I like coffee.
Hmm, not strong enough.
Let’s try this: I love coffee.
Almost, but not quite.
Okay, I really, really, really, really LOVE coffee and would dive in and swim around if given a chance!
Close enough.
As you can see, I have a thing for coffee. No, I do not drink pots and pots of coffee each day. I haven’t done that in about 20 years. I drank so much flavored coffees when they were first becoming popular that, to this day, I cannot even enter a room of fresh brewed hazelnut coffee, let alone drink it. No great loss, because I still love a good ol’ cup o’ Joe.
My fondness for coffee sent me on a quest for coffee knowledge. Where did it come from? Who thought it would make a good drink? Whatever happened to Mrs. Olsen? And, who is Maxwell House? Evidently, the best place to begin is at the beginning, so, being the conformist that I am, (stop snickering), I will start at the beginning.
In the beginning…..bet you thought I was going to do something silly like: In the beginning, God created coffee, and the rest is irrelevant. Noooo. Ok, I admit it. I entertained the idea briefly but thought it might be a bit over the top. Now that I really look at, I think you’re right. It is a bit much.
Anyway, back to the beginning of coffee as we know it. There is an interesting legend that surrounds the discovery of the coffee berry. It has to do with dancing goats. I kid you not (pun intended). Evidently, while tending his flock one day, an Arabian goat herder watched some of his goats “dancing,” and jumping and acting a little perkier than usual. Okay, they were a lot perkier than usual. Fearing they were possessed, the goat herder watched the goats very carefully. He noticed that when they ate berries from a certain bush, they began leaping and dancing around energetically. So, he ate some, too. The goat herder found the berries produced a euphoric and powerful effect. He then gave some berries to some monks at a local monastery.
The monks soon learned that they could pray for extended periods of time if they consumed the berries. They also found a way to dry and grind the berries and then add hot water, making it into a thick and gritty, unfiltered version of today’s coffee. The monks then distributed this concoction to their brethren around the world.
I must pause here to ask a few questions. First of all, why would you eat something just because your goat ate it? Goats will eat anything and not all of it is edible. And second, you ate berries that basically made you and your goats high, and you turned around and gave them to monks? Does this seem odd to anyone else?
Anyway, all of this supposedly occurred around 1000 AD, and, like most legends there are slight variations to the tale. The basic legend, though, remains the same with every retelling that I found: dancing goats discovered coffee. Sounds like a tabloid headline.
Soon after this discovery, coffeehouses opened all over the Middle East, but it would take almost 400 years for coffee to gain any popularity in Europe. Every once in a while a ruler would come along and try to destroy all the coffeehouses, but never actually succeeded. I found descriptions of these houses on several coffee websites, and it seems that they weren’t much different than your neighborhood Starbucks of today.
Coffeehouses were places to gather and to fellowship with your neighbors, to chit chat, to play cards, chess or checkers, to read quietly, to write, or even to sketch. This was a safe haven in which to freely express your ideas and opinions. Since basic human nature demands that we freely express our ideas and opinions in the form of complaints about authority right after we complain about weather, the powers in charge often felt it necessary to close/burn down these establishments to eliminate the possibility of a revolution brewing.
Useless Coffee Trivia
- Each year some 7 million tons of green coffee beans are produced world wide. Most of which are hand-picked.
- The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil with over 3,970 million coffee trees. Colombia comes in second with around two thirds of Brazil's production.
- Hard bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet. (Would that be Mrs. Olsen’s Mountain Grown Folgers?)
- October 1st is officially Coffee Day in Japan.
- People who buy coffee primarily at drive through windows on their way to work will spend as much as 45 hours a year waiting in line.
- The average person who buys coffee outside the office to consume at work will spend the equivalent value of a round trip plane ticket to Florida every year. Although I’m not too sure what that actually means to those of us who live in Florida.
- The expression, “a cup of Joe,” to denote coffee was first coined during WWII when American servicemen (G.I. Joe) were identified as big coffee drinkers.
- The term “Java” went from brand name to generic name around 1906, when mislabeling coffee as originating from Java was actually in epidemic proportions. More Java was sold to consumers than was ever grown and exported from that region of the world.
- A Belgian living in Guatemala invented the first instant coffee in 1906 and later immigrated to the United States. His name, ironically enough, was George Washington.
- Researchers have found that there is no evidence that coffee plays any role in the risk of cancer. According to Takayuki Shibamoto of the University of California at Davis, there are "1,000 different chemicals in coffee, some of which are antioxidants." However, the coffee must be consumed within 20 minutes of brewing in order to get the full benefit.
- Coffee is also not bad for your teeth. Some dentists agree that although coffee stains teeth, it also helps prevent cavities. Properties in coffee help in fighting the plaque that may lead to cavities.
- In some investigations, coffee has been shown to increase awareness, alertness and mental activity.
- As with anything, drinking coffee has many benefits, but moderation is key. Drinking more than two to four cups of coffee a day may increase blood pressure, upset stomach and nervousness. Caffeine leeches calcium from the body, and can act as a diuretic leaving you feeling dehydrated. Be sure to replace your fluids and keep an eye on that calcium.
- And last but not least, for those CSI aficionados, yes, there is a coffee made from the poop of a wild cat like creature that lives in Indonesia. According to an article in the LA Times, kopi luwak sells for about $600 pound. Check out the article to see just how it’s processed.
You probably know more about coffee now than you ever wanted to or even thought you ever needed to know. Believe it or not, I actually have a point here. I put in a lot of hours on this article. I researched the history of coffee, types of coffee, and the health benefits of coffee.
My husband and I laughed over old black and white commercials where the wife never seems to be able to make a decent cup of coffee, and the husband would rather drink the coffee made by the “girls at the office.” I took the time to sort and organize the information into something workable, then spliced it all together and filled it out with pretty pictures. The point? I spent about 15 minutes in my Bible today. That’s it. I gave coffee hours of attentions, yet only spared minutes to its and my Creator.
How often do we do this? How often do we put so much time and energy into things that, in the end, will be forgotten or really don’t matter? One time, I spent days researching a fast food restaurant in order to create a mock press release for one of my classes at USF. I read press releases, “social responsibility” reports, advertising, and white paper just to get a feel for their style, yet I don’t read God’s precious word to get a real feel for His style.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed doing both pieces and all the research involved. That’s who I am. I’ll do it again if I feel called to do so, but I think it’s time to make some changes and follow a few more callings. You see, I do have this constant desire to read the Bible more, I just get lazy. Internet research on coffee is easy. Type a few words into a search engine and off you go. Reading the Bible...strike that…really getting into the Bible takes a lot more brainpower, and I am intimidated by it. What if I don’t see what everyone else sees? What if I read it wrong? What if I just don’t get it? There it is again, that fear getting in the way of doing what God wants. I guess it’s time to make some more changes around here. God just loves to do His renovations. I sure hope He doesn’t need a permit for this one.
Thank you for stopping by. The coffee is fresh, but, in case you’ve had enough coffee today, I do have some nice herbal tea. I hope you’ll stay a little longer and share a God Time story with me. How do you get into God’s Words? What are you reading right now? What part of the Bible made you feel closest to Him? And have you praised God for dancing goats today?
Grace and peace be yours in abundance,
Betty
This unusual water tower is located in Stanton, Iowa in honor of its celebrity citizen Virginia Christine, the original Mrs. Olsen from the Folgers Commercials. It holds 40,000 gallons or 640,000 cups of water or coffee. I prefer to envision the coffee!
This post originally appeared on my first blog in 2007. I felt it was time to move it here.
