Did You Know…? Coffee
May 1, 2008
After the picking of the coffee beans, the first step is to roast the beans. While the beans are being roasted, the chemicals that store the coffee aromas are separated from the beans and are collected. These aromas will be used to make coffee oil at a later time. Once all the beans have been roasted, they are ground to a powder and mixed with raising agents and sucrose. The powder mix is then fermented for 4 hours at temperatures of 22 Celsius.
The aroma, flavour, caffeine content and taste vary according to the area and conditions the coffee beans are grown in. There are many different types of coffee beans. The two most common are: Arabica and Robusta.
Many years of research and studies claims that coffee has great health benefits. Coffee beans contain a high source of chlorogenic acid (this is a type of antioxidant) a single cup of Arabica coffee contains between 70 and 200mg of Chlorogenic Acid and a cup of Robusta coffee contains between 70 and 350mg.
The average coffee consumer will take-in almost a 1g worth of cinnamate esters, mainly in the form of chlorogenic acid and somewhere in the region of 500mg of cinnamates, this will come from caffeic acid each day. That means you could get nearly 70% of your daily allowance for this group of antioxidants.
Coffee beans are the most exported product, after petroleum. In the East African country of Ethiopia - where coffee has its origins, around 60% of export is coffee.
Did You Know?
*It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity.
*On average, around one pound in weight of coffee is produced by any one tree
*1683 saw the first coffee house in Europe. It was opened in Venice
*Coffee was available in Europe from around 1608, however it was mostly the rich who could afford it.
*A coffee berry typically has two “beans”. Berries that have three beans are believed to be good luck.
*The first instant coffee was invented in 1906 by a Belgian who lived in Guatemala he then immigrated to the United States. Ironically his name was George Washington.
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