Portal:Coffee

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Introduction

A cup of black coffee

Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It has the highest sales in the world market for hot drinks.

The seeds of the Coffea plant's fruits are separated to produce unroasted green coffee beans. The beans are roasted and then ground into fine particles typically steeped in hot water before being filtered out, producing a cup of coffee. It is usually served hot, although chilled or iced coffee is common. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways (e.g., espresso, French press, caffè latte, or already-brewed canned coffee). Sugar, sugar substitutes, milk, and cream are often added to mask the bitter taste or enhance the flavor.

Though coffee is now a global commodity, it has a long history tied closely to food traditions around the Red Sea. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking as the modern beverage appears in modern-day Yemen in southern Arabia in the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines, where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in a manner similar to how it is now prepared for drinking. The coffee beans were procured by the Yemenis from the Ethiopian Highlands via coastal Somali intermediaries, and cultivated in Yemen. By the 16th century, the drink had reached the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, later spreading to Europe. (Full article...)

Two standing men in uniform are seen inspecting a group of three women sitting around a table with one men inspecting the coffee pot. One of the women is hiding a pot under the table. A maid is standing nearby looking at the scene.
Die Kaffeeriecher, based on a painting by L. Katzenstein

The coffee sniffers (German Kaffeeriecher or Kaffeeschnüffler) were a group of about 400 war invalids whose job was to literally sniff out smuggled coffee being roasted or consumed. They were employed between 1781 and 1787 by decree of Frederick the Great during a period when Prussia imposed a high luxury tax on coffee. Prussia did this to keep money in the country, and to encourage domestically-produced alternatives such as beer and chicory.

Besides Prussia, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel also employed coffee sniffers to enforce a ban of coffee instituted in 1766 and tightened in 1774 by Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. (Full article...)
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Water seeps through the ground coffee and the paper filter and is then collected in a container placed below a holder used for drip brewing.
Drip coffee is made by pouring hot water onto ground coffee beans, allowing it to brew. There are several methods for doing this, including using a filter. Terms used for the resulting coffee often reflect the method used, such as drip-brewed coffee, or, somewhat inaccurately, filtered coffee in general. Manually brewed drip coffee is typically referred to as pour-over coffee. Water seeps through the ground coffee, absorbing its constituent chemical compounds, and then passes through a filter. The used coffee grounds are retained in the filter, while the brewed coffee is collected in a vessel such as a carafe or pot. (Full article...)

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Credit: Yongbin
Coffee brewed with a French press

Did you know (auto-generated)

  • ... that the Claudia Quintet was born out of an incident at alt.coffee?
  • ... that the city council of Bandung in the Dutch East Indies initially met at the site of a former coffee-packing factory?
  • ... that during the October 1980 West Nile campaign, rebels were initially hailed as "liberators", only for them to start looting coffee?
  • ... that Justly Watson died suddenly in 1757 from the effects of poison administered in his coffee, it was believed, by a servant?
  • ... that actor Tatsunari Kimura ate pancakes and drank coffee while talking for eight hours during the filming of the television drama Old-Fashioned Cupcake?
  • ... that the Chronicle of the 20th Century was so heavy that it was said to be "the first coffee table book seriously to threaten the well-being of coffee-tables"?
  • ... that the Highfield Cocoa and Coffee House in Sheffield, England, sold tea, coffee and cocoa at a penny a pint and also provided billiards and reading rooms?
  • ... that Steem peanut butter contained as much caffeine per serving as two cups of coffee?

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Roasted coffee beans
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