Coffee Facts

Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages with a rich and interesting history.

General facts:

Coffee is one of the most consumed drinks after water. Coffee is one of the most traded commodities in the world after oil. Over 1400 million cups of coffee are drunk around the world each day. The majority of coffee is consumed at breakfast.

• Take your coffee black with no sugar? Then your coffee is practically calorie-free with just 2-5 kcal per cup. The two main coffee species grown commercially are Arabica and Robusta.

• A coffee plant can live for between 60 and 70 years. It can take up to four years for a coffee tree to reach maturity and bare fruit. The English word coffee originates from the Arabic word ‘kaweh’ meaning strength or vigor.

• • King Louis XIV had the first European greenhouse built to store France’s first coffee tree, known as The Noble Tree.
• • The first coffee house in the world opened in Arabia in the 16th century.
• • The first coffee house in Europe opened in Venice in 1645.
• • The first coffee advertisement was distributed in 1651 in London.
• • The first coffee house in America opened in Boston in 1676.
• • The Dutch began growing coffee on the island of Java, now part of Indonesia, in 1696.
• • The Boston Tea Party convinced Americans to switch to coffee from tea as an expression of freedom.

• Coffee is grown between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
• “Kahveci” is the name given to an expert in preparing Turkish coffee
• The largest coffee beans are found in Nicaragua.
• Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer.
• In Kenya, the best quality coffee beans are graded AA.
• Hawaii is the only US State that grows coffee.
• Brazil issued a coffee scented postage stamp in 2001.
• Franciscan friars brought the first coffee seeds to the Philippines in 1749.

• • The name NESCAFÉ is a combination of the NES in NESTLÉ and the word café.
• • NESCAFÉ was first introduced in Switzerland in 1938.
• • The US Armed Forces were NESCAFÉ brand ambassadors during WWII as NESCAFÉ was part of their rations.
• • NESCAFÉ GOLD BLEND, which used freeze-drying technology to make soluble coffee, launched in 1965.