#1 – Discovered by a Goat
Yup you heard right coffee was first discovered by a goat! More specifically a young goat herder by the name of Kaldi in the 9th-century. He noticed his goats acting strange when they ate the cherries from the coffee tree so he tried it for himself. This story does not show up in writings until the 16th-century but I like the story and it sounds very plausible.
#2 – Isn’t just at Starbucks
In today’s pop coffee culture the brand Starbucks has become synonymous with the word coffee in many circles and has become iconic in some peoples mind to the point of insanity. Maybe I am being a little over dramatic but the fact is that some of the best coffee I have ever tasted in my life comes from small coffee roasters that you may have never heard of in your life. So with that in mind the next time you’re looking for coffee in an area you are not familiar with try searching the word ‘coffee’ on your smart phone map instead of the brand ‘Starbucks’.
#3 – Light has more Caffeine than Dark
Contrary to popular belief light roast coffee actually has more caffeine than dark roast coffee. The reason for this is that the longer coffee is roasted the more caffeine cooked out of the bean. I think of it like cooking with wine or alcohol. A good example of this is fondue.
#4 – Espresso is NOT a Bean
Espresso is not referring to a particular type of bean, it is a drink. More specifically it is a type of coffee brewing method. I think a lot of the misconception surrounding espresso developed with products like chocolate coffee espresso beans and espresso blend coffees. People would see those labels and come to the conclusion that espresso was a bean when it reality it’s just marketing.
#5 – Comes from a Cherry
Coffee comes from a tree or bush that bears cherry fruit. The coffee bean is the seed that resides within the cherry. If the coffee itself wasn’t such a valuable and tasty commodity I think we would see coffee cherries in the grocery store. The coffee cherrie’s taste is one of a very delicious tart fruit that some describe as light, honey, sweet, peachy and watermelon.
#6 – It was Illegal
Coffee was declared illegal 3 times by 3 different cultures. The first was in Mecca during the 16th century and the prohibition was lifted after 30 years of debate among scholars and jurists. The second was Charles the II in Europe banning coffee houses trying to quell the ongoing rebellion yet it backfired and was never enforced. (People need their coffee!) The third was Fredrick the Great who banned the beverage in Germany in 1677 because he were concerned with the economic implications of money leaving the country on this new popular beverage. (There are many other examples of religions prohibiting coffee consumption not mentioned here, that still go on today.)
#7 – Over 50 Species
There are over 50 species of coffee world wide. Though only 2, arabica and robusta, are commonly used in commercial coffee production. We have tasted many of the different varieties here at Coffee Cup News and suggest that you try the different varietals and species whenever you get the chance.
#8 – 500 Billion Cups Drunk
Over 500 Billion Cups of coffee are drunk each year and over half of those are drunk at breakfast. (or should I say for breakfast?)
#9 – Fuel Source
Coffee can actually be used to fuel a car. Though maybe not very efficiently at the moment it is nice to know that there is an alternative out there that can not only fuel our bodies but our vehicles too. Here is some info on the coffee fuel test car.
#10 – Second Most Traded Commodity
Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world second to only oil and now that we know it can be used as a source of fuel it probably won’t be to long until it’s number 1. 
Do you know something about coffee that we didn’t list?
pictures by (top to bottom): gari.baldi | sean dreilinger | tonx | mike_tn
Never knew there was so much to know about coffee. Glad to find out that the lighter beans have more caffeine though. I’ve been operating on the opposite.
Light roast here you come?
I didn’t know a lot of details about these facts. Thanks for the interesting tidbits! Great learning something new everyday!
cheers! c(_)
Thanks for the great info
no problem, thanks for commenting.
hey does coffee lead to depression
I don’t know but it makes me happy.
Very irritating typo in #6: “People need there coffee!” ‘There’ should be ‘their,’ because it is referring to people, not a location.
Agreed that typo is irritating! fixed.
Great post, I didn’t know about the 50 varieties of coffee. I initially thought that arabica and robusta were the two broad kinds/genus (insert scientific categorization here), and the other varieties were subsets of those two. Thank you for clearing that up.
no problem jack. I am going to check out your blog post as soon as I am done typing.
Great article. However, you need someone to proofread (and it’s not just the “their/there” mistake mentioned above). I posted this on my facebook page and I think more attention was paid to the grammatical errors than the actual content (my friends and I are bores I suppose).
I’m really not trying to be snarky! I love the little known facts you discussed
Haha, I am glad you had fun regardless. Thanks for the feedback. If you have some you would like to point out I would be glad to change them. Otherwise I just don’t have the time right now to go back through this post myself. Typing another one as we speak.
11. Despite the preponderance of “100% Colombian” blaring from most US coffee labels, relatively little of the coffee imported into the US is from Colombia. Try Indonesia and
Vietnam. “Truth in advertising” is an oxymoron.
I have tried Indonesian but Vietnam I think would be a new one for me. Thanks for the comment.
Great facts, thanks Jason.. and keep up the good work
Thank you!
We enjoy drinking coffee like you will never believe, but we love to the extreme growing it.
that’s awesome! It’s a privilege to having you comment here.
this is a really good list you have compiled. people should bookmark this stuff to see it again. how much time did it take to make this list???
A couple hours. What is your favorite fact?
Thanks for the information, I will be passing these facts on to my friends.
awesome! thanks so much for reading.
Putting coffee in the fridge actually causes it to stale.
Agreed, putting in coffee in the fridge is NOT good.
Cool beans!
These are great facts that a lot of people don’t know about the world’s greatest beverage. However, there are a couple of inaccuracies.
#10 – Second Most Traded Commodity
While Mark Pendergrast shared this with the world in his coffee book “Uncommon Grounds” back in 1991, Mark corrected it in his latest edition. Below is an article he wrote about it:
http://www.coffeeclubnetwork.com/redes/form/post?pub_id=2131
#3 – Light has more Caffeine than Dark
If you take beans from the same tree, and roast some light, and some dark, the caffeine levels with be very similar. Speculation is in the original findings, of two different roasted coffees, that the lighter coffee actually was a robusta coffee bean, which starts out with 2x the caffeine levels of an Arabica coffee bean. However, this has no real way to be confirmed. The following article is more about the roast & caffeine relationship with an interesting talk in volume vs weight:
http://coffeefaq.com/site/node/15
I love the site, and I hope you keep it up for many years.
…just my 2 beans
WO
Hi
I have been researching the history of coffee, for my blog, and have come across some of these facts along my way. It’s quite a fascinating story, and if it wasn’t for stealing and a little espionage, it may not have been one of the most traded commodities in the world today.
How we (who have never been to Louisiana as adults) discovered Community Coffee… We signed up to “adopt” a soldier in Iraq and he was yearning for Community Coffee- (he’s from and now back in Louisiana)… Looked in to it- was able to send him your special packs as well as whole bean- and ordered some for ourselves to try… That was well over a year ago…. We now order coffee and tea profits on a regular basis! Thanks! And “yum!”
Jason,
Your enthusiasm for coffee is awesome and contagious!
I just wanted to point out that in addition to the two facts that WO pointed out as debatable, #7 is inaccurate as well. There are only 3 “species” of coffee: Arabica, Robusta, and (the rare) Liberica. Within these species, there are actually thousands of varieties, in fact the Ethiopian Government has catalogued over 10,000 variety of coffee.
Really amazing when you consider that each has it’s own unique flavor traits, similar to varieties of grape used for wine.
Tom Owens of SweetMaria’s has a wealth of information on his site, particularly this page: http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffeespecies.html
Keep Slurping,
Phil
hey Phil,
Thanks so much!
#7 is accurate according to my research: Those 3 are the only typically sold commercially but there are about 50 species of known coffea trees: http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Coffea
I love your passion for the bean! – cheers: c((__))
While Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world (by far…), Mexico is the largest producer of Organic coffee
Hey, thanks for the blog article.Really looking forward to read more. Awesome.
#3 is scientifically correct, but not physiologically. The amount of caffeine difference is so slight, it can only be measured in a lab. However, in the original tests for this, when shown the difference, they did not account for species difference, just using pre-roasted coffees from store shelves. Back then, light roasted coffee were typically all, or part Robusta beans, which start out with 2x the caffeine of an Arabica bean.
#10 is completely inaccurate. This has been around since Mark Pendergrast said it in his book “Uncommon Grounds” back in 1999. In 2007, updated this as to how he misread the the information.
In actual commodities, coffee falls far behind: petroleum, copper, aluminum, and gold. In vegetation, coffee falls behind wheat, cotton (woven fabrics), meat (and skins), and sugars.
However, if you change the statement to “Of countries which export coffee as part of their GDP, coffee is the second most traded vegetative commodity behind sugars”, then it is more accurate.
Guess I should read through all the comments and see that I made those same comments MONTHS ago. ooops.
coffee is the best mele and leslie likes it
so cool !!!!!!!!!!!! i had know idea what i put in my body everyday could be so important !!!!!!! lol !!!!!!!!!!!! I LIVE FOR THE COFFEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE COFFEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL DIE IF I DON’T HAVE MY COFFEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!! : )
wow,very interesting facts,i myself i work in coffee industry but i have never knew that it was discovered by a goat.Fuel from coffee?i think i need to know much about that.if any one with the description on that please email me at. rbushiry@gmail.com
You need a better editor. You have a verb tense mistake.
Thanks for noticing, where is it located?