Coffee Trivia

Did you know...
27% of U.S. coffee drinkers and 43% of German drinkers add a sweetener to their coffee.

The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil with over 3,970 million coffee trees. Colombia comes in second with around two thirds of Brazil's production.

Hard bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.

Arabica and Robusta trees can produce crops for 20 to 30 years under proper conditions and care.

Most coffee is transported by ships. Currently there are approximately 2,200 ships involved in transporting the beans each year.

The popular trend towards flavored coffees originated in the United States during the 1970's.

October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.

The first coffee tree in the Western Hemisphere was brought from France to the Island of Martinique in the 1720's.

More coffee facts

   Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee in terms of volume at 16 pounds per person.
   Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.
   An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.
   The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil the coffee producing a bitter tasting brew. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their coffee.
   With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.
   Up until the 1870's most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire. It wasn't until recent times that batch roasting became popular.
   Each year some 7 million tons of green beans are produced world wide. Most of which is hand picked.
The Revolutionary Drink
   The coffee houses that sprung up in France, England, and eventually the Americas proved to aid the spread of new and sometimes radical political opinions. In 1675 Charles II issued a "Proclamation for the Suppression of Coffee Houses" in an attempt to quell the liberal ideas being discussed by the patrons. All parties rebelled, and eleven days later the coffee houses reopened. The Parisian coffee houses are credited as a testing ground for the ideology that led to the French Revolution.
   Across the ocean in Boston, the Boston Tea Party was planned in the now famous Green Dragon coffee house in 1773.  And, in New York the Merchants coffee house was site of the Government headquarters in the days following the outbreak of the American Revolution. Later, as American soldiers forged into battle in the Mexican War and the Civil War, they protected their coffee beans as their most precious rations.

What a day!!!!

Well yesterday and today have been quite the days! Yesterday afternoon about 2:30p.m. the espresso machine quit working. We had nothing. So that pretty much ended our business. Brad was just leaving the shop when it quit so he came back in and looked and it. He called the service guy from Allegro and he told him that it was probably the heating element that had gone out. He said he would overnight mail it to us. So Brad went to the hospital and got the small machine to use here. We had it up and running by about 4 p.m. so we could finish out the day and we WERE BUSY.

Then today came around. Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!! Candace and I were so busy this morning we had 3-5 cars lined up in the drive thru for an hour plus people inside waiting for their drinks. The poor little machine was going as fast as it could and huffing and puffing all the way. Fortunately all the people were real nice and in the holiday spirit because the tips were great. Maybe they just felt sorry for us!! lol  At one point we were so busy our one customer that helps out occasionally got up and came over and helped us. She took orders, rinsed out blenders, and rang in the orders while Candace got the cups ready with flavors and marked them, I pulled shots and steamed milk. We had quite a process going.

The part came in about 10 and Brad got the machine fixed but not switched out yet.

How much fun can a person have in 2 days!!!!

Snow Beautiful Snow

It snowed here over the weekend. We got about 5 or 6 inches... Then yesterday it snowed ALL DAY! We got another 5 inches.  This morning when we got up it was foggy and all the trees were covered with frost. It was sooooooooooooooooooo beautiful. So I thought I would take some pictures to share. Hope you enjoy them. Later!!!

Above is one of the trees in our backyard. The pix to the right is our grape vine over the tress and Rosie's pen.

Below is a wooden twirly thing with really cool frost on it.

Each of the little pieces of frost were like miniture "cutout" snowflakes. Guess they were hand cut by God!!!

These are my Angels in my front yard. They are so pretty!!!! My favorite outside ornaments.

And the final one... The neighbors tree. It is a huge tree and just covered with frost. It was so pretty. When I got to work (right after I took these pixs) the temperture on the bank was 0. Burrrrrr

Very cold but it sure was pretty!!!

Hope you enjoyed the snow pixs.

Drivers Lisence

I had to renew my driver's lisence. I had gotten a letter in the mail to fill out and take to the courthouse. Didn't have to take a test or anything. So I took it in and gave them my paper and money. Then they got ready to take my picture!! After the first flash, the lady said that she got a glare from my glasses so she wanted another shot. Ok so she took another one. She looked at it and sort of paused and then said ok that will work. When she gave it to me I about died. I had this half smile on my face. I look like I am scared to death. Terrible pix.

The next day the guy from the driver's lisence exam office came in for coffee. I told him that I thought that they needed to get a mirror so you could see how you look when they are taking your picture. He laughed. I told him my pix was awful and he said well at least you won't have to do that again for 5 years!! I said yeah but now I am stuck with that terrible picture for 5 years! Ughhhhhhhhhhh what a drag. And they have NO sympathy for a person.

I don't know why the pics always have to look soooooooo bad. They act like it will cost them a bundle to get a decent picture. I was the only one there, so it wasn't like there was a back up line and they had to hurry. There is no film because they use digital and it comes up on their computer screen, which they could turn so you could see what you are going to look like before they print it. It just doesn't make any sense to me!!! So I am just a little frustrated!!