Healthy Spirit: Coffee

Ten Coffee Fun Facts

• Ethiopian shepherds first noticed the effects of caffeine when they saw their goats “dancing” after eating coffee berries.
• Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. that grows coffee! All of the world’s coffee is grown in the “Coffee Belt” between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer.
• 70% of the world consumes Arabica coffee (a milder, aromatic type), while 30% consumes the much stronger Robusta coffee (which contains 50% more caffeine!).
• Coffee is the second most traded commodity on earth, following oil.
• Coffee beans are roasted at a temperature of 500 degrees F. When they “pop” twice, they are finished roasting.
• Instant coffee was invented in Guatemala in 1906.
• The term “Cup of Joe” comes from American soldiers (known as G.I. Joes) during World War II, because it was believed that the soldiers drank a lot of coffee.
• Caffeine affects your body by causing the pituitary gland in your brain to produce adrenaline, which is normally produced when you are faced with an emergency situation and need to act quickly and with extra strength.
• 90% of Americans consume caffeine in some form each day.
• Unflavored coffee does not require a hechsher, but decaffeinated coffee needs a reliable hechsher for Pesach.
  All flavored coffee needs a reliable hechsher. (Many are dairy and not Cholov Yisroel).

Coffee — Simchas Beis HaShoeva
לא טעמו לטעם שינה Lo ta’amu l’ta’am shina… In the days of old no one slept on the nights of Simchas Beis HaShoeva. How did they do it? In this day and age we have coffee to keep us going…