A Really Fine Presentation

Coffee is loved worldwide. There are not too many drinks that inspire the love and devotion that coffee does. Actually coffee the second most consumed beverage in the world after water. Just look on the Internet - a Google search for "coffee" generates nearly 175,000,000 (yes, that's one million!) Results. So what's the big deal? Maybe some interesting facts will give you some clues:

1st The three biggest coffee drinker in the world are Americans, French and Germans. They use nearly 65% of total world consumption of coffee. Worldwide annual coffee consumption is 400 billion cups and continues to grow. In 2005, coffee the seventh largest legal agricultural export in the world values.

2nd In the U.S. alone, we drink 400 million cups each day, or 35% of the world's total. Statistics show that 54% of the adult population drinks coffee cups on a daily basis and another 25% of all Americans drink it occasionally. This means that more than three-quarters of U.S. adults drink coffee.

3rd Men drink as much if not more coffee than women. In 2000 a reported National Coffee Association study, the average consumption of coffee is about 1.9 cups of coffee a day for men and 1.4 cups per day for women, when looking at the total population. But when you look at coffee drinking is only the average consumption increased to approximately 3.1 cups per person per day.

4th Coffee is actually a fruit and grows on trees (although often called flora). Coffee trees are not fast growers. Actually, it takes five years for a coffee tree to reach full maturity. When it is grown, each mature coffee plant yields about 5 pounds of green (un-roasted) coffee beans annually. This results in less than a pound of coffee beans after roasting. It takes about 4,000 coffee beans to produce a pound of coffee and approximately 50 coffee beans to produce a cup of coffee.

5th Although it tastes "stronger", dark roasted coffee actually has LESS caffeine than medium or light roast. The longer a coffee is roasted, the darker it gets, the more caffeine burns off during the process. Also contrary to popular assumptions, espresso coffee actually contains about a third of caffeine in a brewed coffee. This is partly due to espresso are typically made using top premium arabica beans, which have a lower caffeine content than robusta beans, available in many coffee blends used for standard brewing. Also in the espresso brewing method, water is in contact with the ground for only 20 to 25 seconds and extracts less caffeine than methods that bring water into contact with the ground for several minutes.

6th A cappuccino is an Italian coffee drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed milk foam. The Italian name "cappuccino" comes from the long, pointed cowl, or cappuccino, it was worn as a part of the habit of the Capuchin Order of Friars. In Italian, the word also describes cappuccino espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream, because color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin monk. Some people also believe that the term relates to the aspect of a monk's tonsured (white) head, surrounded by a ring of brown hair.

7th The term "Joe" when referring to the coffee comes with that coffee has long been a favorite drink among U.S. soldiers. Soldiers in the Civil War, for example, were issued rations of coffee they brewed in water over camp fires. During WWII, American soldiers were given rations and instant coffee were known to consume large quantities of coffee. Since these soldiers were known as "GI Joes", the term "cup of Joe" was adapted to describe a cup of coffee.

8th Caffeine can improve athletic endurance and performance. Until 2004, caffeine on the IOC list of banned substances. Athletes tested positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine (about 5 cups of coffee) were excluded from the Olympics. Although caffeine has been removed from the list of banned substances, disagreement continues as experts differ in their opinions about whether caffeine consumption on the day of performance can give an athlete an unfair advantage or not.

9th For all of its own products, sell 7-Eleven more fresh-brewed coffee than anything else -1 million cups each day. It's more than 10,000 pots of coffee an hour every hour of every day for years. Starbucks' sales figures are even more overwhelming. While Starbucks is no longer releases its sales information to the public, it is estimated that it sells more than 4 million of coffee a day.

10th Coffee can be good for you! Coffee can increase the effectiveness of pain killers, reduce headaches and can help combat asthma, possibly because of the enhanced adrenal effects from caffeine. Coffee may reduce risk of certain cancers and Parkinson's disease. Recent studies have shown that caffeine reduces the incidence of diabetes by 54% for men and 30% for females. Finally, the coffee's stimulant effects and fat burning potential is some in the medical field pushing it as a means to lower the incidence of heart disease.

Coffee is a really great drink with a long history and a worldwide following. These 10 conditions represent only a tiny fraction of the information related to coffee that affect every conceivable aspect of life - history, culture, health, wealth, business, pleasure, and more. No wonder coffee inspires awe and fascinated that it does!