montesquieu

Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water.
- The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674

This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.
- Honore de Balzac, "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee"

"The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce."
-Oliver Wendall Holmes Sr.

Almost all my middle-aged and elderly acquaintances, including me, feel about 25, unless we haven't had our coffee, in which case we feel 107.
-Martha Beck

It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your morning coffee. It is a whole lot of trouble, and then not worth much after you get it.
-Zora Neale Hurston

Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, the first often tasting like the second.
-Edward Abbey

When the honour is given to that scientist personally the happiness is sweet indeed. Science is, on the whole, an informal activity, a life of shirt sleeves and coffee served in beakers.
-George Porter

Caffe Espresso Giclee Print
18 in. x 24 in.
Buy at AllPosters.com

I Don't Do Mornings Art Print
10 in. x 10 in.
Buy at AllPosters.com