Coffee Facts

Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages with a rich and interesting history.

General facts:

• Coffee is one of the most consumed drinks after water.
• Coffee is one of the most traded commodities in the world after oil.
• Over 1400 million cups of coffee are drunk around the world each   day.
• The majority of coffee is consumed at breakfast.
• Take your coffee black with no sugar? Then your coffee is practically calorie-free with just 2-5 kcal per cup.
• The two main coffee species grown commercially are Arabica and Robusta.
• A coffee plant can live for between 60 and 70 years.
• It can take up to four years for a coffee tree to reach maturity and bare fruit
• The English word coffee originates from the Arabic word ‘kaweh’ meaning strength or vigour.

• • Legend says a 9th century Ethiopian goat herder Kaldi was the first to drink a cup of coffee.
• • King Louis XIV had the first European greenhouse built to store France’s first coffee tree, known as The Noble Tree.
• • The first coffee house in the world opened in Arabia in the 16th century.
• • The first coffee house in Europe opened in Venice in 1645.
• • The first coffee advertisement was distributed in 1651 in London.
• • The first coffee house in America opened in Boston in 1676.
• • The Dutch began growing coffee on the island of Java, now part of Indonesia, in 1696.
• • The Boston Tea Party convinced Americans to switch to coffee from tea as an expression of freedom.

• Coffee is grown between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
• “Kahveci” is the name given to an expert in preparing Turkish coffee
• The largest coffee beans are found in Nicaragua.
• Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer.
• In Kenya, the best quality coffee beans are graded AA.
• Hawaii is the only US State that grows coffee.
• Brazil issued a coffee scented postage stamp in 2001.
• Franciscan friars brought the first coffee seeds to the Philippines in 1749.

• • The name NESCAFÉ is a combination of the NES in NESTLÉ and the word café.
• • NESCAFÉ was first introduced in Switzerland in 1938.
• • The US Armed Forces were NESCAFÉ brand ambassadors during WWII as NESCAFÉ was part of their rations.
• • NESCAFÉ GOLD BLEND®, which used freeze-drying technology to make soluble coffee, launched in 1965.