Happy Coffee Day!!!

Today is International Coffee Day!!! Yay!

I hope all of you enjoy great Espresso's, Latte's, Cappuccino's, Frappuchino's, Iced Coffee's, or whatever kind of coffee you might like.

Happy Coffee Day!!!!

12 Things You Didn’t Know About Coffee…

With an average of five cups daily, the Finns drink the most coffee per year worldwide. The Germans are second with about four cups daily, followed by the Italians. People in the U.S. only drink about 2.6 cups per day on average.

In large amounts, and especially over extended periods of time, caffeine can lead to a condition known as Caffeinism. Caffeinism usually combines caffeine dependency with a wide range of unpleasant physical and mental conditions including nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremulousness, muscle twitching, insomnia, headaches, respiratory alkalosis, and heart palpitations.

"Kopi Luwak" is the name of the most expensive coffee in the world. It is made of coffee berries that are eaten by the Asian Palm Civet, and passed through its digestive tract. The beans are then gathered, washed, sun dried, light roasted and brewed. Kopi Luwak is produced mainly on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago.

After oil, coffee is second most traded product worldwide.

A roasted coffee bean contains around 800 different aromas (flavors). That makes coffee one of the richest-flavored foods.

Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden (Germany) invented the coffee filter in 1908. Annoyed with having coffee grounds in her cup, she used blotting paper from her son’s school exercise-book and a brass pot perforated by a nail to make the first coffee filter in the world.

The Hamburg (Germany) harbor is worldwide the biggest reloading place (trans-shipment center) for raw coffee: Yearly about 700,000 metric tons of coffee are reloaded. The USA and Germany are the most important coffee import countries of the world.

Prussian king Friedrich the Great enjoyed his coffee best with a lot of pepper. On special occasions, he had is his favorite drink also be prepared with champagne instead of with water.

The Swedish king Gustav II viewed coffee more skeptically. At the end of 18-th century he wanted to prove that coffee consumption is unhealthy. He forced a pair of twins, both sentenced to death, to take part in an experiment. One twin had to drink large amounts of tea, the other coffee. Against expectation both survived the test. At last, the tea drinker died first – at the age of 83 years.

The common perception, coffee would draw water from the body, counts as disproved. The custom to serve a glass of water with coffee, serves only the neutralization of the taste buds.

Coffee is said to have a very anti-oxidative effect. It is said to help in preventing cancer. A recent study from Japan also ascribes a positive influence on the effect of the chemotherapy to caffeine.

September 29 is International Coffee Day!

Dip: Coffee

Today I found a new product, which was put on the coffee market not long ago. I thought it was cool and interesting, so I decided to introduce it to you.

The product is called "Dip: Coffee", and as the name says it is coffee to dip!
Dip: Coffee is freshly roasted, ground, and under protective atmosphere packed Gourmet coffee in a little paper bag.

To prepare the coffee simply take a cup with hot water and dip a bag of the "Dip: Coffee" in it for about 3 minutes, and voila, you have a fresh cup of coffee! The best part about it is that its packing is recyclable and biologically degradable.

Sounds simple and it is simple, but a complex technology and many years of development stand behind this kind of coffee preparation and packing. Even though the coffee bag may remind you of a tea bag, remember coffee is not tea, especially concerning the freshness and the extraction behavior.

I think this product has great potential especially in the outdoor and sports markets. You can take it on a camping, hiking or bike trip and enjoy great coffee wherever you are. It may be just as interesting to hotels and offices.

I will definitely try it when I get a chance! ;)