7 Interesting Facts About Coffee That You May Not Know

Mmm coffee — you drink it every day, but what do you really know about it? Take a break from your daily grind, and check out these seven interesting facts about everyone’s favorite, soul-warming beverage.

7 Stimulating Facts About Coffee

A coffee bean is actually the seed or pit of a berry

As it turns out, all types of beans are actually seeds, and coffee beans are no exception. But in this case, they’re more like pits. This is because there’s only one bean inside of each coffee berry. Crack one open, and you’ll find an off-white-colored pit or bean. Some people call coffee berries “cherries” because they’re about the size of cherries and are bright red.

To make coffee, growers harvest the red berries from coffee plants, which look like small trees or bushes. The fruits are then fermented, pitted, and roasted before they’re prepared for distribution at processing centers and shipped to your local café.

Coffee is originally from Ethiopia

Concerning where coffee was first made, there is no one origin story that everyone agrees on, but there is a sort-of legend that many people believe. That legend states that coffee was first made in Ethiopia.

According to the tale, a goat herder named Kaldi first took notice of coffee berries when he saw that it was making his goats lose sleep. The goats would eat the coffee berries during the day and then be up all night. So, Kaldi told an abbot at his local monastery about the fruit, and the abbot was the first to make a drink from the berries. The drink kept the abbot awake and alert, even during his long evening prayers.

Naturally, when word got out, this miracle drink spread like wildfire. It went first to the Arabian Peninsula, where it became extremely popular among Persians, Egyptians, Syrians, and Turks. And from there, it spread to Europe and throughout the world. The rest, as they say, is history.

Most coffee today comes from Brazil.

Of course, there are many people who assume that the coffee plant originated in South America. And even though that’s not true, it is grown in great abundance there. In fact, Brazil produces the most coffee in the world, accounting for forty percent of the world’s production. Colombia is the second biggest producer — also in South America — and Vietnam is the third.

In addition to being the largest producer of coffee, Brazil is the second largest coffee-consuming nation. There, in their native Portuguese, the typical cup of coffee is called a cafezinho, which means “little coffee.” A cafezinho is small and intense like an Italian espresso, but also extremely sweet.

Coffee has some major health benefits.

Coffee often gets a bad rap because too much can cause nervousness, restlessness, and insomnia. But many medical experts still point to the benefits of daily coffee drinking and focus on those (thank goodness).

One of the greatest benefits of drinking coffee is that it improves cardiovascular function and lowers the risk of contracting chronic heart disease, stroke, and heart attack. If this is true, then this is outstanding news for the many people who drink coffee on a regular basis, especially because heart disease is one of the world’s leading killers.

Coffee has also been known to slow down the progression of serious liver diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. It can even help improve sensitivity to insulin, which may in turn lower the risk of contracting Type 2 Diabetes. Experts are still monitoring the long-term effects that coffee has on the body, but the results look good so far.

Using an Arabica coffee scrub can drastically reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Yep, coffee can even help your skin. There are two crucial ingredients in Arabica coffee that mitigate the appearance of cellulite: caffeine and antioxidants. First, caffeine dilates blood vessels. This tightens and tones the skin tissue for a smoother appearance. Next, antioxidants help flush out toxins. This won’t smooth the texture of your skin, but it is necessary for healthy, glowing skin — and can also even out skin tone.

So how do you use coffee to make your skin healthier? Despite what you may think, you don’t have to rub dry grounds all over yourself. Many of the best body scrubs are actually made with real Arabica coffee. Just remember that the effects of using a coffee scrub are short-term. This isn’t bad; it simply means that you should incorporate a good Arabica coffee scrub into your regular beauty routine in order to see optimal and long-term results.

Old coffee grounds can help your garden.

Growing a garden this year? Your used coffee grounds may be able to help. And it’s a great way to make use of something that you’d otherwise be tossing into the trash.

There are two main ways to use coffee in your garden. First, you can add any used grounds from your coffee maker to your compost pile. The coffee grounds add necessary nitrogen to help break down the compost.

Second, you can use coffee grounds as a fertilizer. Simply save used grounds in an empty coffee can or plastic bag and sprinkle them directly at the base of your plants when you have the chance. It’s a great replacement for smelly fertilizer, and it can help you grow full, lush plants. Some gardeners even say that it repels garden-eating pests like snails and slugs.

Coffee can help you maintain a healthy weight.

Did you think otherwise? It does everything else, so why wouldn’t it help your physique too? There are two ways that coffee can help you maintain a healthy weight.

First, studies show that drinking coffee on a regular basis can rev up your metabolism by as much as eight percent. This might not seem like a lot, but if you drink coffee often, it really is. So, over time, coffee can help you burn more fat. If you are a regular coffee drinker, you also might notice that coffee is a great aid for your digestion, which is additional evidence that it’s improving your metabolism.

Second, caffeine is great for drinking right before a workout. It increases your levels of adrenaline and helps fatty acids release more readily from your fat tissue. This translates into extremely effective workouts and faster weight loss.

So, does this make you want to drink more coffee? It should! Coffee is great for your insides, great for your outsides, and people all over the world have been enjoying it for centuries. What are you waiting for? Go make yourself a cup!