If you’re a coffee drinker, you probably know everything about the difference between Arabica and Robusta beans, dark and light roast, and caffeinated vs. decaf.
You have likely noticed that just smelling coffee can give you a boost of energy before you take your first sip – not that it’s enough to make you skip that cup of joe.
Coffee is clearly an extremely popular and widely consumed beverage, so it might not surprise you to hear that coffee is the second most traded product in the world (after oil), with 25 million farmers in over 50 countries involved in its production.
But how much do you know about the history and the science of coffee? Get ready for a fascinating look behind the curtain of your morning pick-me-up.
7. The world’s most expensive coffee costs up to $600 a pound
For that much money, it’s got to be something truly special. We guess that’s one word for it – this particular coffee is extracted from the feces of a Sumatran wildcat called a civet. The animals love the berries but are unable to digest the beans.
The beans are therefore fermented in the stomach of the animal before being excreted. This apparently produces a smooth and chocolaty coffee with no bitterness once the beans are collected from the feces (and, we assume, washed). To each their own, we guess.
