Coffee is a fruit

The coffee plant grows from the seed, or bean, and takes three to four years to flower. At five or six years, it yields its first batch of coffee.

Firm green berries grow in clusters along the branches, and ripen into bright red fruit, called coffee cherries. Inside each coffee cherry are two beans. If only one bean grows inside the cherry, it’s called a peaberry.

The average yield of a coffee tree translates to one or two pounds of roasted coffee a year. The tree can grow to forty feet, but most coffee plants are trimmed to a comfortable picking height. Cherries ripen individually, so most coffee is picked by hand.

Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia, in 850 AD

Kaldi was a goatherd of the Galla tribe. Each day he took his goats into the fertile hills, and let them graze as they pleased. One day, the goats were unusually frisky and high-spirited. Kaldi noticed them munching on the juicy red berries of a nearby bush. An adventurous soul, Kaldi sampled the berries himself. Before long, he was charged with energy, and the world seemed a better place. He bounded back to the village to share his discovery.

The edible berries quickly became popular. Members of the Galla tribe ground up the fruit and its tough seeds, and mixed it with animal fat. A chunk of coffee-laced fat was a quick energy snack at home or on the road.

The first coffee shop opened in 1475

The Arabs brought coffee back to the Middle East. By 1100 AD, they had learned to cultivate coffee plants, and brewed a thick, bitter beverage by roasting and then boiling the seeds. The Arabs named their beverage “qahwa”.

Coffee consumption spread to India, Greece and Turkey. The world’s first coffee shop, Kiva Han, opened in Constantinople in 1475. At that time, a Turkish woman could legally divorce her husband if he failed to provide her with the proper quota of coffee.

The classical composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote an ode to coffee in 1732

Bach wrote his Kaffee-Kantate, or Coffee Cantata, in response to an anti-coffee movement in Germany. In the eighteenth century, experts claimed that coffee caused sterility in women, and was harmful to young people and generally bad for one’s health. Artists responded with biting satirical works.

Best known for his uplifting church compositions, Bach flexed his funny bone for the Kaffee-Kantate. A father tries to convince his stubborn teenage daughter, Lieschen, to kick the coffee habit. The girl insists that without coffee, she’ll dry up like a roasted goat.

“Ah! How sweet coffee tastes,” she cries. “Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee!”

Good taste prevailed, and the afternoon ritual of coffee and cake (Kaffee und Kuchen) is still an important part of German culture today.

Marilyn Monroe: The Bride Wore Coffee

Coffee saved the wedding day, when Marilyn Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956. Marilyn planned to wear a cream-colored wedding gown. The day before the wedding, she discovered to her chagrin that her veil was pure white, and didn’t match the gown.

Marilyn was no dumb blonde. She dunked her veil in strong coffee. When she married Miller the next day, the bride wore her beautiful cream gown, with matching coffee-dyed veil.

London’s Penny Universities

In London, England, the first coffee houses opened in the 1600’s. Patrons paid a penny to get in, and coffee was free. Coffee houses carried pamphlets, newspapers and bulletins, and quickly became social centers and meeting places. Runners went from one to the other with the news (and gossip) of the day.

Coffee houses catered to a mix of clientele. Anyone who had a penny could enter, regardless of gender or class. One could learn more in the coffee houses than in the lecture halls, and the establishments soon became known as “penny universities”.

The entire London Stock Exchange got its start as a penny university. Lloyd’s of London began as a coffee house on Tower Street, catering to merchants and sailors.

Sniff This!

Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer, but faces strong competition from Columbia. To promote

its major export, Brazil issued a coffee-scented stamp in December, 2001.

The coffee aroma comes from microscopic capsules of real coffee essence. The microcapsules are captured during a filtering process, mixed with a clear varnish, and applied to the stamp. Scratch the stamp, and release a savory coffee aroma. The stamp keeps its scent for three to five years.

Brazil has some experience with scented stamps. Two years before the coffee stamp, the government released one with a burnt-wood odor, to protest the destruction of rain forests.

A Cup of Joe

In 1919, Josephus “Joe” Daniels was Secretary of the Navy, under President Woodrow Wilson. Shocked by the drunken behavior of sailors, Daniels abolished the officers’ wine mess, and outlawed alcohol on board ship. He ordered the men to drink coffee instead of booze.

A “cuppa joe” was the strongest drink a sailor could have at sea. During World War II, it was frequently said that Navy ships ran on fuel oil, and their crews ran on coffee.

Every ship had unofficial coffee messes, where men would gather for a cup. The “coffee mess” might be a simple electric coffee maker. Battleships could have up to two thousand unauthorized coffee messes on board.

Today, the Navy has coffee roasting plants on both the East and West coasts, and in Hawaii. A ship doesn’t sail without a good supply of coffee for sailors and fleet personnel.

How Healthy Is Coffee?

One cup of drip coffee has about 85 mg of caffeine — more than three times the amount in tea, cola or an ounce of chocolate.

In some cases, the more caffeine the better. People who drink three of more cups of coffee daily are 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. Medication for Parkinson’s now includes a caffeine derivative.

Coffee has more cancer-fighters than tea. Roasting coffee raises the level of antioxidants, and coffee drinkers are 25% less likely to develop colon and other cancers.

A few years ago, a Harvard study revealed that men who drank six or more cups of coffee a day reduced their risk of type 2 diabetes by a whopping 54%. Women reduced their risk by 30%, compared with non-coffee drinkers. A earlier Dutch report showed similar results.

Coffee drinkers have less than half the chance of gallstones, and regular coffee consumption lowers the risk of cirrhosis of the liver by 80%. Heavy drinkers who also drink coffee have a lower rate of liver or heart disease than those who don’t.

Coffee isn’t for everyone. Some people get jittery nerves, tension and trembling hands.

For coffee lovers, the news is good. Enjoy your next cuppa Joe!