172 Fun Facts About Coffee

In which country, where wild arabica still grows, did the goat herder Kaldi legendarily discover coffee?

Ethiopia's highlands are where the legend puts Kaldi, a 9th-century goatherd who noticed his flock grew lively after nibbling bright red berries.

Which main commercial coffee species has a delicate flavor, higher acidity and lower caffeine?

Arabica gives a milder, more acidic cup with roughly half the caffeine of robusta; it was the first coffee species cultivated and has long supplied around 60% of the world's crop.

What is the outermost skin of a coffee cherry called?

The exocarp is the cherry's outer skin, ripening from green to red or yellow; beneath it sit the mesocarp pulp, the endocarp parchment and the silverskin.

Which country was the world's largest producer of coffee in 2023?

Brazil's plantations, concentrated in its southeastern states, grew roughly a third of all the coffee on Earth in 2023.

Which processing method cures the whole cherry, fruit pulp and all, in the sun?

The natural, or dry, process involves drying the entire coffee cherry with the fruit still intact. This method often results in coffees with a fuller body and sweeter, fruitier notes.

What is the golden-brown foam that forms on top of a freshly brewed espresso shot?

Crema is the reddish-brown foam that crowns a perfectly pulled shot of espresso. It's formed by air bubbles emulsified with coffee oils and indicates a well-made espresso.

Which brewing method steeps coarse grounds in room-temperature water for 12 to 24 hours?

Cold brew coffee is made by steeping coarsely ground coffee in cold or room temperature water for 12 to 24 hours. This method results in a concentrate that is often less acidic and smoother than hot-brewed coffee.

Which Ottoman sultan banned coffee, tobacco and wine in Istanbul in 1633?

Murad IV banned coffee, tobacco and wine in 1633, treating coffeehouses as nests of sedition; he is said to have roamed Istanbul at night to catch offenders.

Which of these is a common method for decaffeinating coffee beans?

The Swiss Water Process decaffeinates with water and activated-carbon filters instead of chemical solvents; the Burnaby, British Columbia company behind it launched commercially in 1988.

What nickname for coffee comes from the island where the Dutch planted it in the 17th century?

Java, the Indonesian island where the Dutch East India Company planted coffee in the 1690s, shipped so much of Europe's coffee that its name became a byword for the drink.

Which Italian dessert soaks ladyfinger biscuits in espresso and layers them with mascarpone?

Tiramisu layers savoiardi ladyfingers dipped in espresso with mascarpone cream and cocoa; its name is Italian for 'pick me up', a nod to the coffee inside.

What is the audible pop called when roasting beans shed moisture and start to swell?

First crack is the popcorn-like snap when steam bursts the bean at around 196°C; a quieter second crack follows in darker roasts, and most roasters stop between the two.

Which brewer steeps grounds in hot water, then traps them under a mesh plunger?

The French Press, also known as a cafetière, is a brewing method where ground coffee is steeped in hot water, and then a plunger with a mesh filter is pressed down to separate the grounds from the brewed coffee.

What term refers to the professional who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks?

A barista is a person trained in the preparation of espresso and espresso-based coffee drinks. The term is Italian for 'bartender' and has been adopted worldwide for skilled coffee preparers.

Coffee beans are actually the seeds of what type of fruit?

Coffee beans are the seeds found inside the coffee cherry, which is botanically classified as a drupe (a fleshy fruit with a hard pit containing a seed), similar to a cherry or peach.

Which tissue makes up most of the coffee bean itself, rather than a layer of the cherry?

Endosperm makes up nearly all of the coffee seed, wrapping a tiny embryo, much as coconut flesh does; the cherry's own layers are the skin, pulp, parchment and silverskin.

Which 1773 protest made coffee the patriotic drink of the American colonies?

The Boston Tea Party in 1773, a protest against British tea taxes, made drinking tea unpatriotic in the American colonies, leading to a surge in coffee popularity.

What is the common name for the dried fruit of the coffee plant, often used to make a herbal tea?

Cascara, meaning 'husk' or 'skin' in Spanish, refers to the dried skins of coffee cherries, which can be brewed to make a flavorful herbal tea.

Which European city is generally credited with opening the continent's first coffee house, in 1645?

Outside the Ottoman Empire and Malta, the first European coffee house is generally dated to Venice in 1645. Coffee houses spread to England, France and Austria in the decades that followed.

What is the handled basket that holds the coffee grounds in an espresso machine called?

The portafilter is the handled metal basket that locks into the machine's group head; the dose is tamped flat inside it before the shot is pulled.

What is the small cup traditionally used to serve a shot of espresso called?

A demitasse, French for 'half cup', holds roughly 60 to 90 ml and is the traditional vessel for espresso and Turkish coffee.

What is the standard water pressure used to brew a shot of espresso?

The Italian Espresso National Institute specifies 9 ± 1 bar at the entry point and a percolation time of about 25 seconds.

Hypothenemus hampei, the 2 mm 'coffee borer' that can destroy half a plantation's berries, is what kind of insect?

A beetle, and the industry's most damaging pest; insect-eating birds such as the American yellow warbler have been shown to halve its numbers on Costa Rican plantations.

What alkaloid compound, known for its stimulant effects, is naturally found in coffee?

Caffeine is the well-known natural stimulant found in coffee beans, responsible for the energizing effects many people seek from the beverage.

England's first coffeehouse opened in 1650 in which city?

Oxford's first coffeehouse, The Angel, was opened in 1650 by a man known as Jacob; London's first, Pasqua Rosée's in St Michael's Alley, followed in 1652.

The majority of the world's coffee is grown in a geographical region often referred to by what name?

The Bean Belt, also called the coffee belt, is the band between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn whose climate and altitude suit coffee plants.

About how many years does a newly planted coffee tree take to produce its first flowers?

The small, white, highly fragrant flowers appear three to four years after planting, though the tree takes about seven years to mature fully.

Which fungal disease, caused by Hemileia vastatrix, reached Brazil in 1970 and swept Latin America?

Coffee Leaf Rust (Hemileia vastatrix) is a widespread fungal disease that causes characteristic yellow-orange powdery spots on the underside of coffee leaves, leading to defoliation and significant yield loss.

Optimal brewing of coffee is generally said to occur in which water temperature range?

Brewing water of 91–96 °C (195–205 °F) is the specialty-industry standard; hotter water pulls out harsh bitter compounds, while cooler water under-extracts and tastes flat.

The 1952 'Give yourself a Coffee-Break' slogan was a campaign by a growers' bureau from which region?

The Pan-American Coffee Bureau, funded by Latin American growing nations, ran the 1952 'Give yourself a Coffee-Break' campaign that pushed the mid-morning ritual into American workplaces.

Which gas is infused into cold brew to give it a creamy, stout-like head?

Nitrogen, forced in under pressure and poured through a stout-style tap, gives nitro cold brew its cascading bubbles and creamy head, much like a nitro beer.

The coffee break is said to have originated in Stoughton, in which US state, among the wives of Norwegian immigrants?

Stoughton, Wisconsin, claims the coffee break: in the 1880s Norwegian immigrant wives working a tobacco warehouse went home mid-shift for coffee, and the city marks it with an annual Coffee Break Festival.

What does roasting a coffee bean darker do to the total amount of caffeine in that bean?

Beans expand as they roast, so a scoop of dark roast holds fewer beans and a little less caffeine by volume, but each bean keeps what it had.

The Faema E61 of 1961 was a landmark espresso machine because it pressurized the water using what?

An electric pump pushed water to 9 bar in the Faema E61, replacing hand-pulled levers; the machine was plumbed straight into the mains and warmed its group with a thermosiphon loop.

What Italian coffee drink is made by forcing near-boiling water through finely ground beans into a concentrated shot?

Espresso is an Italian coffee beverage created by forcing hot, pressurized water through finely ground coffee, producing a concentrated shot that forms the base of many other drinks.

Which chemist first isolated caffeine, in 1819, naming it 'Kaffebase'?

Two French chemists reported the same compound in 1821, and Berzelius later acknowledged Runge's priority.

In 1658 the Dutch first began cultivating coffee on which island?

Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is where the Dutch East India Company first planted coffee in 1658, decades before its famous Java estates of the 1690s and the spread across the Sunda islands.

Arabica coffee is believed to be a natural hybrid of which two other species?

Arabica arose when two diploid species, Coffea canephora (robusta) and Coffea eugenioides, crossed naturally in East Africa, producing an allotetraploid that carries both genomes.

Which manual brewing method usually starts with a 'bloom', wetting the grounds to release carbon dioxide?

The pour-over method often includes a 'bloom' phase at the beginning, where a small amount of hot water saturates the grounds to release trapped carbon dioxide.

Which coffee roast retains more of the bean's original flavor and tends to have higher acidity?

Due to a shorter roasting time, light roasts retain more of the original flavor of the coffee bean and tend to have higher acidity.

Per Ibrahim Peçevi, which Ottoman city got its first coffeehouse in 1554?

Istanbul's first coffeehouse opened in 1554 in the Tahtakale district, run by Hakam of Aleppo and Shams of Damascus, as the chronicler Ibrahim Peçevi recorded.

By 1860, which country was already the world's largest consumer of coffee in total volume?

Per-capita drinking there doubled between 1860 and 1920, though Belgians and the Dutch drank as much or more per head.

What is the primary way the 'washed' method separates coffee beans from the fruit?

Fermenting in water tanks to remove mucilage follows depulping machines that strip skin and pulp; microbes break down the sticky layer, then it is washed off.

Vietnamese iced coffee is brewed by dripping hot water through a small metal filter known by what name?

The phin is a small metal drip filter that sits on the glass; its slow drip of dark-roast coffee lands on sweetened condensed milk, adopted when fresh milk spoiled in the heat.

Which pope is said to have declared coffee a Christian beverage in 1600?

Clement VIII, pope from 1592 to 1605, is said to have tasted coffee around 1600 and blessed it rather than ban the 'Muslim drink', easing its spread through Catholic Europe.

Who patented the first steam-driven coffee machine in 1884, a precursor to modern espresso machines?

Angelo Moriondo, an Italian inventor from Turin, patented the first steam-powered coffee machine in 1884, designed to brew coffee more quickly.

Which English king briefly outlawed coffeehouses, fearing they were breeding rebellion?

Charles II issued a proclamation in December 1675 to suppress coffeehouses as haunts of 'idle and disaffected persons', then withdrew it within days after a public outcry.

A widely cited 1979 analysis put the caffeine in a 200 ml serving of drip coffee at roughly how much?

115–175 mg in a 200 ml drip serving; a shot of espresso carries about 100 mg in a far smaller volume, so it is stronger per millilitre but a mug of drip delivers more in total.

Which city's coffeehouse legend begins with beans abandoned by the retreating Ottoman army in 1683?

Vienna's legend credits Polish officer Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki with brewing sacks of beans the Ottomans left after the 1683 siege; records show the Armenian Johannes Diodato licensed the city's first coffeehouse in 1685.

Which coffee processing method sits between the washed and dry methods, blending body and acidity?

The honey process depulps the cherry but leaves some sticky mucilage on the parchment while it dries, giving syrupy body, sweetness and rounded acidity between washed and natural coffees.

What nickname did 17th-century English coffeehouses earn for their stimulating conversation?

In 17th-century England, coffeehouses became centers of social and intellectual exchange and were often referred to as 'penny universities.'

Which stovetop brewer pushes hot water up through a bed of coffee grounds using vapor pressure?

Alfonso Bialetti began marketing the Moka Express in 1933, though it only became a fixture of Italian kitchens after his son Renato's postwar advertising push.

To which Caribbean island did Gabriel de Clieu bring coffee seedlings in 1720?

Martinique received Gabriel de Clieu's seedling in 1720, nursed with his own water ration on the voyage; from there coffee spread to Saint-Domingue, other islands and on to Mexico.

The process of removing the parchment layer from a dried coffee bean is called what?

After drying, the papery parchment layer that still encases each coffee bean is removed through a process called hulling.

The frappé (shaken instant coffee) was invented at a 1957 trade fair in which country?

Greece: at the 1957 Thessaloniki International Fair, Nescafé representative Dimitris Vakondios shook instant coffee with cold water in a shaker when he could find no hot water.

Which country drinks the most coffee per person per year?

Finland has led per-capita coffee consumption for decades, at roughly 12 kg of beans per person a year, with Norway, Iceland and Denmark close behind.

Milanese businessman Luigi Bezzera is credited with patenting the first commercial version of what in 1901, making coffee in seconds?

The espresso machine used steam pressure to force water through the grounds, cutting a brew from minutes to seconds.

In 2011 UNESCO listed the 'Coffee Cultural Landscape' of which country as a World Heritage Site?

Colombia's Coffee Cultural Landscape, spanning the Andean departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Valle del Cauca, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2011 for its smallholder farms on steep hillsides.

In the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, the coffee is boiled in a round clay pot called what?

The jebena is the round-bottomed clay pot of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony; green beans are roasted over coals, pounded, then boiled in it and poured into small cups.

What is the primary function of caffeine in coffee plants?

As a natural insect repellent, caffeine can paralyse and kill insects feeding on the plant; bees, meanwhile, seem to like a low dose in nectar.

Which coffee drink dilutes espresso with hot water to roughly drip-coffee strength?

An Americano dilutes one or two espresso shots with hot water at roughly 1:3 to 1:4, keeping espresso's flavours in a lighter, drip-strength cup.

Coffee displaced which beverage as the working classes' breakfast drink in 17th-century Europe?

Beer, usually weak ale, had been the safe breakfast drink where water was suspect; swapping a depressant for a stimulant at breakfast was credited with sharpening the workday.

The coffee plant's genus belongs to which botanical family?

Rubiaceae, the madder or bedstraw family, holds the genus Coffea along with gardenia and the quinine tree Cinchona; it is one of the largest flowering-plant families.

Mandheling is a trade name for arabica coffee grown in the north of which island?

Sumatra's Mandheling coffee takes its name from the Mandailing people of the island's north; it is grown around Lake Toba and prized for heavy body and low acidity.

What term describes how much of a coffee's flavor is dissolved into water during brewing?

Extraction refers to the process of dissolving soluble material, including flavors, oils, and caffeine, from ground coffee into water during brewing.

Coffee decaffeinated by Ludwig Roselius's early process was sold in America under what brand?

Sanka, a contraction of the French 'sans caféine', was the American brand for Roselius's decaf; in most of Europe the same coffee sold as Kaffee HAG, after Kaffee Handels-Aktien-Gesellschaft.

Which coffee species has a floral, jackfruit-like aroma and a bold, smoky, woody taste?

Liberica, grown mainly in the Philippines and Malaysia, has a floral, jackfruit-like aroma with a smoky, woody cup and makes up only around 1–2% of commercial coffee.

The very first Starbucks opened in 1971 at a public market in which US city?

The original store opened at Pike Place Market in March 1971 and sold beans and brewing gear rather than the drinks the chain is known for today.

Kopi luwak is made from cherries that have passed through the gut of which animal?

The beans are collected from the droppings of the Asian palm civet, whose digestion is said to alter the flavour of the seed.

Dresden housewife Melitta Bentz won a 1908 patent for which brewing item?

The paper filter began as blotting paper from her son's school notebook, lining a perforated brass pot; the Melitta company she founded in 1908 carries her name.

Compared with a cappuccino, a flat white is defined by the absence of what?

A thick foam layer is missing; a flat white uses steamed milk with fine microfoam instead of the deep cap that tops a cappuccino.

Kona coffee comes from districts of which US state?

Kona is grown on the volcanic slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa, and only beans from those districts may carry the name.

Which composer wrote a comic secular cantata about a daughter who refuses to give up coffee?

Known as the Coffee Cantata, BWV 211 satirises the coffee craze of 18th-century Leipzig through the argument between Lieschen and her father.

In healthy adults, how long is caffeine's half-life generally reckoned to be?

Half the dose is cleared in roughly three to seven hours, which is why an afternoon cup can still be active at bedtime.

Which gas, in its supercritical state, is used to strip caffeine in one major decaffeination method?

Supercritical carbon dioxide, held above 31 °C and 74 bar, dissolves caffeine out of steamed green beans and then releases it when depressurized; the method is used for much commercial decaf.

In which German city did merchant Ludwig Roselius devise the first commercial decaffeination process in 1903?

Bremen merchant Ludwig Roselius devised the process in 1903 and patented it in 1906; it steamed the beans, then used benzene, later recognised as a carcinogen, to draw out the caffeine.

In which year was the Nescafe brand of instant coffee launched?

Nescafe arrived in 1938 with a refining process that made soluble coffee far more palatable than earlier attempts.

What is the name of the small long-handled pot traditionally used to brew coffee in Turkey?

Finely ground coffee and water are brought just to the boil in a cezve, known elsewhere as an ibrik.

Roughly what share of a coffee harvest are peaberries, cherries where only one seed develops?

About 5%, or one bean in twenty, grows as a peaberry, a rounded seed instead of the usual flat-sided pair, and they are often sold at a premium.

Which Japanese glassware company makes the V60 pour-over dripper?

Hario, a Tokyo maker of heat-resistant glass founded in 1921, produces the V60, whose name records the 60-degree angle of its conical dripper.

The port of Mocha, once the world's coffee outlet, is in what is now which country?

Yemen's Red Sea port of Mocha (al-Mukha) was the world's sole coffee outlet in the 1500s and 1600s; its name lives on in chocolate-tinged coffee drinks.

In 1511 a theological court in which city forbade coffee because of its stimulating effect?

Mecca's governor Khair Beg convened a council of jurists that banned coffee in 1511; the Mamluk sultan in Cairo overturned it, and a similar Cairo ban in 1532 also failed.

Alan Adler, who designed the AeroPress, was already known for inventing what?

Adler's earlier company sold the Aerobie flying ring; he began prototyping the coffee maker in his garage two decades later.

Starbucks gained the rights to the Frappuccino in 1994 by buying which company?

George Howell's Massachusetts chain had trademarked the blended drink; Starbucks relaunched it with a new formula in 1995.

Which country ranked third in the FAO's 2023 green coffee production figures, behind Brazil and Vietnam?

Indonesia produced about 760,000 tonnes in the FAO figures, edging out the two arabica-focused producers usually assumed to hold that spot.

In which year did UNESCO list Turkish coffee culture as Intangible Cultural Heritage?

The inscription was made at the eighth session of the intergovernmental committee in 2013.

Which Sufi figure traditionally carried coffee seeds to the Chandragiri hills of southern India?

Baba Budan, a 17th-century Sufi saint, is said to have smuggled seven seeds from Mocha strapped to his belly and planted them in the Chandragiri hills of Karnataka, known since as the Baba Budangiri.

David Strang patented a 'soluble dry coffee-powder' in 1890 while living in which country?

New Zealand: David Strang of Invercargill patented his 'soluble dry coffee-powder' in 1890, more than a decade before Satori Kato's much-cited 1901 Chicago claim.

What is the molecular formula of caffeine?

Caffeine's formula is C8H10N4O2: eight carbons, ten hydrogens, four nitrogens and two oxygens; the closely related theophylline is C7H8N4O2.

Irish coffee is commonly credited to a chef at a flying boat terminal in which Irish town?

Joe Sheridan is said to have added whiskey to coffee for cold passengers disembarking at the Foynes air base in the early 1940s.

Starbucks took its name from the chief mate in which novel?

Moby-Dick's chief mate Starbuck gave the chain its name after co-founder Gordon Bowker's brainstorming partner Terry Heckler argued that words starting with 'st' sounded powerful; 'Pequod' was rejected first.

Starbucks was founded in 1971 by three partners who met as students where?

The University of San Francisco is where Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker met as students; they opened their Pike Place bean shop in 1971 after learning roasting from Alfred Peet.

Which executive turned Starbucks into an espresso-bar chain after buying it in 1987?

Howard Schultz bought Starbucks from its founders in 1987 for $3.8 million, folded in his Il Giornale espresso bars and led the chain's expansion as CEO until 2000.

Dunkin' Donuts was founded in 1950 by Bill Rosenberg in which Massachusetts city?

Quincy, Massachusetts, is where Bill Rosenberg opened the first Dunkin' Donuts in 1950, two years after starting his Open Kettle shop there; its parent later also owned Baskin-Robbins.

Tim Hortons was co-founded in 1964 by an NHL player and which partner?

Jim Charade opened the first Tim Hortons with the Maple Leafs defenceman in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1964; Ron Joyce became a full partner in 1967 and took control after Horton's death in 1974.

Which fast-food chain merged with Tim Hortons in 2014 for US$11.4 billion?

Burger King and Tim Hortons combined in December 2014 under a new Canadian parent, Restaurant Brands International, in a deal valued at about US$11.4 billion.

Who bought Costa Coffee from Whitbread in 2019 for $4.9 billion?

Coca-Cola completed its £3.9 billion (about $4.9 billion) purchase of Costa from Whitbread in January 2019; the chain was founded in London in 1971 by brothers Bruno and Sergio Costa.

Alfred Peet, who opened Peet's Coffee in Berkeley in 1966, grew up in which country?

The Netherlands: Alfred Peet was born in Alkmaar in 1920 and learned the trade in his father's coffee business before emigrating; his Berkeley shop introduced dark-roasted blends such as French roast to the US.

Lavazza was founded in 1895 in which Italian city?

Turin is where Luigi Lavazza bought a small grocery at Via San Tommaso 10 in 1895 and started blending coffees, the seed of the family firm.

Which espresso company, founded in 1933, is headquartered in Trieste?

Illy was founded in Trieste in 1933 by Francesco Illy, who also pioneered pressurized, oxygen-free cans to keep roasted coffee fresh and an early automatic espresso machine, the Illetta.

Nespresso is a portmanteau of 'espresso' and which company's name?

It is based in Vevey, Switzerland.

Keurig, maker of the K-Cup, was founded in which year?

Keurig was founded in 1992 by John Sylvan and Peter Dragone in Massachusetts; its first K-Cup brewers, aimed at offices, shipped in 1998.

Folgers traces its origins to an 1850 coffee and spice mill in which city?

San Francisco: William Bovee's Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills opened there in 1850, and carpenter James A. Folger, who helped build it, bought the firm and gave it his name in 1872.

Maxwell House coffee is named after a hotel in which city?

Nashville's Maxwell House Hotel adopted grocer Joel Cheek's blend in 1892 after he supplied 20 pounds free, and the coffee took the hotel's name.

What is Maxwell House's long-running slogan?

'Good to the last drop' was, the company long claimed, first uttered by Theodore Roosevelt after a cup in 1907; Folgers owns 'The best part of wakin' up'.

Which food giant bought a majority stake in Blue Bottle Coffee in 2017?

Blue Bottle was once headquartered in Oakland, California.

Caribou Coffee opened its first shop in December 1992 in which Minneapolis suburb?

Edina, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis, got the first Caribou Coffee in December 1992, opened by John and Kim Puckett; JAB Holding took the chain private in 2012 for $340 million.

In Italian, 'macchiato' literally means what?

Macchiato means 'stained' or 'marked': a caffè macchiato is espresso stained with a dash of milk foam, while a latte macchiato is milk stained with espresso.

A cortado, from the Spanish for 'cut', mixes espresso with roughly an equal amount of what?

Warm milk 'cuts' the espresso's acidity, hence the name, from the verb cortar; exact ratios vary by region.

A mocha is a chocolate-flavoured version of which drink?

Latte is the base; the port of Mokha shipped much of the world's coffee from the 15th to the 17th century.

In New Orleans, café au lait is traditionally made with coffee mixed with what?

Chicory root, roasted and ground, has been blended into New Orleans coffee since French colonial days and Civil War shortages; Café du Monde and Morning Call are famous purveyors.

A ristretto uses the same coffee as an espresso but what quantity of water?

The result is a concentrated 'short shot' of about 20 ml.

A lungo is an espresso pulled with what quantity of water compared to a normal shot?

Double the water: a lungo, Italian for 'long', lets the shot run to about 50–60 ml, pulling out more bitter compounds than a standard espresso.

Dalgona coffee went viral after Korean actor Jung Il-woo tasted it in 2020 in which territory?

Macau's Han Kee café served the whipped coffee that actor Jung Il-woo tasted on a January 2020 TV show; Koreans renamed it after the dalgona honeycomb candy it resembles.

Café Cubano is traditionally sweetened with what?

Brown (demerara) sugar whipped with the first drops of espresso makes the pale espuma that crowns a café Cubano; a small serving is a cafecito and a multi-shot pour a colada.

Yuenyeung, a Hong Kong drink, mixes coffee with what?

Milk tea, the strong Hong Kong brew with evaporated milk, is blended with coffee to make yuenyeung, named after the mandarin-duck pair; it grew up at dai pai dong stalls and cha chaan teng cafés.

Which Swedish king acquired a taste for coffee while in the Ottoman Empire?

Charles XII spent 1709 to 1714 in Ottoman Bender after his defeat at Poltava and brought the coffee habit home; later Swedish bans failed, and the fika break became a national ritual.

Caffeine works mainly by blocking receptors for which molecule?

Its 3D structure resembles adenosine, letting it bind the same receptors.

Caffeine belongs to which chemical class of stimulants?

Methylxanthines, the class that also holds theophylline and theobromine, are purine alkaloids; caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine and the world's most widely consumed psychoactive drug.

Which 1686 establishment on Tower Street gave rise to a famous insurance market?

Lloyd provided reliable shipping news to sailors and merchants.

Jonathan's Coffee-House in Change Alley was the original site of what?

The Stock Exchange traces its origin to Jonathan's, where broker John Castaing began posting stock and commodity prices in 1698; brokers organised there before building their own exchange in 1773.

Café Procope in Paris was opened in 1686 by a chef from which island?

It became a hub of Parisian artistic and literary life.

Which London bartender created the Espresso Martini in the 1980s?

Dick Bradsell mixed vodka, a fresh espresso shot, coffee liqueur and sugar at London's Soho Brasserie in 1983, reportedly for a model who asked for something to wake her up.

Caffè Florian in Venice was reportedly the only coffee house that admitted whom?

Women were admitted at Florian when other Venetian coffee houses barred them, which is said to be why Casanova was a regular; it opened in 1720 on Piazza San Marco as 'Alla Venezia Trionfante'.

Which Austrian writer called the Viennese coffee house 'a sort of democratic club'?

Stefan Zweig, in his memoir The World of Yesterday, described the Viennese coffee house as 'a sort of democratic club, open to everyone for the price of a cheap cup of coffee'.

The term 'third-wave coffee' is generally attributed to which coffee professional?

Trish Rothgeb coined 'third wave' in a Roasters Guild newsletter piece, borrowing the framing from feminism's waves: first wave mass commodity coffee, second wave Starbucks-style chains, third wave artisanal craft.

Who is believed to have brought coffee to Vietnam in 1857?

French missionaries are credited with planting the first coffee in Vietnam in 1857; commercial plantations followed in 1888, and the crop later made Vietnam the world's leading robusta grower.

Colombia's National Federation of Coffee Growers was created in which year?

1927: the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros was founded in Medellín at a growers' congress to market and defend Colombian coffee; it later created the Juan Valdez campaign.

Which advertising agency created the Juan Valdez character in 1958?

Doyle Dane Bernbach, the Manhattan agency behind the Volkswagen 'Think Small' ads, created Juan Valdez in 1958; Colombian actor José Duval first played him.

What is the name of Juan Valdez's mule?

Conchita is the mule that accompanies Juan Valdez, the poncho-and-sombrero farmer who has fronted Colombia's growers' federation ads since 1958.

Yirgacheffe, the famous coffee town, is in which country?

It lies in the Gedeo Zone at about 1,900 metres elevation.

Which order introduced coffee trees to Kenya from Réunion in 1893?

The French Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritans) planted Bourbon-variety trees from Réunion at their Bura mission in the Taita Hills in 1893, then at St Austin's near Nairobi in 1899.

Coffee revenue funded Costa Rica's first railroad, opened in 1890, to where?

The Atlantic: the railway from San José to the Caribbean port of Limón, completed in 1890 under Minor Keith, was financed by coffee exports; coffee growing there began in 1779 in the Meseta Central.

Gesha (Geisha) coffee originated in a forest in which country?

Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda later set auction records with it.

A 2017 lot of natural Geisha set a Best of Panama record of about how much per pound?

US$601 per pound: Hacienda La Esmeralda's natural-process Geisha set the Best of Panama auction record in 2017, a mark broken by Elida Estate's Geishas in 2018 and 2019.

The International Coffee Organization was set up in 1963 in which country?

Britain: the International Coffee Organization was established in London in 1963 to administer the 1962 International Coffee Agreement, negotiated under United Nations auspices.

Friends was developed under which coffee-themed working title?

Insomnia Cafe was the pitch title of Marta Kauffman and David Crane's sitcom; it became Friends Like Us, then Six of One, before NBC settled on Friends in 1994.

Jim Jarmusch's anthology film Coffee and Cigarettes was released in which year?

2003: Jarmusch's black-and-white vignettes, shot over 17 years from 1986, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2003 with Bill Murray, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits among the cast.

Van Gogh painted Café Terrace at Night in 1888 in which French town?

Arles, where Van Gogh painted it on the Place du Forum in September 1888; it was first exhibited in 1891 as 'Coffeehouse, in the evening'.

Which animal digests the cherries for the Thai luxury coffee launched by Blake Dinkin in 2012?

Elephants digest the arabica cherries, and their dung is hand-picked for the beans; Black Ivory Coffee was launched in Thailand in 2012 by Canadian Blake Dinkin.

Achille Gaggia's 1938 patent was for the first modern espresso machine of what kind?

Steamless: Gaggia's 1938 patent used a piston to push water through the grounds at high pressure without steam, which produced crema; his lever-driven commercial machines followed in 1947–48.

La Marzocco, founded in 1927, is named after a symbol of which city?

Florence: the Marzocco is the city's heraldic lion, and brothers Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi founded the company there in 1927; in 1939 it patented the first horizontal-boiler espresso machine.

Cà phê trứng, coffee topped with whipped egg yolk and condensed milk, comes from which city?

Hanoi's Café Giảng created egg coffee in 1946, when Nguyễn Văn Giảng whipped egg yolk with sugar and condensed milk into a custard-like foam over the city's robusta.

The Chemex coffeemaker, invented in 1941, was designed by whom?

Peter Schlumbohm, a German-born chemist living in New York, patented the Chemex in 1941; the hourglass brewer is in the Museum of Modern Art's collection.

In which James Bond novel does 007 use a Chemex at breakfast?

From Russia, with Love (1957) describes Bond's breakfast in detail, including coffee brewed in a Chemex; the brewer also appears in Rosemary's Baby and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Which Illinois farmer patented the modern stove-top coffee percolator in 1889?

Hanson Goodrich, a farmer from Illinois, received the 1889 patent for the stovetop percolator, whose central tube cycles boiling water up and over the grounds.

Which baseball legend fronted Mr. Coffee's promotions in the 1970s?

Joe DiMaggio became Mr. Coffee's TV pitchman in 1974 after founder Vincent Marotta, a Cleveland businessman, cold-called him; Marotta and Samuel Glazer had launched the drip machine in 1972.

The world's first webcam (1991) pointed at a coffee pot at which university?

Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory pointed a camera at the Trojan Room coffee pot in 1991 so staff could check it remotely; it went on the web in 1993, and the last pot sold on eBay for £3,350 in 2001.

The first Bezzera and Pavoni espresso machines of 1906 took how long to make one cup?

The word espresso conveys 'expressly for you' and 'quickly'.

Which 1963 paper cup printed 'We Are Happy to Serve You' became a New York icon?

The Anthora, designed by Leslie Buck for the Sherri Cup Company in 1963, carries a Greek-key border and the line 'We Are Happy to Serve You'; the name is Buck's accented 'amphora'.

A cappuccino is traditionally served in a cup of roughly what size?

About 140–150 ml (5 oz): the Italian standard is a 150 ml cup, a single shot under steamed, foamed milk; a caffè latte comes in a larger 230 ml glass without the thick foam.

Café owners in which two neighbouring countries both claim to have invented the flat white?

Australia and New Zealand both stake the claim; in Australia it is usually served in a ceramic cup with a handle.

Which roasting by-product led a 2018 California ruling to require cancer warnings on coffee?

Acrylamide forms from sugars and asparagine during roasting; a 2018 Los Angeles ruling under Proposition 65 briefly required cancer warnings on coffee until California regulators exempted it in 2019.

In which year did Starbucks add real pumpkin to its Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe?

2015: Starbucks reformulated the Pumpkin Spice Latte that autumn to include real pumpkin purée and drop caramel colouring, twelve years after the drink's 2003 debut.

Fifteenth-century Sufi Muslims in Yemen used coffee for what purpose?

To stay alert during night prayers: Yemeni Sufis drank qahwa to keep awake through long nocturnal dhikr rituals, and from Yemen the habit spread to Mecca, Cairo, Damascus and Istanbul.

Which brothers' Ariosa brand of the 1870s made glazed, pre-roasted coffee the cowboy's staple?

Arbuckle Brothers of Pittsburgh sold Ariosa from 1873, roasted beans sealed in an egg-and-sugar glaze and packed in one-pound bags, and became the coffee of cowboys and chuck wagons.

George Constant Louis Washington, who launched mass-produced instant coffee in 1910, was born in which country?

Belgium: George Constant Louis Washington was born in Kortrijk in 1871, emigrated to the US and launched his 'Red E Coffee' instant brand in 1910, later supplied to doughboys in World War I.

In which US city was latte art developed in the 1980s–90s, popularized by David Schomer?

The heart pattern was established at Schomer's Espresso Vivace by 1989.

Professional coffee tasters certified to evaluate coffee are known as what?

Q Graders are tasters licensed by the Coffee Quality Institute after a multi-day exam; they score coffees by cupping, slurping from a spoon to aerate each sample.

Specialty coffee must score at least how many points on the SCA 100-point scale?

80 points: coffees graded by certified cuppers at 80 or above on the SCA's 100-point form qualify as specialty, with defects and cup attributes scored in ten categories.

Who first used the term 'specialty coffee', in a 1974 trade journal?

Erna Knutsen, a San Francisco green-coffee broker, used 'specialty coffee' in a 1974 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal interview to describe beans from special microclimates with distinct flavour.

Which French novelist, reputedly a dozens-of-cups-a-day drinker, wrote 'The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee'?

Honoré de Balzac's 1839 Treatise on Modern Stimulants includes his essay on coffee, which he credited with driving his all-night writing sessions; legend puts his intake at dozens of cups a day.

Postum, the caffeine-free coffee substitute of 1895, is made from molasses and what?

Roasted wheat bran, wheat and molasses were C. W. Post's 1895 recipe; he had been a patient at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium, which served its own cereal coffee.

Mexican café de olla is sweetened with which unrefined sugar?

Piloncillo, the unrefined cane-sugar cone, sweetens café de olla along with cinnamon; the brew is traditionally made in an earthenware olla, which gives the drink its name.

Which US state adopted a sweet milk-and-syrup drink as its official beverage in 1993?

Rhode Island named coffee milk, milk stirred with sweet coffee syrup, its official state drink in 1993; the habit is traced to Italian immigrants in Providence in the early 1900s.

In 1781 Frederick the Great's 'sniffers' were disabled soldiers employed to do what?

He had made coffee a royal monopoly.

Boston's Green Dragon Tavern was a favourite haunt of the Freemasons and which group?

The Sons of Liberty met at the Green Dragon alongside the St Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons, which bought it in 1764; Daniel Webster called the tavern the 'headquarters of the Revolution'.

The first official International Coffee Day was launched in which city on 1 October 2015?

Milan: the ICO launched the first official International Coffee Day at Expo Milano on 1 October 2015, consolidating various national coffee days onto one date.

Which type of mill grinds beans to a uniform size between two abrasive surfaces?

Burr grinders crush beans between two abrasive surfaces set a fixed distance apart, giving uniform particles; blade grinders chop unevenly and heat the grounds through friction.

Which composer is said to have counted exactly sixty beans for every cup of coffee?

Ludwig van Beethoven's secretary Anton Schindler wrote that the composer counted out sixty beans for every cup, a detail that became a staple of coffee lore.

Which city got the first Starbucks outside North America in 1996?

Tokyo's Ginza district got the first Starbucks outside North America in August 1996, opened as a joint venture with Sazaby League, a Japanese retailer.

What was modern pressure-brewed espresso originally called on old Gaggia machines of the 1940s?

'Crema caffè', meaning cream coffee, was how Gaggia's postwar lever machines billed the drink, since their 9-plus bar pressure raised a foam the old steam machines never produced.