Coffee Facts and Potpourri

I am a great lover of coffee. In fact I probably drink more coffee than I do anything else!. One type of coffee I have yet to try is Kopi Luwak. I like to refer to this as ‘shit coffee’!. Here is a few facts about coffee.

Do you know where your coffee comes from?

* At one time, nutmeg was such a desired spice that a sack of nutmeg seeds could be sold for enough money to secure one’s financial independence for life.

* The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter.

* The world’s costliest coffee, at more than $130 for 500 grams, is called Kopi Luwak. It is in the droppings of a type of marsupial that eats only the very best coffee beans. Plantation workers track them and scoop their precious poop.

* You need approximately 2,000 berries to make one pound of coffee.

* The average cup of coffee contains more than 1,000 different chemical components, none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavor.

* Americans on the average eat 7.3 hectares of pizza every day.

* Born in 1718, British politician John Montagu, the fourth earl of Sandwich, is credited with naming the sandwich. He developed a habit of eating beef between slices of toast so he could continue to play cards uninterrupted.

* Henry VIII was once served a loin of beef while visiting the house of a noble. He was so impressed with the beef that he asked for a sword and knighted it. Ever since, that particular cut of beef has been known as sirloin (“Sir Loin”).

* At McDonald’s in New Zealand, they serve apricot pies instead of cherry ones.

* Only 30 percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are actually from Maryland.

* Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life. Even milk involves the death of grass, which a cow has to eat to produce milk.

* When potatoes first appeared in Europe in the 17th century, it was thought that they were disgusting, and they were blamed for starting outbreaks of leprosy and syphilis. As late as 1720 in America, eating potatoes was believed to shorten a person’s life.

* Turnips turn green when sunburned.

* The water pressure inside every onion cell would be sufficient to explode a steam engine.

* An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.

* Grapes explode when heated in the microwave.

* It is said grapefruit scent makes middle age women appear six years younger to men (but it does not work the other way round).

* There is more sugar in one kilo of lemons than in one kilo of strawberries.

* Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

* Cranberry Jello is the only jello flavor that comes from real fruit, not artificial flavoring.

* Cleopatra used pomegranate seeds for lipstick.

* Sugar was first added to chewing gum in 1869 by a dentist.

* M&M’s were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky.

* Victorian ladies tried to enlarge their breasts by bathing in strawberries.

* Carbonated water, with nothing else in it, can dissolve limestone, talc and many other low-Moh’s hardness minerals. Carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda pop.

* Pepsi originally contained pepsin, thus the name.

* Coca-Cola contains neither coca nor cola.

* Coca-Cola was originally green.

* The Coca-Cola company is the biggest consumer of sugar in the world.

* Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world’s almonds and 20 percent of the world’s peanuts.

* Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.

* The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

* In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.

— compiled from various sources