24 coffee facts and stats for Advent!

You all know that we live, breathe and love everything coffee! So we have been looking for interesting coffee facts and stats, and streamlined down our list of favourites to just 24 – one for each day of Advent.

1. The famous composer Beethoven was an ardent coffee drinker – he counted out 60 beans for each cup!
2. The Boston Tea Party resulted in Americans swapping from tea to coffee as an expression of freedom
3. Exfoliating skin with moist coffee grounds twice a week can help your face glow
4. At ancient Turkish weddings, grooms were made to promise to always provide brides with coffee or it would result in divorce
5. In 1511, coffee was banned in Mecca on the grounds of preventing free thinking
6. During WW2 American soldiers watered down their espressos because they were too strong for them, this is where we get the name for Americano from!
7. Research has shown that coffee can actually be used to fuel a car – but way in the future
8. Caffeine is not actually that dehydrating, unless it is consumed in large quantities (more than 500 to 600 mg a day)
9. Coffee can help you live a longer and healthier life as they contain lots of antioxidants which help the body fight free radical chemicals
10. Coffee contains many good nutrients such as Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) and Manganese and Potassium
11. A Coffee bean is actually the seed of a coffee cherry and technically not a bean.
12. Coffee can help prevent Alzheimers and Dementia – studies have shown that coffee drinkers are up to 65% less likely to suffer from these diseases
13. Black Ivory coffee is the most expensive kind of coffee, which is made from elephant dung!
14. The first webcam in the world was made for coffee by a group of Cambridge University scientists who filmed their coffee pot to check when it was empty
15. Caffeine improves performance when working out
16. In 1675 King Charles 2 banned coffee shops because he thought people were meeting in them to conspire against him
17. Coffee is the second most traded commodity on earth
18. Espresso is not a type of bean, roast or blend – it is just the way that coffee is prepared
19. It takes at least 3 years for a new coffee plant to reach maturity.
20. To enjoy a cup of coffee with your cat, in Japan you can visit Cat Cafes where you bring your cat and hangout
21. Every year 400-500 billion cups of coffee are consumed!
22. Can you imagine drinking 50 cups of coffee a day! Apparently an eccentric philosopher called Francois Marie did – everyday! Now that is some going!
23. Arabica coffee has twice the amount of Chromosomes as Robusta Coffee, which helps explain why its coffee beans are varied and complex in flavour.
24. A drug in nature’s medicine cabinet, caffeine is found in plants the world over. It delivers its most powerful punch through a cup of coffee. Although it wasn’t until 1821 that caffeine was discovered as coffee’s stimulant, for centuries coffee lovers have known caffeine’s best place is in a cup . . . . filled with coffee!