As the story goes, in the early centuries of the first millennium AD, Ethiopian goat herders noticed that their goats became more excitable after munching on the cherries of a particular tree, which turned out to be the coffee tree. When the lucky goat herders tried the coffee tree cherries, they felt the caffeine jolt. That’s how coffee was discovered. 

We don’t know whether the story is true. No ancient scribe has described hyperactive goats. But, historical evidence suggests that sometime by the year 800, the cherries, beans and other parts of the coffee plant were consumed in their raw form as an energy booster. The medieval red bull.

  • By the 13th century the people of Arabia roasted and drank coffee. and by the 14the they were cultivating coffee trees.
  • Humans consume close to 13 billion pounds of coffee (over 7 billion kg) per year.
  • Finns consume the most coffee per capita — over 26lb or 12 kg — annually. That is enough coffee beans to make almost 55 gallons (200 liters) of coffee, 1,100 cups of coffee, or almost 1,700 single espressos. That is almost 5 espressos every day for a year.
  • Americans, who are not near the top of the coffee drinkers list, still consume more than 9lb of coffee per person annually
  • Coffee is second only to crude oil as an export commodity in the world.
  • Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer, producing over 30% of the world’s coffee beans.
  • It takes roughly .25oz (7g) ground coffee to make one 1oz shot of espresso; .4 oz (11g) ground coffee to make one 8oz cup of drip coffee.
  • One pound of roasted coffee beans makes 64oz of espresso or 40 cups of drip coffee.
  • A roasted coffee bean weighs 3 to 6 thousandths of an ounce (0.12-0.17g.)
  • Caffeine content in coffee may dramatically vary depending on coffee varieties, coffee strength and other factors. 
  • On average, a cup of drip coffee has around 150-200mg, while a single espresso shot has 90-110mg.
  • For comparison, a 12oz can of caffeinated soda contains about 35mg of caffeine, with some high caffeine sodas containing more than 50mg of caffeine per can.
  • There are two main commercial coffee varieties — Arabica and Robusta — with several sub-varieties. 
  • Arabica coffee accounts for around 70% of the world’s coffee consumption. It is milder, less caffeinated, and pricier of the two. Arabica is the descendant of the coffee tree that the Ethiopian goats tasted more than thousand years ago.
  • The Robusta variety is hardier, tastes stronger and has more caffeine. It is less expensive.
  • However, Kopi Luwak coffee, a robusta variety is the most expensive coffee bean.
    • Coffee cherries apparently are a favorite snack for civets, small furry creatures with pointy years that live in Indonesia.
    • The enzymes in a civet tummy alter the taste of the coffee beans, but the beans are not digested. Instead, the civets poop the indigested beans.
    • The pooped beans are collected, cleaned, prepared, and become Lopi Luwak coffee. selling for upwards of $300 per lb. (of half a kilo).
    • Kopi Luwak literally means “civet coffee” from the Indonesian words for civet (Luwak) and Coffee (Kopi).
    • 0.004 oz to 0.006 0.12 and 0.17 grams