Good to the last drop!

Ah! Nothing beats the aroma of freshly brewn coffee in the morning. That works as a wake-up call for me in the mornings. This morning it was no different. But today, as I sat there sipping my coffee, I got curious about COFFEE. The three questions: WHY? WHEN? WHERE? started haunting me. To rest my inquisitive mind, I did a search on Coffee. As I found various interesting facts about coffee, I realized that I knew nothing about my simple cuppa. So, I decided to start my blogging journey by dedicating my first blog to my favorite beverage which inspired the lazy me to start blogging. Three cheers to coffee!!! This is for you.


The word 'Coffee' originated from the Italian word 'caffe'. The word Caffe inturn came from the Turkish word 'kahve' which in turn came into being via Arabic qahwa, a truncation of qahhwat al-bun or wine of the bean. Hmm, interesting!

Before the first French cafe in the late 1700's, coffee was sold by street vendors in Europe, in the Arab fashion. The Arabs were the forerunners of the sidewalk espresso carts of today.

Legend has it that an Abyssinian goat herder by name Kaldi noticed that his goats got friskier after eating red berries from a shrub.He did the same and he ended up being happier. Thanks to Kaldi! We got to taste coffee.

Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! -"Coffee Cantata", J.S. Bach

The espresso has an interesting story behind its invention.It happened in 1901, when an Italian factory owner named Luigi Bezzera was looking for a way to speed up his employees’ coffee break time. Figuring that if he could brew the coffee faster, his employees would drink up and get back to work more quickly, he hit upon the idea of using steam pressure to force hot water through the ground coffee. His idea worked far beyond his wildest imaginings – at least in terms of the machine. Bezzera’s idea of forcing water through ground coffee under pressure launched a whole new way of making coffee. The first espresso machine had been born.

Now coming to my favorite filtered coffee, it seems that, Melitta Bentz a housewife from Dresden, Germany, invented the first coffee filter. She was looking for a way to brew the perfect cup of coffee with none of the bitterness caused by overbrewing. Melitta Bentz decided to invent a way to make a filtered coffee, pouring boiling water over ground coffee and having the liquid be filtered, removing any grinds. Melitta Bentz experimented with different materials, until she found that her son's blotter paper used for school worked best. She cut a round piece of blotting paper and put it in a metal cup.On December 15th, 1908, Melitta Bentz and her husband Hugo started the Melitta Bentz Company. Wish I get such ideas!

Legend has it that cowboys made their coffee by putting ground coffee into a clean sock and immersed it in cold water and then heated it over the campfire. When ready, they would pour the coffee into tin cups and drink it.

The percolator which is used by many of us was invented by James Mason.

The aroma and flavor derived from coffee is a result of the little beads of the oily substance called coffee essence, coffeol, or coffee oil. This is not an actual oil since it dissolves in water.

The first coffee shop that is known to have opened was Kiv Han in Constantinople (later Istanbul) in 1475 after being introduced to Turkey two years early by the Ottoman Turks. Coffee soon became a part of social life as coffee shops multiplied rapidly and within a few years there were hundreds of them in the city. People visited these coffee houses to talk, listen to music, watch dancing, play chess and other games, listen to the tales of wandering storytellers, or listen to other learned conversations and, of course, to drink coffee! Coffee houses in Turkey became known as the "Schools of the Wise", because so much could be learned there.

Vincent Van Gogh (a big frequenter of the café society) 'I have tried to show the café as a place where one can go mad.'

The Venetians were the first people to bring larger quantities of coffee into Europe. In 1615, Venice received Europes' first shipment of green coffee beans and the first coffee house there, Caffè Florian, opened in 1683.

The average age of an Italian barista is 48 years old. A barista is a respected job title in Italy.

While gathering this information I got to know another interesting fact. It was the coffeehouses of England that started the custom of tipping waiters and waitresses. People who wanted good service and better seating would put some money in a tin labelled "To Insure Prompt Service" - hence "TIPS". Wow! My favorite beverage has so much to it.


In England, the coffee houses were dubbed "penny universities". It was said that in a coffee house a man could "pick up more useful knowledge than by applying himself to his books for a whole month". A penny was the price of a coffee.

Jonathan’s Coffee House in Change Alley was the birthplace of the London Stock Exchange, and Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House eventually became the headquarters for Lloyds of London, still the world’s most famous insurance company.

The Civil War in the United States elevated the popularity of coffee to new heights. Soldiers went to war with coffee beans as a primary ration.

In 1902, the Barcolo Manufacturing Company – the company that eventually became Barcalounger – officially made a coffee break part of the benefits enjoyed by its employees. According to old newspaper stories, the employees negotiated for a short break in the workday in the morning and afternoon, and one of the employees volunteered to heat up coffee during those times on a kerosene fueled hot plate. Of course, the designation of ‘first official coffee break’ is contested.

Wherever the coffee break originated, Stamberg says, it may not actually have been called a coffee break until 1952. That year, a Pan-American Coffee Bureau ad campaign urged consumers, "Give yourself a Coffee-Break -- and Get What Coffee Gives to You."

Coffee is the largest traded commodity throughout the world - Even greater than Oil!

And of course, coffee shops are the best places to meet someone initially. All you need is to grab a cup of coffee and relax your nerves while you wait for your date. The beauty of coffee date is it is inexpensive and meeting someone over a cup of coffee gives you an opportunity to have a relaxed conversation. Inexpensive and best conversation starter! Imagine sitting with that someone in a coffee shop and a lovely love song playing in the background...Ah! There I go dreaming again! Time to have another cup to wake my senses...

An aromatic start to my blogging ! Good to the last drop!

Pics Source:Acclaim Images,Travel webshots