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Past
Coffee Knowledge Questions and Answers.
Q. In the past three centuries, what percentage of all people living in the western world have switched from tea to coffee?
A. 50%
B. 70%
C. 90%
A.
C.
90%
Q. In the same year, there were two firsts in the United States — the first wholesale coffee roasting company, and the first newspaper advertisement featuring coffee. What was the year?
A. 1802
B. 1790
C. 1775
A.
B.
1790
Q.
How many hand-picked Arabica coffee cherries does it take to make ONE roasted pound of coffee?
A. 2,000
B. 3,000
C. 4,000
A.
A. It takes 2,000 hand-picked Arabica coffee cherries to make ONE roasted pound of coffee.
Q. In what year did Johann
Sebastian Bach compose his Coffee Cantata?A.
1732
B. 1765
C. 1701
A.
A.
1732 This piece of music was partly an ode to
coffee and partly a challenge to the movement in
Germany to prevent women from drinking coffee (as
it was thought to make women sterile). The cantata
includes the aria, "Ah! How sweet coffee
taste! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter
far than muscatel wine! I must have my
coffee."
Q. When
was the first commercial espresso machine manufactured in
Italy?A.
1892
B. 1921
C. 1905
A.
C.
1905
Q. According
to coffee lore, who is responsible for the spread of
coffee’s popularity in the early 1600s?A.
Queen Elizabeth I
B. Pope
Clement VIII
C. King
Louis XII of France
A.
B.
Coffee afficionados claim that the spread of
coffee's popularity in the early 1600's is due to the
influence of Pope Clement VIII (1536–1605, pope
1592–1605). Upon being pressured by his advisers to
declare coffee to be a drink of the devil because of its
popularity among Muslims in the middle east, he instead
declared that, "This devil's drink is so good ... we
should cheat the devil by baptizing it."
Q.
Within
how many miles of the equator is all coffee grown?
A.
2500 miles
B. 2000
miles
C. 1000
miles
A.
The answer is
C.
All coffee is grown within 1,000 miles
of the equator, from the Tropic of Cancer in the
north, to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south.
Q. As
the coffee plant develops white blossoms,
approximately what percentage of these flowers
produce a mature bean?
A.
one quarter
B. one half
C. three-quarters
A.
Correct answer
A. Only one quarter of all the blooms of most coffee plants actually mature into harvestable green coffee
cherries.
Q. The
word "tip" is popularly thought to date back to
the old English coffeehouses. Conspicuously placed brass
boxes etched with a three-word inscription, encouraged
customers to pay for efficient service. The resulting
acronym, TIP, has become a byword.
What
are the three words that were etched on the boxes?
A.
To
Insure Promptness.
Q. What percentage of the caffeine consumed in the United States comes from coffee?
A. 50%
B. 35%
C. 75%
D. 90%
A.
75%
Q. What
coffee-producing country produced a scented postage stamp
in 2001 to promote its coffee?
A.
Brazil
B. Colombia
C. The United States
A.
Brazil.
The scent on the stamp is supposed to last from three to
five years.
Q. Approximately
how many green coffee beans does it take to fill a 152#
jute sack from Guatemala?
a.
50,000
b. 100,000
c. 250,000
d. 400,000
A.
Answer:
D. It takes more than 400,000 beans to fill a coffee sack.
Q. Compared
to a regular cup of dripped brewed coffee, espresso has:
A.
more caffeine than regular coffee
B. more than 2/3 the caffeine of regular coffee
C. 1/2
to 2/3 the caffeine of regular coffee
D. less than 1/2 the caffeine of regular coffee
Answer:
C. Surprisingly, espresso does not have a higher caffeine
content than regular coffee. A single espresso has half to
two-thirds as much caffeine as a cup of regular coffee,
partly because the dark roasting removes some of the
caffeine and also because the short preparation time does
not dissolve as much of it. It takes less than a minute to
make espresso, compared with 5 to 10 minutes for
percolator or drip coffee.
Q. Where
does coffee rank as a global commodity?
A.
Coffee
is the number two commodity in the world, second only to
petroleum. This ranks coffee ahead of metals and grains!
Q. Brazil
and Colombia combined produce what percentage of the
world's coffee?
A.
5%
B. 25%
C. 45%
Q.
How
is coffee sometimes used in Japanese skin care regimens?
A.
Coffee
has been used as a natural exfoliant, and the oils in
coffee have been used for their moisturizing benefits.
Coffee has also been used for its healing properties on
damaged skin. The Japanese have been known to bathe in
coffee grounds fermented with pineapple pulp.
Q.
Where was the first place that coffee was served in
Europe?
A.
Venice.
The Venetians were the first to introduce coffee to Europe
in 1615. By 1632 coffee houses began to flourish
throughout the continent, becoming centers of social and
cultural activity.
Q.
Who was the first American coffee trader?
A.
In 1670, Dorothy Jones of Boston was granted a license to
sell coffee, and so became the first American coffee
trader.
Q.
In what country was the prototype of the first espresso
machine created?
A.
The prototype of the first espresso machine was created in
France in 1822.
Q.
How
much caffeine can the human body absorb at a given time?
(in milligrams)
A.
100mg
B. 300mg
C. 500mg
D. 1,000mg
A.
B.
300mg
Q.
Which
geographic region boasts the world's highest per capita
annual coffee consumption?
A.
Scandinavia
has the highest per capita annual consumption, with 26.4
pounds.
Q.
If
your coffee tastes bitter it is probably due to
the following:
A.
bad water and bad Karma
B. a long brew
cycle and too fine of a grind
C. a short
brew cycle
A.
B. a long brew
cycle and too fine of a grind
Q.
Who
is credited with inventing the first drip coffee
maker, when she made a filter out of her son's
notebook paper?
A.
Meslitta
Bentz, in 1809.
Q.
Which
country once enacted a law permitting a wife to
divorce her husband if he failed to keep the
household supplied with coffee?
A.
Ottoman
Turkey (1475) had a law that made it legal for a
woman to divorce her husband if she didn't have
her daily fill/quota.
Q.
What makes the Sumatran beans known as Kopi Luwak the
rarest and most expensive coffee beans in the world?
A.
They
are harvested from the digestive tract of the Indonesian
palm civet — a catlike carnivore also known as a luwak.
The animal prowls the coffee plantations of Sumatra and
eats only the ripest cherries from the trees. It digests
the juicy red fruit covering the beans but not the beans
themselves, which pass undisturbed through the creature's
gastrointestinal tract.
The
beans ferment from the enzymatic action of the luwak's
stomach acids — an all-natural process that neatly
mirrors the efforts of coffee processors who ferment
premium beans before roasting them in order to lower their
acidity. The luwak leaves its black gold on the jungle
floor, where it is eagerly collected by locals.
A
coffee company in Atlanta markets the beans for $300 per
pound!
Q.
The
French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank how many
cups of coffee every day?
A.
None
B. At least 10 cups
C. At least 30 cups
D. At least 50 cups
A.
The
answer is D.
Q.
What famous insurance company began as a coffee
shop on the banks of the river Thames?
A.
Lloyd's of London
"In
the late 17th century, seafarers flocked to Edward Lloyd's
coffeehouse in Tower Street, near the Thames waterfront in
London, to gossip, play cards, and conduct business, and
Edward Lloyd serviced their needs. Coffee, valued for its
therapeutic powers, was a penny a cup. Pens, ink, and
paper were free, as was news, provided by Lloyd's runners
who scurried back and forth between the coffeehouse and
the docks, gathering the latest information on the comings
and goings of ships and their cargoes.
"In
the days of sail and rudimentary navigation, the news was
often bad: ships were wrecked and merchants ruined.
Although ship and cargo insurance can be traced back to
the Phoenicians, it was at Lloyd's coffeehouse that modern
marine insurance was born. A ship owner would write on a
slip of paper the particulars of a proposed voyage — the
name, route and ports of call of a vessel, the value of
its hull and cargo, and the amount he was willing to pay
for "insurance." Other coffee drinkers arrayed
in booths and benches around the room, many of them ship
owners themselves, would then decide how much, if any, of
the risk they were willing to accept in exchange for the
premium. An "insurer" would write his name on
the ship owners' slip under the shipping information
(hence the term underwriter)."
From:
Lloyd’s - A Brief History – From coffeehouse to
powerhouse
Q.
True
or False – The Arab
culture was instrumental in the development of coffee as a
beverage.
A.
True.
The word coffee is derived from the Arabic word ÒgahwaÓ,
which translated means wine or excitement. Coffee became
known in Europe as Arabian wine. This wine was made by
boiling water and adding green (unroasted) coffee.
Q.
In
comparison to lighter roasted coffee, do darker roasted
beans contain:
- slightly
more caffeine and more acidity
- slightly
less caffeine and less acidity
- slightly
more caffeine and less acidity
A.
The
answer is b. The darker the roast, the less
caffeine and acidity a coffee will possess. Some of the
caffeine in coffee is dissipated up the chimney of the
roaster.
Q.
What group of men is credited with the origin of the word
"cappuccino"?
A.
The word cappuccino comes from Capuchin Monks who
shave a neat bald circle in the exact center of their
hair. Italian locals have long joked that the result — a
ring of dark hair framing a white shaved spot of skin —
looks uncannily like foamy white milk encircled by the
brown stain of espresso.
Q.
Whether referring to a popular coffee drink or to
describing a blend of fine arabica coffees,
"Mocha" is a common term in the wonderful world
of coffee. Alternatively spelled Mocca, Moka or properly
spelled Mokha, this coffee term derived it's name from the
main coffee port city of what country?
A.
Yemen.
Q.
What event in the late 1700's resulted in the Continental
Congress naming coffee as the national beverage?
A.
The Boston Tea Party. In a revolt against King
George's Tea Tax, bales of tea were tossed into the Boston
Harbor and coffee became the nation's preferred hot
beverage.
Q.
Brazil is the world's largest producer of coffee. Which Asian country has quickly risen, with the help of
World Bank, to become the world's second largest coffee producer?
A.
Vietnam. During the last ten years, Vietnam has
grown from 1.5 million 130 lb. bags per year to over 10
million bags — a seven-fold increase that now ranks
Vietnam as the world's second-largest producer behind
Brazil. This unprecedented growth was backed and
subsidized by massive loans from the World Bank, IMF,
Asian Development Bank, the French Agriculture Development
Agency, and the Government of Vietnam. While good
intentioned, this effort has greatly contributed to a
world-wide glut of raw green coffee, which has caused
farmer prices to fall to a 100 year low. To make matters
worse, Vietnamese farmers were advised to grow low grade
robusta coffee which is only used in inexpensive
commercial coffee brands (the kind that advertise on
TV…). The results? Vietnamese farmers earn pennies per
pound for their hard work, farmers in Latin American and
Africa suffer due to much lower prices, and the large
commercial roasters lower their cost of goods — pointing
to "market forces" that are beyond their
control.
Q.
What is the name of the Ethiopian goat herder who is
credited with "discovering" coffee after
noticing that his goats seemed to dance about after dining
off the coffee cherries?
A.
According
to legend, Kaldi discovered the beans after watching his
goats eat the coffee cherries and begin prancing about on
their hind legs. For more info, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coffee/legend1.html
Q.
Most specialty coffee is grown at high altitudes — often
over 5,000 ft. Most coffee is marked by the exporter to
indicate the altitude at which it was grown. A common
marking is "SHB" – used in Guatemala, Costa
Rica and other coffee producing countries. What does SHB mean?
A.
Strictly
Hard
Bean.
Another common description is SHG for Strictly High Grown.
Coffee grown at high altitude grows slower and denser
(harder) due to cool evening temperatures. Obviously many
factors affect the taste of a coffee – but the altitude
is one of the most important. If all other factors are
similar, a higher grown coffee will almost always taste
better than a similar lower altitude coffee.
Q. What is the average annual
green bean yield of a coffee tree?
A.
Depending on the variety, it will take approximately 3 to
5 years for a coffee tree to bear its fruit. Once fully
matured, a coffee plant produces consistently for 15 or 20
years. Some trees can yield as much as 2 to 3 lbs. of
marketable green beans annually, but 1 lb. is considered
an average annual yield.
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