Bitter Melon as as Coffee

Before coffee there were two choices for hydration - water or alcoholic beverage. The water was not purified so often made people sick. The alcohol would purify the beverage but made everyone drunk. Coffee, boiling water actually, gave a new source of fluids that was not alcoholic, was not full of microbes, and the caffeine gave a little kick.

This diverse beverage is made from roasted ground seeds of a tropical shrub. The most common species of bean is from Ethiopia which is located in western and central Africa. It is well known because many of these coffee beans are planted in over seventy countries, making it one of the most popular beverages in the world. The dried and roasted coffee seeds are ground and moistened by hot water passed through to become a liquid brew. The beverage is now drinkable and stimulating to people because of its natural high impact of caffeine that is why we become so energetic after consuming a drink. Coffee is known everywhere compared to any other drink; it is something that different cultures have in common. That is why coffee benefits a way of living by bringing completely different cultures together.

The earliest consumption of coffee is believed to have been by the Sufi Muslims around mocha in Yemen. The coffee beans were harvested and brewed just like the way they are prepared today. From this area, it spread across the Middle East, Europe and finally to North Africa by the 16th century. (Pendergrast,

In our society, coffee and tea are extremely popular drinks. Tea is the second-most consumed drinks in the world, surpassed only by water. Coffee too is one of the most well liked beverages, and popular all over the world. Though, it cannot completely live up to tea in terms of sales. Although unroasted coffee is one of the worlds most traded agricultural goods, the yearly sales of tea almost double the sales of coffee.

1. Coffee is one of the most common breakfast items found on any table in the morning and now sold all throughout the day. Coffee is grown and exported from places like Columbia and the Asian Pacific, to anywhere like Hawaii and the biggest producer, Brazil. 1/3 of the world 's coffee supply comes from Brazil, because of the nations tropical climate it is able to grow coffee very easily and plentiful. Brazil had many other types of climates but the hot and tropical one is great for the production of coffee.

There is an Ethiopian legend which says coffee was discovered by a goat herder which noticed his goats frolicking, full of energy after consuming the small red fruits from the coffee shrub. The herder tried the fruits and had a similar reaction. Before coffee became the morning beverage we know it as today it had many different forms of which it was consumed. From a wine like beverage too just eating the fruit as it was found. The Arabians started the roasted coffee phenomenon we know today way back in the 13th Century. By parching or boiling the coffee beans the Arabs were able to corner the market on coffee crops. In fact this was so affective it is believed not a single coffee plant existed outside Arabia or Africa until the 1600’s. Fertile beans were smuggled out by an Indian pilgrim aboard a string across his abdomen. This started the European coffee trade; however the Europeans couldn’t grow the plant in their home countries so they planted elsewhere. The Spanish planted in Central America, the Portuguese in Brazil and The French in the Caribbean and the Dutch (first to open a coffee estate-in 1616) in Sri Lanka.

The earliest evidence we have of coffee is during the mid-15th century in Yemen. Throughout the next century, coffee makes its way all over the Middle East to turkey, Persia and northern Africa. It is not long after that coffee eventually ends up in Europe. In 1645 the first coffee house is opened in Venice. By the 1720’s coffee has found its way to America. Coffee was not a very popular drink among the colonists until after the Boston Tea Party of 1773 when it was believed to be unpatriotic to drink tea.

Coffee, the bean we love. To many it is known as the magic elixir, brain juice, or nectar of the gods, while others see it as the devil in a cup. America is a country that is obsessed with its coffee, now more than ever before. Although coffee has spanned generations, the craze did not exist like it does today. According to anthropologist William Roseberry of UBC, coffee was on the decline in the 1960’s and hit an all time low in the 90’s with only half the country drinking about a cup a day (D’Costa). However, with coffee being the world’s most commonly traded commodity, second to crude oil, much money is at stake when people stop drinking it. Thus the coffee empire was rebuilt, coffee revamped, and redefined to suit the needs of the “me

Coffee consumption in the US and Europe equals approximately one-third of the tap water consumed annually, with annual production of approximately seven million tons estimated in 2010 (http://www.coffeefacts.com). Worldwide, nearly 25 million small producers derive their income from coffee; the economies of Africa, Indonesia, and South and Central America are especially dependent on coffee production. The majority of this production takes place in Brazil, where approximately five million people are involved in the cultivation and harvest of over 5 billion coffee plants without the aid of modern machinery. (Rice, 2003, p. 228).

These Paleolithic humans may have chewed caffeine containing leaves, seeds, roots, and bark which caused increased alertness (Weinberg). The history of caffeinated beverages dates back to 2737 B.C. in China (IFICF 3). According to legend, a man named Shennong discovered tea while sitting under a Camellia tree with a pot of boiled water. When dried leaves from the tree fell into the boiled water, he decided to take a sip and was delighted by how revitalizing it was (“The History of Tea”). Coffee originated much later in 575 A.D. in Africa (IFICF 3). On an Ethiopian plateau where red coffee berries grew, a man named Kaldi found that his goats became energized and restless after eating from a particular tree. When these berries were brought to the head of the local monastery, he made an energizing drink out of them. News of the berries spread throughout the monastery and eventually to the Arabian Peninsula (NCA). There, coffee was cultivated and public coffee houses, or qahveh khaneh, were created, turning coffee into a social drink (NCA). European travelers brought back stories of coffee and the mysterious beverage spread to Europe by the 17th century. Initially regarded as "the bitter invention of Satan", coffee was very controversial. However, it was soon approved by Pope Clement VIII, and coffee's influence grew (NCA). Coffee houses became the centers of socialization in Europe and coffee turned

Brewed coffee is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. The trade in coffee beans alone amounts to well over $6,000,000,000 a year and the total volume of beans traded exceeds 4,250,000 tons a year. Its believed that the beverage was introduced into Arabia in the fifteenth century A.D., probably by Ethiopians. By the middle or late sixteenth century, the Arabs had introduced the beverage to the Europeans, who at first resisted it because of its strong flavor and effect as a mild stimulant. The French, Italians and other Europeans incorporated coffee into their diets by the seventeenth century. The English, however, preferred tea, which they were then importing from India. Since, America was colonized primarily by the English Americans

Years ago, none of the people understood what caffeine was. The consumers only knew that once they consumed any products that contained caffeine, it would give them a boost of energy. In 850 AD, the coffee bean was discovered. It was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder who one day noticed that his goats were “dancing” after eating red berries, from what would later be known as a coffee bush. The goat herder took it upon himself to try them as well. He was ecstatic to find himself energized. The next day, the goat herder took the berries to the priest of the nearest church around him. The priest listened to his claims, but refused to accept them, calling the coffee berries the “Devil’s berries” and proceeding to throw them into a fire pit. The other men who were around the church caught the aroma of the burning berries and received the same boost as the goat herder and his goats. When the priest left for bed, the men salvaged whatever beans could be saved from the fire and brewed them into the first ever cup of coffee. From 1100-1500 AD, tea plantations spread to Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was the year that colonists boycotted all tea and switched to coffee. From that point on, tea was never able to surpass coffee consumption ever again. In 1819, German chemist, Friedrich Runge was gifted some coffee beans from his poet friend, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe’s only

The origination of caffeine is discussed in an article “Caffeine and You” at WordPress.com it states that “caffeine was first extracted from cocoa beans into its purest form, a white powder, in the 1820s by a German Scientist named Friedrich Ferdinand Runge. Today caffeine is easily extracted and used to make a variety of products that are consumed on a daily basis”. It also goes on to state that “each country has its own story and source of caffeine. One of the most eccentric caffeine findings was in Ethiopia. The folk stories passed between generations, says that a farmer, who had recently moved his goats to a new pasture found them to be restless, and antsy. For the next few days, he watched them and noted that they were grazing on small berries. These berries were later dried and called “coffee

Today, coffee has become the most popular beverage consumed in North America. Many coffee shops have been built, such as Starbucks, Panthers coffee, which are inflating the economy. Coffee is so much

Caffeine is one of the most commonly-used and popular psychoactive substance in the world today. In that fast-paced modern world of the service-economy, coffee has become a means for the working world to get on its feet early in the morning and stay awake through the drudgery of jobs. However, how benign is coffee? There are no warning labels associated with a cup o' joe other than that the contents of the cup could be extremely hot. Does caffeine pose any long-term risks to health? Like countless other psychoactive substances, caffeine is best used in moderation. Moderation means one or two cups of coffee a day. According to a Harvard Medical School press release, "coffee may reduce the risk of developing gallstones, discourage the development of colon cancer, improve cognitive function, reduce the risk of liver damage in people at high risk for liver disease, and reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease." Although a mildly addictive stimulant, caffeine can nonetheless produce some positive results when used in moderation. It's with excessive consumption of caffeinated