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It’s no secret that coffee is one of our favorite things on this planet. It provides us on the farm with a way of life as well as an opportunity to spread the joy of coffee to others. At our core we are coffee lovers and strive to grow and process some of the best tasting 100% Kona coffee you can find anywhere in the world. We’ve made it our life’s work to help bring quality coffee into the world for others to enjoy.
Whether you’re brewing it into a delicious beverage, eating it covered in chocolate, or just using it as your go-to gift during the holidays, coffee is a huge part of our society. Whether you brew your own coffee at home or have a favorite coffee house that you purchase from on your way to work or school, coffee is what flows through the veins of this country and we’re extremely proud to be able to provide the fuel for everyday lives.
So, while you sit back and enjoy a delicious cup of your favorite coffee, we put together five interest facts about coffee that you may not have been aware of.
Interesting Coffee Facts
1. Hawaii is the Only US State That Grows Coffee
It may come as a surprise to most people, but Hawaii is the only state in the United States of America that has the proper soil and climate to properly grow coffee. Coffee requires a specific type of soil as well as the proper elevation and tropical climates which only Hawaii can provide. This is similar to how the majority of wine in the United States is grown in California.
Kona Coffee is unique in that the volcanic soil in the Kona region of Hawaii creates a distinct flavor of bean that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. Hawaii has been growing coffee since long before it became a part of the United States, and it continues to produce some of the best coffee in the world.
2. Adding Cream Keeps Your Coffee Warmer Longer
It may seem counterintuitive that adding creamer, which is typically served cool or at room temperature, would help keep your coffee warmer for longer, but it’s true.
You may not believe it, but there is science behind this fact. Adding creamer to your coffee does a few things, for one, it lightens up the color of your coffee. We all know that wearing dark colored clothing or touching something of a darker color that’s been outside in the heat, will feel way hotter than touching something that’s a light color, this is because darker colors absorb heat faster than lighter colors. But darker colors also release heat faster than light colors. So by making your coffee a lighter color, the heat will emit slower from the coffee, thus keeping it cooler for longer.
In addition to that, hotter surfaces release heat faster than cooler surfaces. So while your coffee temperature will drop immediately after adding cream to it, because it is now cooler overall, the remaining heat will dissipate slower than a coffee that did not have any creamer added to it.
And finally, adding cream makes your coffee thicker. Thicker liquids evaporate slower than thinner ones and evaporation carries away a lot of heat.
So, while it may not seem logical to add cool creamer to your hot coffee in order to keep it warmer for longer, there is science to support it.
3. Coffee Was Originally Discovered By Goats
When you really sit back and think about how some of the foods we eat and the beverages we drinker were originally discovered, it’s kind of mind blowing. Like whom was the first person to discover that we could drink milk from cows? That seems like an odd thing to just try out of the blue…
Coffee was first discovered when a goat herder noticed his goats seemingly dancing after eating the fruit from a local coffee tree. After deeming it safe for consumption, he tried it for himself and was surprised that he got the same pep in his step that his goats did.
After bringing the fruit to the attention of the local monks, they began noticing that when eaten it would keep them up all night allowing them to pray.
So you can thank goats and their caffeine rush for the coffee you know and love today.
4. The Most Expensive Coffee in the World Comes from Animal Poop
If you thought that Kona coffee was expensive let me tell you about Kopi Luwak. Kopi Luwak is a very expensive coffee bean that is harvested after it is partial digested by the Asian palm civet. The Asian palm civet is a small animal like a weasel that can’t get enough of the coffee cherries found in Indonesia. This animal will eat the coffee cherries and since their bodies cannot digest the bean itself, they will poop out the bean, which is then collected by harvesters, washed, and sold for up to $600 per pound!
Talk about expensive coffee!
5. Drinking Coffee Can Be Deadly, In Large Amounts
Don’t worry, while this last fact is technically true, it would take a lot of cups of coffee over a short period of time for a person to actually die from it.
Everything is fine in moderation and coffee is certainly one of those things. You can overdose on caffeine as well as succumb to antioxidant overdose, but it would take roughly 70 cups of coffee to cause death in a 150-pound human being.
So, while we still don’t recommend having too many cups of coffee every day for other various health reasons, it would take a ridiculously large amount of coffee to have deadly effects on your body, but you don’t have to worry about that extra cup of coffee you may want to have in the afternoon or after dinner, having any major negative effects.
