Coffee

Our old friend Britannica defines coffee this way:

“Coffee is a beverage brewed from the roasted and ground seeds of the tropical evergreen coffee plant. Coffee is one of the three most popular beverages in the world (alongside water and tea), and it is one of the most profitable international commodities.”

Which has basically been the definition of that beverage for centuries, dating back to Ethiopia in the 15th Century, although some legends have the first plants mentioned in historical documents dating back to 850 CE.

What we plan on doing, in this article, is going beyond the basic definition to provide some information we believe will prove interesting to our readers.

Where is coffee produced?

There are two main species of coffee plants which provide the majority of coffee beans in the world, the Arabica and the Robusta.

The Arabica is grown primarily in Latin America, Eastern Africa, Asia, and the Arab region.  The Robusta plant is grown in Western and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and Brazil.

What kind of numbers are we talking about?

Coffee is #3 in the world in consumption of beverages, trailing only water and tea, but in the United States it ranks first.  Approximately 500 billion cups of coffee are consumed yearly.

By the 16th Century, coffee shops began appearing in the European nations, and by the 18th Century, America had tasted the drink favored for its stimulating properties.

The variations based on coffee.

Of course, today, when you ask someone if they would like a cup of coffee, it can be a rather confusing question.  Do you mean a cup of black Folgers, do you mean a latte, a mocha, an espresso, and don’t forget the various flavors which can be added, type of milk, or are we talking blended, iced, or cold brew? 

No matter what you call it, coffee has come a long way since the early days when goats munched on the little berries out in the pastures of Ethiopia.

Fun coffee facts and trivia.

·         The Dutch were the first Europeans to enter the coffee trade. They imported coffee plants from the Malabar Coast of India to their colonies in what were then called the Dutch East Indies, or present-day Indonesia.

·          In 1715, Dutch coffee merchants presented the influential King of France, Louis XIV, with a coffee tree of his own. Millions and millions of trees have sprung from that single tree, thanks in part to Chevalier Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, who stole some cuttings from the tree and began cultivating coffee on Martinique in the Caribbean. Within 50 years, there were over 20 million trees on Martinique and neighboring islands.

·         Although yields vary from harvest to harvest, a single coffee tree usually provides only enough coffee beans in a year to fill a half-kilo (one pound) bag of ground coffee.

·         It takes 3 to 4 years for a coffee tree to mature. Once it matures, each tree will bear one to two pounds of coffee beans per growing season.

·          Light roast coffee has more caffeine that dark roast coffee. The longer coffee is roasted, the more caffeine is cooked from the bean.

·         The Turks call their coffee houses “schools for the wise.”

A final word about Madres Espresso

Madres Espresso is locally owned and operated with two locations, on Cooper Point Road in West Olympia, and on Pacific Avenue on the East side of Olympia. We offer outstanding product and the friendliest service in all of Olympia, served up daily by our thirteen baristas.