Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

If you are like me, there is not a day that goes by that you do not drink a cup of coffee. I started to think, if I am that involved with a drink it would probably be a good idea to at least know it's details. Did you know that coffee was originally a food, not a drink? It was eaten as beans and mixed with animal fat forming energy balls. I prefer it served out of a pretty cup with a mermaid on it. Caffeine, or trimethylxanthine is the stimulant in coffee that operates on the brain (in a much milder way) the same that amphetamines, cocain and heroine do.
-Coffee beans are grown on coffee trees.
-A coffee bean is actually the seed of a cherry plant.(I had no idea)
-After cherries are picked, they are either dried in the sun, or skinned and pulped and put into a fermentation machine for 12-48 hours, then dried.
-All other layers are then removed from the bean.
-They are graded and sorted by size and density.
-Coffee is then shipped unroasted or "green".
-It is then roasted in a drum and pops to double in size.
-The amount of time roasting is where the terms "light, medium, dark" etc come from!
-Coffee is then ground, either by you or by another company.

I have a new appreciation for this beautiful cup of "joe" I am holding in my hands.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/coffee7.htm