Coffee Connoisseur — Paul Salazar

Paul Salazar
11 min readJan 5, 2021

Statistics Humans consume an estimated 2.25 billion cups of coffee on a daily basis, 2 Billion of those cups are from me, problematic Paul! Time to spill yer beans.. of KNOWLEDGE

* 54% of Adults drink Coffee Daily

* 33% of all Beans are from Brazil

* 65% of coffee is consumed during the morning

* 24% of humans drink 13 cups each week

Coffee beans are actually a fruit

Coffee beans refer to a seed or two that are found in the pit of a red or purple coffee cherry which has a thick and bitter skin, sweet fruit with texture that resembles that of grapes and a slimy protective layer. Those with two seeds have a flat side which is absent in the single-seed berries known as peaberry. Coffe is misconceived as a bean because of its similar appearance to that of typical beans, like myself.

Finland is the greatest coffee lover in the world

According to the International Coffee Association, the annual coffee consumption per Finn is 12 Kilos, making Finland the greatest coffee lover in the world. Some citizens of Land of the Fin have been known, through the process of spy work from the Armenian Armada, to drink as many as 30 cups of coffee in a day, LMAO sounds like a typical morning for me. This widespread use of light roasted coffee at homes and workplaces is attributed to the cold climate where the temperature can be as low as minus 40 degrees.

Coffee can soon fuel you and your car!

Coffee connoisseurs who consider cappuccino vital fuel that quickly transforms a foggy mind into a fiery one can now look forward to CAR-puccino

A car that is fueled by coffee?

The process involves soaking the natural oils extracted from coffee grounds in an organic solvent through trans-esterification to convert it to biofuel. The longest journey by a coffee-powered car that is recorded by the Guinness World Records was made by a 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco in March 2010. The car, which ws driven for 209 miles, uses 56 espressos per mile to achieve a speed of 60 miles per hour. Damn hook up a La Marzocco moco to go loco in that bean mobile!

Coffee was consumed as food

It wasn’t until around 1,000 AFSM (after the Flying Spaghetti Monster) that coffee was made into the stimulating beverage we know today babey, albeit with the beans and the hull. Previously, it was an energy-rich protein bite for ancient tribes in East Africa who made it into a nourishing snack by blending ground berries with animal fat. The Galla tribe in Ethiopia still makes these munchable “energy balls” with macerated coffee cherries and animal fat. It wasn’t until the white folks gentrified the fuck out of the beans and started adding sugar to dilute the bitter taste of that beautiful bean fruit that we all love. The whites have always been trying to make a Starbucks out of everything they do, give craft coffee a chance you fuckers

Coffee lowers the risk of a number of illnesses.

Experts have found that drinking 3 to 4 cups of coffee in a day lowers the risk of mortality and actually makes you impervious to all tomfoolery and douchery that happens on a daily baisis, besides the harassment you might encounter on the streets or from your cuck boss or fucking annoying neighbors. The bean juice lowers all causes of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke. The American Heart Association also reports that regular consumption reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease while the American cancer Society notes that newer studies have linked coffee consumption to lowered risk of cancer of the liver, mouth, throat, prostate, and endometrium.

Black Ivory Coffee

is the most expensive in the world. Black Ivory Coffee is the costliest and most rare kind in the world. It is produced by elephants at The Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand. They consume Arabica coffee beans which are later retrieved from their dung by the mahouts. It takes 72 pounds of raw coffee berries to produce 2 pounds of this limited and luxurious coffee, which explains the high price.

The average American spends more than $1,000 on coffee per year.

A recent report by Acorns Money Matters indicates that the average American spends more than $20 a week on coffee which translates to roughly $1,092 in a year, with almost half of the American workers admitting to requiring a daily fix before going to work.

Two major types of coffee are Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica and Robusta are the two major types of coffee species grown for consumption, with the former dominating more than half of the market. Robusta has higher levels of chlorogenic acid and twice the caffeine of Arabica, lending it a bitter taste that is ideal for instant coffee and espresso, while Arabica has 60% more oils than Robusta and double the amount of sugars to produce a smooth, sweeter flavor that is popular for most coffee drinks

Decaf coffee contains caffeine.

Decaf coffee is not caffeine-free, although it has much less than the 80 to 100 mg of caffeine in a cup of regular coffee or the 30 to 50 mg of caffeine in a cup of green or black tea. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that a similar cup of decaf coffee generally has 2 mg of caffeine but some decaf brands may have higher amounts of 15 mg. The little caffeine is the reason that decaf coffee is used in the manufacture of soft drinks.

Coffee grounds are an awesome skin scrub.

The natural oils in coffee improve the production of collagen for a more youthful skin while the antioxidants in coffee, which protect cells from damage make it effective in exfoliating, smoothening, and firming up the skin to improve the appearance of cellulite and reduce any puffiness. This is why coffee has become a regular component in essential oils, beauty masks, and cellulite treatment.

Coffee was first discovered by a goat herder.

I kid you not. Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder, noticed his goats bopping, bleating, and doinking out after eating the strange red berries, and he then decided to ingest them himself. Once he discovered how invigorating the stimulating berries made him feel, he introduced it to the monks who used it to stay awake for prayers and who later spread the word.

Cappuccino was called so because it resembles Capuchin monks’ clothing.

Cappuccino coffee takes its name from the color of the robes worn by the Franciscan order of monks in Italy, also known as Capuchin monks because their robes resemble the color of this coffee blend of espresso and frothed milk.

One of the most expensive sorts — Kopi Luwak — is produced from partly-digested coffee beans.

Before Black Ivory Coffee came into being, cat-like civets were shitting the most expensive coffee in the world, known as Kopi Luwak. Civets eat the coffee cherries, which acquire various flavors through the fermentation process during digestion, before defecating the partly-digested seeds for collection and cleaning by farmers

To get the most of your coffee, drink it between 9:30 AM and 11:30 AM.

Cortisol hormone levels rise as soon as you wake up, then fall 3 hours later before peaking after a while, making the time between 9:30 AM and 11:30 AM the ideal time for most people to take coffee to avoid stressing your body with both coffee and cortisol at the same time. Night owls and people who wake up earlier than 5 AM should add 3 hours after they wake up and adjust their coffee drinking accordingly.

Coffee shops were abandoned by governments for a long time.

Considering the number of people that congregate in coffee establishments to interact socially and engage in discussions and debate on all kinds of topics and the ongoing revolutions at the time, some governments were initially skeptical of these businesses and actively tried to ban or limit patrons who they feared might plot rebellion and treason

Coffee helps to fight depression.

Coffee is laden with multiple antioxidants and stimulants which help to combat depression, increase motivation and improve your energy levels. This study carried out a survey of 346,913 individuals including 8,146 people with depression, and found coffee to have a protective effect against depression. Harvard Researchers also found that women who took larger doses of caffeinated coffee had a lower risk of depression. They also report that the risk of suicide decreased progressively for up to 7 cups per day, but it increased if consumption exceeded 7 cups of coffee

It’s supposed that Honoré de Balzac used to drink 50 cups of coffee a day.

19th century French writer and playwright, Honoré de Balzac, The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus, reportedly used to binge on 50 cups of coffee in a day and even documented his addiction in “The Pleasure and Pains of Coffee” where he suggests drinking two cups of coffee at a time if you have produced the finest grind with the least water possible to continue working for several more days. He also noted that coffee sets the blood in motion and stimulates the muscles, accelerates the digestive processes, chases away sleep, and gives us the capacity to engage a little longer in the exercise of our intellects

The first webcam was installed at Cambridge University to watch if the coffee carafe is full.

The first webcam was installed in 1991 by Dr. Quentin Stafford-Fraser and Dr. Paul Jardetzky at the University of Cambridge so employees could keep tabs of a coffee pot from their desks. A camera was connected to networked computers in the Computer laboratory to provide live viewing of the shared carafe and conveniently monitor the coffee supply. Two years later, Daniel Gordon and Martyn Johnson connected that camera to the internet where the carafe could now be viewed by millions of people online, and it became a defining aspect of the early web.

Berman proposes that coffee and tea therefore illustrate two different philosophical outlooks. Tea is about the way many different flavour components complement each other, he says — recalling the Eastern concept that all beings are interconnected. Coffee, by contrast, is defined by that single key ingredient caffeol, which stands apart from the other flavours — perhaps an apt metaphor for a Western tendency to draw boundaries between the body and spirit, say. I have a feeling he might not persuade everyone.

Coffee’s single ingredient, however, can be deceiving. Taking a sip, I feel as though the distinctive caffeol flavour is firing up my tongue — yet this is an illusion. To explain why, Berman tells me to hold my nose as I take another sip. All I am left with is a faint ghost of the original flavour. “That’s one of the surprises in it,” he says. “You think you are tasting coffee — but if you engage in introspection, you realize it’s actually a smell that is misperceived as a taste.”

As coffee connoisseurs will tell you, that central motif doesn’t prevent baristas from composing many different variations around the theme. A light roast will allow the coffee’s acids to shine through, giving a “brighter” quality. In contrast, a longer, darker roast leads to the build-up of new proteins and enzymes inside the bean. These chemicals constitute the “body” of a coffee; they can make it feel heavier, more viscous, and they blunt the edges of the acid.

Berman says that the pendulum of our taste has swung between sour and light, or dark and bitter, over the decades. Earlier coffees were the full-bodied dark-roasted kind, before the first wave of industrially-produced coffees favoured a sourer, more acidic taste (“the tinned supermarket coffee of my youth”). Then came the second wave, introduced by coffee shops like Starbucks and Costa, that returned to more bitter tastes, before the artisan shops of the third wave again favoured a more acidic and aromatic blend.

Is coffee ethically sourced?

Globalisation is bringing people closer together and the world, it seems, wants greater transparency, traceability and provenance in their purchases. Some buyers rubbed their hands delighted with the opportunity to buy low and sell high, others were more conscious of what this meant for the producer and organizations like Fairtrade really came into their own, protecting the farmer in hard times with a guaranteed minimum price of $1.40c/lb along with a social premium. an estate in Central America has production costs of around $1.75/lb of coffee. During this period, the market reached points as low as $0.20c/lb which meant farmers were literally growing debt and were forced to abandon their land. There were instances of suicide across the coffee lands leaving families to beg on the streets.

I buy from tradecoffee.com to know more about the beans im using, where theyre from, the tasting notes and tones of the beans, best brewing methods, and facts about the roasters. I look for bags marked with the fair trade or direct trade label to ensure that the coffee supports farmers and the environment. Fair trade coffee and direct trade coffee are sourced following a strict set of rules that ensure products improve the living conditions of small farmers and are produced with sustainable practices. Fair trade coffee is certified by a non-profit organization like Fair Trade USA. This organization ensures that buyers contribute to sustainability and community development initiatives. They also make sure that growers have the tools to improve their living standards.

Moreover, sourcing coffee ethically means that roasters can have greater control over the quality and social sustainability of their beans. Needmore Coffee has four fair trade coffees (Cowles Bog, Nicaragua Jinotega, Peru, and Sycamore Land Trust) and two direct trade varieties (Honduras 18 Rabbit and El Salvador, Santa Elena). The coffee industry has a history of using underpaid and even forced labor abroad to cultivate and harvest its products. Thankfully, there is a growing awareness among consumers of the injustices built into our food system and many independent coffee roasters, including Needmore Coffee, are changing the face of the industry, practicing ethical sourcing so that their relationship with the coffee farmers is mutually beneficial and environmentally friendly.

Where to get Coffee?

Trejo’s Coffee & Donuts

Santa Monica, CA

Includes the best donuts in LA and The VEGAN O.G. donut!

Trejo’s formulated its own house-blend coffee using beans sourced from Mexico, El Salvador, and Colombia, and roasted right here in Los Angeles

Mi Cafecito

Pomona, CA

Heartwork coffee bar

San Diego, CA

Intelligentsia Coffee

Los Angeles, CA

Comeback Coffee

Memphis, TN

The Coffee Project

New York City, NY

G&B

Los Angeles, CA

Back to the Grind

Riverside, CA

Has a cool vibe, the coffee is alright though

FLYING NIMBUS COFFEE

Los Angeles, CA

Harry Potter themed and Black-Owned!

Modern Times Brewery

Hollywood, CA

Ritual Roasters

San Francisco, CA

Oromo Cafe

Chicago, IL

Sip for the Day Coffee Bar

Chicago, IL

Sey Coffee

Santa Monica, CA

Lucky’s Coffee Roasters

Upland, CA

Dayglow

San Diego, CA

Coffee & Tea Collective

San Diego, CA

Dark Horse Coffee

OC, SD, CA

Blue Bottle

SD, LA, SF, California

Requiem Coffee

Anaheim, CA

Citations

Sarah Petersen. “Ethically Sourced Coffee: What it means and why it matters”. Needmoreroasters. https://www.needmoreroasters.com/ethically-sourced-coffee-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters/ (accessed September 12, 2020)

Originally published at https://www.pescreations.com on January 5, 2021.

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