couple enjoying coffee at a table

26 Things About Coffee You Wish You Did (And Didn’t) Know

If you are like me, a coffee addict (tea addict as well, but that is for next time), then you will understand the great understanding for a freshly brewed, aromatic cup of liquid caffeine. For many, coffee is the essential bonk on the head you need to roll out of bed each morning.

While you’re brewing your morning sunshine, think about this: more than 1400 million cups of coffee are consumed daily, and coffee is the most traded global commodity after oil. So, what makes humanity so obsessed about coffee all across the world?

Let’s begin with the ancients, who started it all…

1. Goats in Ethiopia are believed to have discovered coffee.

A goat-herder in Ethiopia noticed that his goats, after eating ripe coffee berries, were starting to “dance”.

Whether or not they were doing the macarena, the dancing goats surely got the attention of the Oromo of Ethiopia, who made energy bars from ground coffee beans and animal fat sometime in the first millennium. Energy bars in the first millennium… hm. Which leads us to…

Coffee was originally food.

Who would have thought? During the Civil War, soldiers brought coffee beans as ration. But coffee was also…

2. The First Webcam Celebrity

The world’s first webcam was set up because students at the University of Cambridge wanted to keep watch over an ever-emptied pot of coffee. This coffee pot was also the first to achieve international webcam fame. The webcam, named Trojan, was online from 1991-2001, and yes, millions watched this coffee pot. Keep in mind this was before the internet became “a thingie”.

3. Coffee loses 70% of its taste within 2 minutes of brewing.

And after 15 minutes, forget it!

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4. Be aware… the grande/medium 16-ounce coffee at Starbucks has the caffeine equivalent of 9.5 cans of coke. Whew.

5. People in NYC drink 7 times as much coffee as everyone else.

That said….