Coffee
Coffee is a popular stimulant beverage made from the roasted seeds of the Coffea plant, commonly known as coffee beans. The drink is characterized by its dark color and bitter taste, and it is enjoyed in various forms across cultures worldwide. Coffee's origins are often traced back to Ethiopia, with legends suggesting its discovery in the ninth century, and it later gained prominence in the Arabian Peninsula in the mid-fifteenth century. The drink became increasingly popular in Europe during the seventeenth century, giving rise to coffee houses as social hubs.
Health effects of coffee consumption have been widely discussed, highlighting both potential benefits—such as improved liver health and reduced risks of certain diseases—and negative effects, particularly related to caffeine's impact on sleep and nervousness. Coffee production mostly focuses on two species, C. arabica and C. robusta, cultivated primarily in equatorial regions known as "The Bean Belt." The flavor profiles of coffee vary significantly based on roasting techniques, grinding methods, and brewing processes, which can include boiling, filtering, steeping, and pressurization.
Coffee can be served in many ways, from black to a variety of specialty drinks featuring milk or flavors, catering to diverse tastes and preferences. In recent years, concerns over labor practices and environmental impacts in coffee production have led to the growth of the fair trade coffee market, emphasizing sustainability and ethical sourcing.
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Coffee
Coffee is more than just a drink; for many it is a passion. Whole cultures revolve around the black beverage, known colloquially as "java," and whether it is served as espresso or brewed.
Despite many years of negative media attention concerning coffee as a detriment to one’s health, certain medicinal benefits are widely accepted. Recent studies have shown that a cup of caffeinated coffee can benefit the liver, may lower risk of heart attacks by significantly improving one’s blood flow, may cut the risk of colon cancer, and may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
However, the negative effects of coffee are also well-known. A 2015 study found caffeine upsets the body’s internal clock and can disrupt one’s sleep. Excessive consumption may cause stomach ulceration, and in many drinkers it can cause trembling and nervousness. Decaffeinated coffee is treated with chemicals and is not in fact caffeine free.
History
The origin of coffee is not clear, and there are many versions of its beginnings. Researchers trace the discovery of coffee to the forests on the Ethiopian plateau, where legend has it that a goatherd first discovered the effects of these beans after noticing that his goats became animated when eating berries from a certain tree. The goatherd passed on his findings to the abbot of the local monastery, who tested the berries in a drink and found that he could stay up all night in prayer without feeling drowsy. The other monks at the monastery caught on to the effects of the berries; eventually word spread to the Arabian Peninsula where the first coffee cultivation took place.
By the sixteenth century, coffee was being grown throughout the Near East, and travelers and traders brought the drink with them to Europe. By the seventeenth century, coffee houses sprang up and became centers of social activity in the major European cities of England, Austria, France, Germany, and Holland.
Coffee arrived in New Amsterdam (New York) in the mid-1600s, and following the colonists’ revolt against a heavy tax on tea imposed by King George III of England, known as the Boston Tea Party, coffee took over as the drink of preference in colonial America.
By 1727, coffee had reached South America. Although its cultivation did not become popular until Brazil’s independence in 1822, the country began clearing tracts of rainforest from the area around Rio and later São Paulo for coffee plantations, becoming the largest producer of coffee in the world by 1852. Brazil continues to dominate world production, and for a period of one hundred years—from 1850 to 1950—it exported more coffee than the rest of the world combined. Since then, other countries, such as Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Colombia, have become major coffee producers and exporters.
Today coffee is the most sought commodity in the world after crude oil.
Impact
According to the latest statistics, the world consumes close to 2.25 billion cups of coffee every day, with the Netherlands beating the record as the world’s largest per capita consumer of coffee, averaging 2.4 cups of coffee per person per day. Fifty-four percent of Americans drink at least one cup every day, spending an average of US $1,092 on coffee each year.
The ideal conditions for coffee trees to thrive are found along the equatorial zone located between latitudes 25 degrees north and 30 degrees south, frequently referred to as "The Bean Belt."
Everything about the coffee plant affects the flavor of the coffee bean, including plant type, soil chemistry, atmospheric condition, especially the amount of rainfall and sunshine, and the altitude at which the coffee grows. The complex combination of these factors distinguishes the taste and quality of one variety of coffee from the next.
Coffee derives its flavor and fragrance from roasting and brewing. During roasting, oil locked inside the beans begins to surface. The different oils create the flavors of the coffee. The amount of a crystalline compound—known as caffeine—found in tea and coffee plants increases as the water in the boiling process spends more time in contact with the coffee grounds, so different roasts have differing amounts of caffeine. The darker roasts yield more caffeine, and regular coffee often has more than cappuccino or espresso. The more caffeine, the more stimulating the coffee can be. For that reason, it is recommended that caffeinated drinks be avoided at least several hours before trying to sleep.
Caffeine is a common drug and stimulant used primarily in drinks but also in certain foods. The natural plant version acts as a pesticide and kills insects that attempt to feed on the plants. Caffeine is classified as both a drug and a food additive by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is used in both prescription and over-the-counter medicines to treat fatigue and lethargy and to improve the effect of some pain relievers,
Although the consumption of low to moderate doses of caffeine is acceptable, and may even have some proven health benefits, excessive intake over short or long term may have risky health effects in a large number of people.
Today, coffee is grown in more than fifty countries around the world, including Hawaii, Mexico, Puerto Rico, as well as many countries in South America, Asia, and Africa.
Bibliography
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