What is coffee?
A: Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of
berries from certain flowering plants in the Coffea genus.
Coffee is darkly colored, bitter, slightly acidic and
has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to what?
A: Its caffeine content.
Why are sugar, sugar substitutes,
milk or cream are
often used?
A: To lessen the bitter taste or enhance the flavor.
A commercial establishment that sells prepared coffee
beverages is known as a what?
A: Coffeehouse or coffee shop (not to be confused with Dutch coffeeshops
selling cannabis).
What are the two most commonly grown coffee bean types?
A: C. arabica and C. robusta.
Coffee plants are cultivated in how many countries?
A: Over 70.
As of 2018, what country was the leading grower of
coffee beans, producing 35% of the world total?
A: Brazil.
It is one of the most valuable commodities exported by
who?
A: Developing countries.
Green, unroasted coffee is the most traded agricultural
commodity and one of the most traded commodities overall, second only to
what?
A: Petroleum.
Despite the sales of coffee reaching billions of
dollars, those producing the beans are what?
A: Disproportionately living in poverty.
The term coffee pot dates from when?
A: 1705.
The expression “coffee break” was first used in what
year?
A: 1952.
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking or
knowledge of the coffee tree appears when?
A: In the middle of the 15th century in the accounts of Ahmed al-Ghaffar in
Yemen.
It was here in Arabia that coffee seeds were first
what?
A: Roasted and brewed in a similar way to how it is prepared now.
Coffee was used by Sufi circles to stay awake for what?
A: Their religious rituals.
Coffee became more widely accepted after it was deemed
a Christian beverage by whom?
A: Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the "Muslim drink".
When did the first European coffee house open in Rome?
A: In 1645.
Who was the first to import coffee on a large scale?
A: The Dutch East India Company.
During the 18th century, coffee consumption declined in
England, giving way to what?
A: Tea-drinking.
During the Age of Sail, seamen aboard ships of the
British Royal Navy made substitute coffee by doing what?
A: Dissolving burnt bread in hot water.
Coffee has become a vital cash crop for whom?
A: For many developing countries.
Over one hundred million people in developing countries
have become dependent on coffee as their what?
A: Their primary source of income.
Coffee plants grow within a defined area between what?
A: The tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, termed the bean belt or coffee belt.
Robusta coffee tends to be bitter and have less flavor
but better body than what?
A: Arabica.
Robusta strains also contain about 40–50% more what
than arabica?
A: Caffeine.
Consequently, this species is used as an inexpensive
substitute for arabica in many what?
A: Commercial coffee blends.
Good quality robusta beans are used in traditional
Italian espresso blends to provide what?
A: A full-bodied taste and a better foam head (known as crema).
On average it takes about how much water to grow the
coffee beans needed to produce one cup of coffee?
A: 140 liters (37 U.S. gal).
Used coffee grounds may be used for what?
A: Composting or as a mulch.
They are especially appreciated by what?
A: Worms and acid-loving plants such as blueberries.
