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We all favour different drinks to start our morning rituals with. People often drink matcha, fruit juices, and plain water, however, the most famous beverage to kick-start the day is coffee. This delicious drink has been around for ages. It helps us stay alert and productive during the day and makes an enjoyable companion for our gatherings with family and friends. Even though it’s a well-known beverage, there are still a lot of interesting facts about it that many people aren’t familiar with.
Freshly Roasted Coffee Tastes Better
I’m sure you know that everything tastes better when it’s fresh, but does freshly roasted coffee taste better as well? This is a question that requires delving into the chemistry of coffee beans. When they’re roasted at high temperatures, they release a rich number of flavours and aromas. However, once a longer period passes, the chemical structure of the beans starts to change, and they begin to accumulate undesirable flavours.
Buying a freshly roasted coffee bulk lets you get the maximum of the coffee’s aroma and taste. Not only is it more effective at making us stay alert, but it also surprises your senses with aromas you didn’t even know this beverage could have. This is because most of us are used to buying regular bags of coffee that we find on supermarket shelves. When you brew freshly roasted coffees, there’s a build-up and release of carbon dioxide that creates a certain “bloom” of aromas. On the other hand, the exchange of some sulphurous compounds gives it a boost of exquisite natural flavours.
Coffee Dates Back to 800 A.D.
Coffee has been around for longer than we know. There are many theories about how people discovered this drink and started consuming it. The oldest information dates back to 800 A.D. in Ethiopia. A local goat herder noticed how his goats would dance around and get excited after eating a certain type of berries. He then called a monk from a nearby monastery to share his discovery.
After throwing these berries into the fire, they noticed an unusual aroma. They experimented with this plant and ended up boiling the berries and creating the first coffee in history. The monks of the monastery noticed that consuming this beverage keeps them alert for hours at a time – the ideal thing for men devoted to long prayers.
Coffee as ‘Grounds’ for Divorce
I hope you understood the sneaky pun there. Surprisingly, among all the controversies connected with coffee, it was also a reason for divorce in certain countries – namely, Saudi Arabia. Although this country is infamous for its strict attitudes towards women and their rights, it used to have an unusual law that wives were entitled to leave their husbands if they didn’t provide fresh coffee.
Coffee is the 2nd Most Traded Commodity
People drink coffee in such quantities that it’s the second most traded commodity in the world today. This is no surprise, given that the majority of people consume up to four or five cups per day. However, trading statistics show that it surpasses many living essentials and it’s worth well over $100 billion worldwide.
Coffee is a Fruit
This one is a more familiar fact, but yes, coffee is in fact a fruit. It grows in the form of tropical evergreen shrubs from the genus Coffea. The two most popular species of this plant are Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (Coffea canephora). They usually grow in mountainous areas and take 7-11 months to mature. However, manufacturers often plant them on flat landscapes to great success. They extract the seeds from the coffee berries, which they then roast and process. Some even get use out of the flesh of the berries, which they juice and combine with water, or make it into drink powder.
Coffee is Linked to Longer Life Expectancy
This beloved beverage does a lot to help us get through our daily lives, but studies show that it also provides numerous health benefits. The most shocking discovery is that coffee can in fact make you live longer. However, this doesn’t mean stacking up on coffee bulk and drinking 10 cups a day.
A moderate dose of two to three cups is enough to add a few more years to your life span. Apart from this surprising benefit, it’s also rumoured to provide numerous other benefits for your overall health:
- It may lower the risk of getting type 2 diabetes. This is because coffee beans preserve the function of beta cells in your pancreas. These cells produce insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels.
- It may support brain health. Coffee protects against some neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
- It may promote weight management. Studies show that coffee alters the fat storage and helps promote gut health.
- It supports heart health. Drinking three cups a day can reduce the risk of heart disease by 15%.
- It lowers the risk of depression.
What Does ‘Espresso’ Mean in Italian?
Lastly, I’ll touch upon our favourite drink to boost us up on those lazy mornings before a workday. The Espresso is an Italian drink that originated in the late 1800s. The name derives from the word esprimere, meaning ‘to express’ or ‘to press out’. The reason for its appearance was to shorten the brewing time of regular coffee, as a cup of espresso is often done in less than a minute – far less than brewing the usual cup of coffee.
