Introduction

A cup of black coffee

Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It has the highest sales in the world market for hot drinks.

The seeds of the Coffea plant's fruits are separated to produce unroasted green coffee beans. The beans are roasted and then ground into fine particles typically steeped in hot water before being filtered out, producing a cup of coffee. It is usually served hot, although chilled or iced coffee is common. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways (e.g., espresso, French press, caffè latte, or already-brewed canned coffee). Sugar, sugar substitutes, milk, and cream are often added to mask the bitter taste or enhance the flavor.

Though coffee is now a global commodity, it has a long history tied closely to food traditions around the Red Sea. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking as the modern beverage appears in modern-day Yemen in southern Arabia in the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines, where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in a manner similar to how it is now prepared for drinking. The coffee beans were procured by the Yemenis from the Ethiopian Highlands via coastal Somali intermediaries, and cultivated in Yemen. By the 16th century, the drink had reached the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, later spreading to Europe. (Full article...)

East 57th Street, Manhattan
Juan Valdez Café is a multinational coffeehouse chain based in Colombia that specializes in coffee retail. Its purpose is to become a member of the worldwide coffee restaurant business, and promote Colombian coffee. It was created by Colombia's National Federation of Coffee Growers through Procafecol S.A.; the latter being a company established in 2002. It was named after Juan Valdez, a fictional character meant to promote Colombian-grown coffee. (Full article...)
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... that Hurricane Rick of 1997 caused coffee prices on the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York to jump 4.7% because it threatened coffee crops at a time when they were vulnerable to winds blowing them down?
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Caffè crema (lit.'cream coffee') refers to two different coffee drinks:

  • An old name for espresso (1940s and 1950s).
  • A long espresso drink served primarily in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and northern Italy (1980s onwards), along the Italian/Swiss and Italian/Austrian border. In Germany it is generally known as a "Café Crème" or just "Kaffee" and is generally the default type of black coffee served, unless there is a filter machine.

As a colorful term it generally means "espresso", while in technical discussions, referring to the long drink, it may more narrowly be referred to as Swiss caffè crema. In addition, there is also Italian iced crema caffè.

Variant terms include crema caffè and the hyperforeignism café cremacafé crème is the direct French translation, but in France it contains dairy. Caffè and crema are Italian; thus café crema mixes French and Italian. (Full article...)

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Liqueur coffee
Liqueur coffee
A Liqueur coffee is a coffee drink with a shot of liqueur. Pictured is coffee and Baileys Irish Cream.

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Roasted coffee beans
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