Here are surprising facts about your favorite brew that’ll change the way you sip.
There’s a legend: when Europeans first discovered coffee, they took it to the Pope, fearing they might end up in hell for drinking this “pagan Muslim” beverage. Pope Clement VIII supposedly took a sip and declared, “This satanic drink is so delicious that we should cheat the devil by baptizing it.” And so, coffee was blessed.
According to various estimates, coffee is the most popular drink in the world after water.
In the homeland of coffee — Ethiopia — the drink is often enjoyed with salt. A pinch of sodium chloride is believed to enhance the flavor and help maintain the body’s salt balance in hot climates.
Caffeine wasn’t designed by nature to help us wake up in the morning, but rather to protect coffee trees from pests and to attract pollinating insects.
The most expensive coffee in the world is kopi luwak, which can cost up to $1,300 per kilogram. It’s produced with the help of civet cats, which eat coffee cherries, digest the pulp, and… excrete the beans. Farmers collect, wash, dry, and sell them.
If you add cold cream to hot coffee, it will actually cool down more slowly. There’s scientific reasoning behind this — hot surfaces radiate heat faster than cold ones, and the thicker consistency of the drink helps retain warmth.