Fun Facts About Coffee

I love coffee. I love the color. I love the smell. I love the taste. I love research. I love facts. Here, worlds collide. I did some research and dug up some facts about that precious brown liquid that begins so many days for us.

More than half of us choose to start our day with coffee. Bleary eyed and half asleep, even in the dark, we always seem to know where the coffee pot is in our homes. It's like it has a magnet in it and our internal compass just leads us there.

We have coffee mugs and pots at home, at work and isn't it great that our vehicles have cup holders that already fit our commuter tumblers, no modifications needed. Columbia and Brazil produce 40 percent of the coffee on Earth and green, or unroasted coffee is the world's number two commodity behind oil and around 400 million cups of coffee are consumed every day and that number is on the rise. We ask people out on coffee dates and we meet friends for coffee, but have you ever thought about that glorious brown liquid that tastes great hot or cold?

Do you know where some of the names of coffee drinks come from? The word for cappuccino actually comes from robes that Capuchin monks in Italy wore. The color of cappuccino is very similar to the color of the robes that the monks wear and the word espresso (and yes, it's "espresso" not "expresso" as many pronounce it) literally means "when something is forced out" because espresso is made by forcing oil out of the beans. Macchiato translates to "marked" or "stained" because of the way it's made. The espresso comes first and the steamed milk is poured through the coffee and "marks" it. Sometimes it's made with the steamed milk first and the espresso is poured through the foam. You can differentiate the method by looking at the foam and looking to see if there's a dot where the shots were poured in.

Coffee was the first "food" to be freeze dried, which means it was frozen and pressurized at the same time, it was first freeze dried in 1938 and the freeze drying of coffee led to other foods being freeze dried which became extremely important when rations were implemented during World War II.

Coffee is actually a fruit. The beans that are roasted and ground actually come from cherries of the coffea plant. The cherries are picked, processed and dried. There was some controversy among those of the Jewish faith because Jews are not allowed to eat legumes as part of Passover, so the distinction of coffee as a fruit made it kosher for the Passover meal.

The most expensive coffee is actually made from poo. It's called Kopi Luwak and it comes from the Island of Sumatra. It's created when a Sumatran wild cat called the Asian Palm Civet eats and digests the cherries. They're then pooped out, harvested and processed. When all is said and done, the coffee costs about $600 a pound. I wonder if it tastes like crap.

By the way, National Coffee Day is September 29.

How many cups of coffee do you drink every day?