Now I cannot lie, but I must have my cup of joe every day. Coffee is such a commodity, and so many individuals drink coffee daily as well. But the phrase, cup of joe, is a reference to the idea that coffee is a plain, universal beverage consumed by the average person, also known as an average joe. We can also consider that coffee is the world’s most valuable traded commodity next to petroleum. But did you know that coffee beans themselves are fruit pits and not beans.

Can we just talk about how Americans spend an average of $1,092 on coffee every year. This breaks down to roughly $92 a month, which is about $3 worth of coffee a day. New Yorker’s drink seven times more coffee than other cities in the United States. No wonder there are so many coffee options in the Big Apple. Let alone Starbucks has over 87,000 different drink combinations. Since we consume so much coffee in America, we can consider companies like Fairtrade coffee’s which improve quality. Even if this coffee costs more, coffee farmers spend an extra 25% of their time producing Fairtrade premium coffee.

A fun little fact that coffee beans grow from a bush, and they are classified as the pit of berries. By this definition, this makes them fruit. Accomplishing such good coffee growing conditions, coffee plants require high altitudes and tropical climates. Hawaii is the only American state that can grow coffee because of its tropical conditions.

Coffee plants themselves do originate in Ethiopia and were introduced and spread to other locations in the world after the Columbian exchange. But was discovered and developed in Yemen, the birthplace of this popular beverage of today. Coffee drinking then spread through the Middle East and Northern Africa. During the 17th century Ottoman Empire, it was believed that coffee contained mind-altering effects. The ruler of this period believed it to be a type of narcotic and banned it from public consumption.

The most common coffee beans today are Arabica and Robusta. Arabica coffee was originally cultivated somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula. On the other hand, Robusta coffee originates from a hardier plant that contains double the amount of caffeine. Brazil is known to be the largest producer of coffee and is responsible for ⅓ of the world’s coffee production for over 150 years. The second-largest coffee producer is Vietnam.

** A little fun fact**

If you prefer to keep your coffee as hot as possible for a longer time, try adding some cream into your drink. This will make your coffee stay warm for 20% longer.

Did you know that you can overdose on coffee? Studies have shown that you would need to consume over 70 cups of coffee to kill a 150-pound person. The amount of caffeine from this can trigger heart palpitations and cardiac arrest. This would mean that you would need to drink about 3 cups of coffee every hour for 24 hours for it to be lethal. But also know that half of the consumed caffeine in your system can be cleared from your system within 5 hours. The effects of caffeine reach its peak around 30 to 60 minutes from consumption. So, if you are averaging 3 or so cups a day, you obviously will not overdose on that caffeine intake.