Coffee Facts and Gourmet Coffee Figures

Some great gourmet coffee trivia:

* The Boston Tea Party was planned in a coffee house - the Green Dragon Coffee House

* One Coffee Tree or plant in its normal harvest will produce enough coffee cherries to make one pound of coffee bean

* 27% of U.S. coffee drinkers and 43% of German drinkers add a sweetener to their coffee.

* The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil with over 3,970 million coffee trees. Colombia produces alot of gourmet coffee for its size - coming in second in the world with around two thirds of Brazil's production of gourmet coffee.

* Hard bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.

* Arabica and Robusta trees can produce crops for 20 to 30 years under proper conditions and care.

* Most coffee is transported by ships. Currently there are approximately 2,200 ships involved in transporting the beans each year.

* In Turkey a husband who refused to provide his wife with a mocha latte could be divorced by her!

Next to the United States Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee in terms of volume at 16 pounds per person. Second to the United States at 19 pounds per person.

* Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.

* An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.

* The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil the gourmet coffee producing a bitter tasting brew - alot like Starbucks coffee today. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their gourmet coffee.

* With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.

Cowboys use to roast coffee over an open fire. It wasn't until the 70's that batch roasting became popular.

* Each year some 7 million tons of green beans are produced world wide. Most of which is hand picked.

* The popular trend towards flavored coffees originated in the United States during the 1970's.

* October 1st is the official Gourmet Coffee Day in Japan.

* The first coffee tree in the Western Hemisphere was brought from France to the Island of Martinique in the 1720's

* China drinks 70 times as much tea as coffee

* Coffee trees are not grown anywhere in the continental US but can be found in Hawaii. Due to the high costs of land the coffee is sold at quite the premium falsely convincing people it is a premium grade coffee

* Coffee beans can be eaten raw or raw in chocolate - deliverying twice the punch and caffeine as brewed coffee