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!
