Did You Know That?

• It has been claimed that coffee is second to oil in terms of world commodity trading and that it provides employment for around 20 million people!

• The name coffee may be derived from the Arabic "qahwah" or alternatively may have arisen due to the connection with the province Kaffa, in Ethiopia.

• The coffee tree is indigenous to Ethiopia, not Arabia as many tend to think and belongs to the genus Coffea of the Rubianceae, or madder, family.

• The first English coffee house opened in Oxford in 1650 and by 1675 there were nearly 3000 coffee houses in England.

• Johann Sebastian Bach is thought to have been a devoted coffee lover and wrote a secular work "The coffee cantata - Kaffe Kantate" in 1732 that includes an aria "Mm! How sweet coffee tastes! More delicious than a thousand kisses, sweeter by far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee."

• Seedlings produced by the Amsterdam Botanical Gardens, later classified as Coffea arabica var arabica account for most of the billions of trees now growing in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

• The next most important strain of arabica (var bourbon) came from French plantations on the Indian Ocean island Reunion, originally called Bourbon.

• The other commercially important species, Coffea canephora (usually referred to as robusta) is also a native of Africa and now accounts for 20% of world exports.

In The United States

• Among all beverages consumed in the United States on a daily basis, coffee ranks third in consumption, with 51% of adults saying they drank coffee daily. 79% of adults said that they drank water (bottled and tap) daily, while 58% said they drank soft drinks every day.

• Overall, more than 108 million people in the U.S. are daily coffee drinkers, and more than 166 million have consumed coffee in the past year.

• Americans consumed more than 6.2 million gallons of coffee in 2002, a 1.8% increase over consumption in 2001.

• 10% of 17- and 18-year-olds rate coffee as their top beverage of choice; 3% of 15- and 16-year-olds rank coffee as their top beverage choice.

• More daily coffee drinkers consume regular coffee (41%) than any other type; 12% drink specialty coffee, 8% drink decaf, and 7% drink instant coffee.

• However, specialty coffee (estate, fair trade, and shade grown) is the fastest growing segment of the coffee industry, with growth of nearly 12% per year.

• In 2003, 82 % of all coffee was consumed during the morning, 4% consumed at lunch, 5% in the afternoon, 4% at dinner, and 5% during the evening.