Tag: facts

The Coffee Quiz

Posted on by Sara Walker

The Coffee Quiz

Think you’re a caffeine fiend? Find out how much you really know about your favourite drink with our coffee quiz.

1.What are ‘green’ coffee beans?
a. a particular variety of bean, highly prized for their delicate flavour
b. beans that have been harvested and dried but not roasted
c. unripe beans

2. What does ‘cappuccino’ mean?
a. It’s Italian for ‘little hood’ – the drink’s named for the Capuchin monks who wore coffee-brown robes
b. It’s Italian for ‘sweet milk’, and refers to the smooth milky texture of the drink
c. It’s Italian for ‘spice’, as the drinks are often flavoured with nutmeg and cinnamon

3. Which type of coffee is exported and drunk in the greatest quantities?
a. Arabica
b. Robusta

4. What are coffee beans more correctly known as?
a. Stones or pods
b. Pips or pits
c. Cherries or berries

5. How long are coffee beans roasted for?
a. around 7 – 14 minutes, depending on the strength required
b. around 20 – 30 minutes
c. around 1 – 2 hours

6. The cafetière, a simple coffee making device consisting of a glass jug and plunger, is more commonly known in the USA as:
a: an Italian plunger
b. a French Press
c. A German pot

7. When was the first commercial decaffeination process patented?
a. 1951
b. 1975
c. 1906

8. What’s the best place to store coffee?
a. a cool, dark, dry place
b. the fridge or freezer
c. somewhere warm, such as a shelf above the oven or on a windowsill

9. When did the first coffee house open in Britain?
a. 1652
b. 1752
c. 1852

10. What are the ingredients of Irish coffee?
a. brandy, coffee, cream
b. whiskey, coffee, milk
c. whiskey, coffee, cream

Answers:
1 – b; 2 – a; 3 – a; 4 – c; 5 – a; 6 – b; 7 – c; 8 – a; 9 – a; 10 – c

Coffee Inspired Holidays & Vacation Spots

Posted on by Sara Walker


If you consider yourself a coffee lover you probably try to sneak in as much coffee as possible to your life. And not only in the form of freshly brewed cups of coffee to indulge in, but also ice cream, alcoholic drinks and other desserts that have coffee flavour (do you know that you can cook regular meals with coffee as well? Apparently soaking your beef in coffee works great as a tenderizer…). In addition to this there’s coffee inspired art and even paintings made with coffee. Of course there’s also the books, the coffee shops you need to visit and all the gadgets you need to buy…like that brand new espresso machine, or French press… You can actually take it further than this though and go on a coffee inspired vacation. If you love coffee, what better way to spend a holiday than at a coffee farm, or visiting a city where the world’s best coffee is served?

Brazil isn’t just home of one of the greatest carnivals on earth, but also a lot of coffee farms. A lot, a lot! You can combine a visit to the carnival with several visits to coffee plantations. You even have the option of going horseback riding through them!

One place to visit for a splendid coffee vacation is Nicaragua. This Latin American country has a lot to offer its visitors, not least the beautiful mountainous Matagalpa region where coffee is grown. There you can stay in eco-lodges and combine an environmentally friendly (minus the flying) vacation with some great coffee tasting.

Kona coffee is a very rare variety as it is only grown in Hawaii and the islands aren’t particularly big. It is also the only coffee grown in the USA. Of course when visiting Hawaii there are many other wonderful things to do such as watching the whales, visiting the rainforest and going surfing – after all it’s surfer’s paradise.

Italy. What can we say? Home of the espresso and definitively worth visiting for many other reasons also. There is stunning history to be found in Rome and the natural beauty of Tuscany. There’s romance in Venice and enough pasta in every town to make your mouth water!

Interesting, Weird And Amusing Facts About Coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker


As with anything popular coffee has a lot of stories surrounding it. Some true, some fictional and some that are in between the two!

Brazil, one of the biggest coffee growing countries in the world did actually not have any native coffee plants. Instead in 1727 Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta went to French Guiana to mediate a border dispute, but ended up seducing the First Lady. She got so smitten by him during their love affair that as a farewell gift she gave him a bouquet of coffee spiked with seedling! So thanks to love Brazil got their coffee and where would they be without it?

Way back when people didn’t drink coffee – African tribes mixed it with fat to make energy balls.

Coffee is the second most traded commodity on Earth – number one is oil!

Legend has it that Ethipoian farmers discovered the “beneficial” effects of coffee when their goats munched on the beans and started “dancing” and appearing frisky…

At one point in time in the coffee producing country of Brazil, they had such a surplus of coffee they tried making plastic out of it, amongst other things. We are not sure we want to know all the things they tried…

In 1675 the King of England banned coffee as he believed people got together in the coffee houses to say bad things about him…our question is: did he ban the pubs too? Then again, maybe coffee is a more potent ally in war than beer. Beer could make one’s aim a bit…blurry!

Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, got his start doing ads for coffee! Is the Swedish Chef in the Muppets a coffe-o-holic is the natural follow up question!

If you have dark wood furniture you can cover up scratches by dabbing some strong coffee on there with a cloth. Just wipe it down and let it dry a few times until it gets the right colour!

The term Americano comes from the GIs in WWII who asked for espressos that they then diluted with hot water to make them weaker. Thankfully it did not seem to make the soldiers themselves any weaker!