June 28, 2005

ALL ABOUT COFFEE


Coffee and Me

Coffee. Ahh... What is it about this drink that makes it so yummy? What is it about the aroma, texture and flavor that excites my senses and tantalizes my taste buds? I have always enjoyed hearing this story: When I was a little girl (I forget how old I was then), I once watched my mamang make herself a cup of coffee. She left the kitchen for a moment to do some chores in the garden. After almost 30 minutes, she returned to the kitchen to find all traces of her coffee gone. Since I was the only one in the kitchen, she looked at me closely. She laughed out loud for I was the culprit! I had a coffee moustache! I guess after that first taste I was hooked. Whenever I pass by a cafe, the aroma alone is enough to relax me. Sitting in a cafe with a good book takes me places. What coffee will I have today? Espresso? Frappuccino? Cappuccino? Coming up with a decision excites me. I guess, coffee for me is not just an experience. It's a passion. MY passion.


History of Coffee

According to legend an Arabian goatherd named Kaldi found his goats dancing joyously around a dark green leafed shrub with bright red cherries in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Kaldi soon determined that it was the bright red cherries on the shrub that were causing the peculiar euphoria and after trying the cherries himself, he learned of their powerful effect. The stimulating effect was then exploited by monks at a local monastery to stay awake during extended hours of prayer and distributed to other monasteries around the world. Coffee was born. Despite the appeal of such a legend, recent botanical evidence indicates that Coffea arabica originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia and some how must have been brought to Yemen where it was cultivated since the 6th century. Upon introduction of the first coffee houses in Cairo and Mecca coffee became a passion rather than just a stimulant.
Coffee is defined as a popular beverage made from beans of the coffee tree, which have been cleaned, dried, roasted, ground, and brewed with water to extract their flavor. A number of important studies have shown that coffee (not decaffeinated) may make you more alert and even boost your learning abilities and powers of reasoning. Coffee is the world's most popular beverage. More than 400 billion cups are consumed each year. It is a world commodity that is second only to oil.