Stop and Smell the Coffee?

Smelling the roses. You might say that it's a waste of time. How about smelling the coffee? Did you know that Americans consume the most coffee in the whole world?

Also....

• Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee in terms of volume at 16 pounds per person.
• Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.
• An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.
• The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil the coffee producing a bitter tasting brew. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their coffee.
• With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.
• Up until the 1870's most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire. It wasn't until recent times that batch roasting became popular.
• Each year some 7 million tons of green beans are produced world wide. Most of which is hand picked.

I have a question for all the people out there....Why do some parents feel that coffee is a bad thing? I mean some one, the coffee makes you short theory is out of here faster than a speeding bullet.

Other Myths according to CoffeeGeek...

1) The best coffees in the world come from Italy.

Actually, unless someone is growing coffee as an indoor plant, no coffee is grown in Italy at all. Italy's coffee fame rests on its coffee companies abilities as roasters and blenders for espresso. There is no doubt that the average Italian regards coffee as one of life's essentials, but at the same time there are few Italian coffee connoisseurs. As long as the coffee is of a certain standard it will be acceptable (and cheap!) The end result is that most of the green coffee going in to Italy is "good average" at best rather than specialty grade, and most of the roasted coffee exported is designed to give a consistent "good average" espresso.

Despite what it says on the packets, roasted AND ground coffee from Italy is normally designed to be used in Moka Pots rather than espresso machines.

This is just one... For more go to :

http://www.coffeegeek.com/opinions/alanfrew/07-15-2002

All this beverage talk has gotten me hungry (or should I say thirsty) to learn more....Have some fun with coffee by starting your own "Coffee Tycoon" at http://www.coffeetycoon.com .

Coffee: The American's best friend!

WHY DO WE TRY TO IMPRESS??

I know a lot of people who kill themselves just trying to get better grades or to impress their parents. What is it that drives us to do things for someone else? Why can't we just do things for our selves. Even though this might seem a little selfish it is very true. We should be doing things to make ourselves happy. We shouldn't find great jobs because we want to impress some one. We shouldn't try to get into great colleges just to make our parents love us. They should already love us, and people should be impressed by you for who you are and what you do. But then again if we weren't being pushed all the time we wouldn't get anything done. Our lives would be lived out in the dumps.

YAHOO ANSWERS

This is so cool. It's like a game. You can ask people questions. When people answer your questions you recive an email about it. When you start out you get a 100 points and you get points taken off, depending on how many words you use. Then you get 2 points everytime you answer a question. I think it's fun becasue you can see what probs other people have and maybe get your Q's answered!!!! It's really helpful for those clueless people like me!!!