A coffee bush does not produce usable fruit
for five to six years, but then can produce for thirty to forty
years after that. Coffee was eaten long before it became a liquid
refreshment. African tribes would mix the coffee berries with fat
and create energy balls that they would eat once or twice a day,
when they needed a boost of energy. Green coffee beans were ground
up and mixed with fat, then made into small balls, which were eaten
by travelers on long journeys. It was the first plant to be
cultivated around the world.
The fruit, or cherry, is a reddish two-seeded berry. The two seeds
are what we call coffee beans, but are actually seeds. The cherries
and leaves also contain caffeine. In some countries, the berries are
fermented into wine, but mostly they are used for fertilizer or
cattle feed.
Coffee was the very first food to be freeze dried in 1938. Nestle
invented the freeze dried coffee. It was a milestone that was
unprecedented and set a new standard for how food could be packaged
and sold.
Coffee is so popular and in such high demand that it is actually the
second most traded commodity on earth, only behind oil.
Mocha is a city in Yemen and the island of Java in Indonesia are two
places, which types of coffee are named.