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Coffee is a popular beverage prepared from the roasted seeds – commonly referred to as beans – of the coffee plant. It is usually served hot but can also be served cold. A typical 7 fluid ounce (ca. 207 mL) cup of coffee contains 80-140 milligrams of caffeine, depending on the method of preparation. Coffee, along with tea and water, is one of the most frequently-drunk beverages, its volume amounting to about a third that of tap water.• Coffee is the second most commonly traded commodity in the world (measured by monetary volume), trailing only crude oil (and its products) as a source of foreign exchange to developing countries.•
Etymology and history The history of coffee begins in the 9th century. It is thought to have originated in the highlands of Ethiopia and spread to the rest of the world via Egypt and Europe. The word coffee is derived from the Arabic word قهوة Qah'wa, over Ottoman Turkish Kahve, which originally meant wine or other intoxicating liquors. Partly due to the Islamic prohibition on drinking alcohol, preparing and drinking coffee became an important social ritual. In the 15th century, Muslims introduced coffee in Persia, Egypt, northern Africa and Turkey, where the first coffeehouse, Kiva Han, opened in 1475 in Constantinople. The stimulant effect of drinking coffee caused it to be forbidden among orthodox and conservative imams in Mecca in 1511 and in Cairo in 1532 by a theological court. In Egypt, coffeehouses and warehouses containing coffee cherries were sacked. But the product's popularity, particularly among intellectuals, led to the reversal of this decision in 1524 by an order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I. From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Europe, where it became popular in the 17th century. Dutch traders were the first to start the large scale importation of coffee into Europe. In 1538, Léonard Rauwolf, a German physician, having come back from a ten-year trip in the Near East, was the first westerner to describe the brew:• These remarks were noted by merchants, who were sensitive to this kind of information through experience in the commerce of spices. English coffeehouses were centers of intellectual and commercial activity. Lloyds of London, the famous insurance firm, was originally a coffeehouse.• Coffee seed types There are two main species of the coffee plant, Coffea arabica being the older one. Coffee is thought to be indigenous to south-western Ethiopia, specifically from Kefa, from which it may have acquired its name. This has led to its use as an inexpensive substitute for arabica in many commercial coffee blends. Compared to arabica, robusta tends to be bitter and has little flavor, with a telltale "burnt rubber" or "wet cardboard" aroma and flavor. Good quality robustas are used in some espresso blends to provide a better "crema" (foamy head), and to lower the ingredient cost. In Italy, many espresso blends are based on dark-roasted robusta. The large industrial roasters use a steam treatment process to remove undesirable flavors from robusta beans for use in mass-marketed coffee blends.• Brazil remains the largest coffee exporting nation, but in recent years the green coffee market has been flooded by large quantities of robusta beans from Vietnam. Many experts believe the giant influx of cheap green coffee after the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement of 1975-1989 with Cold War pressures led to the prolonged pricing crisis from 2001 to 2004.• In 1997 the "c" price of coffee in New York broke US$3.00/lb, but by late 2001 it had fallen to US$0.43/lb. Robusta coffees (traded in London at much lower prices than New York's Arabica) are preferred by large industrial clients (multinational roasters, instant coffee producers, etc.) because of their lower cost. The preference of the "Big Four" coffee companies for cheap robusta is believed by many to have been a major contributing factor to the crash in coffee prices,• and the demand for high-quality arabica beans is only slowly recovering. After the crash, many coffee farmers in Africa, Indonesia and South and Central America lost their livelihoods, or turned to illicit crops such as coca to earn a living. The Dutch brand 'Max Havelaar' started the concept of fair trade Labelling, which attempted to remedy the situation by guaranteeing coffee growers a negotiated pre-harvest price; many smaller roasters and recently Procter & Gamble and Starbucks have joined Fair Trade.• Another issue with coffee is ecological: the American Birding Association has led a campaign for sustainably harvested, shade-grown and organic coffees vs. the newer mono-cropped full-sun varieties, which lead to deforestation and loss of bird habitat. Arabica coffees were traditionally named by the port they were exported from, the two oldest being Mocha, from Yemen, and Java, from Indonesia. The modern coffee trade is much more specific about origin, labeling coffees by country, region, and sometimes even the producing estate. Varietal is a botanical term denoting a taxonomic category ranking below species, a designation more specific than arabica or robusta and unrelated to the coffee's place of origin. Coffees consisting entirely of beans from a single varietal, bourbon, for example, are generally referred to as such, along with a reference to their place of origin (as in: Rwanda Blue Bourbon). Coffee aficionados may even distinguish auctioned coffees by lot number. Most arabica coffee beans originate from one of three growing regions; Central America, East Africa/Arabia and Asia/Pacific. Beans from different countries or regions usually have distinctive characteristics such as flavor (flavor criteria include terms such as "citrus-like" or "earthy"), aroma (sometimes "berry-like" or "flowery"), body or mouthfeel, and acidity. Acidity refers to a tangy or clean-tasting quality, typically present in washed or wet processed coffees. It does not refer to a coffee's pH level. (Black coffee has a pH of around 5).• These distinguishing taste characteristics are dependent not only on the coffee's growing region, but also on its method of process and genetic subspecies or varietal. "Caracoli," also known as peaberry, is a coffee bean which develops singly inside the coffee cherry, which normally contains two. The Caracoli beans occur in all regions of the world, on all types of coffee bush (~4% of all beans). Since flavour is concentrated when only a single bean is grown inside the cherry, Caracoli beans (especially Arabica) are highly prized. Processing and roasting Much processing and human labour is required before coffee berries and its seed can be processed into the roasted coffee with which most Western consumers are familiar. Coffee berries must be picked, defruited, dried, sorted, and—in some processes—also aged. Coffee is usually sold roasted, and the roasting process has a great degree of influence on the taste of the final product. All coffee is roasted before being consumed. Coffee can be sold roasted by the supplier; alternatively it can be home roasted. Everyday alchemy, coffee roasting coaxes golden flavor from a bland bean. Unroasted beans boast all of coffee’s acids, protein, and caffeine—but none of its taste. It takes heat to spark the chemical reactions that turn carbohydrates and fats into aromatic oils, burn off moisture and carbon dioxide, and alternately break down and build up acids, unlocking the characteristic coffee flavor. Preparation
Social aspects of coffee
Other uses Spent coffee grounds are a good fertilizer in gardens because of their high nitrogen content. Starbucks, and some other coffee shops, have a specific policy of giving away their used coffee grounds to gardeners. While they tend to be only slightly acidic, they also tend to improve the acidity of garden soil through the same chemical processes that make sawdust a good fertilizer. Coffee grounds raise soil acidity sooner if they are added fresh, instead of after brewing. Likewise, coffee diluted with four times its volume of water can be used to amend soil acidity, especially useful for tomatoes, chili peppers, blueberries, and other plants that like high soil acidity. The grounds are also used as bait in "Vegas roach traps". Some use coffee to create art. Latte art involves designs in the foam of espresso-based drinks. Arfé is the use of coffee as a coloring for painting or other visual effects. Economics of coffee Coffee is one of the world's most important primary commodities due to being one of the world's most popular beverages. It also has the distinction of being the most-traded commodity in the world, after oil. In total, 6.7 million tonnes of coffee were produced annually in 1998-2000, and the forecast is a rise to 7 million tonnes annually by 2010.• In 2002 in the US, coffee consumption was 22.1 gallons per person.• Health and pharmacology of coffee Many studies have been performed on the relationship between coffee consumption and many medical conditions, ranging from diabetes and cardiovascular disease to cancer and cirrhosis. Studies are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting with respect to negative effects of coffee consumption. In addition, it is often unclear whether these risks or benefits are linked to caffeine or whether they are to be attributed to other chemical substances found in coffee (and whether decaffeinated coffee carries the same benefits or risks). One fairly consistent finding has been the reduction of diabetes mellitus type 2 in coffee consumers, an association that cannot be explained by the caffeine content alone and indeed may be stronger in decaffeinated coffee.• Recently, coffee was found to reduce the chances of developing cirrhosis of the liver: the consumption of 1 cup a day was found to reduce the chances by 20%, and 4 cups a day reduced the chances by 80%. See also Notes | ||||||||||||
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