WHICH COUNTRY PRODUCES THE MOST?
Brazil produces around 35% of all the coffee grown in the world. That’s around 22.5 million bags.
WHAT PROPORTION OF WORLD COFFEE IS REALLY GOOD?
‘Really good’ coffee usually means ‘specialty coffee’, or coffee that independently scores at least 80 out of 100 on an international scale. Around 1% of all coffee in the world meets this standard, but in countries such as the US, around 25% of coffee consumed is specialty standard.
HIGHEST COFFEE CONSUMPTION IN THE WORLD
Finland actually consumes the most amount of coffee per capita of any country in the world, grinding and brewing a whopping 12kg per person each year, on average. It’s closely followed by Norway on 9.9kg, Iceland on 9kg and Denmark on 8.7kg, suggesting those long, dark winters call for lots of long, black coffees. The US trails in 26th place while the UK barely makes the top 50 in 45th place.
INSTANT COFFEE IS 250 YEARS OLD
While instant coffee may seem a modern convenience, it first emerged in the UK back in 1771, almost 250 years ago. The methods have evolved since then, of course, with the first US patent coming in 1910 and the most popular modern method of freeze-drying coffee being developed in the 1960s.
COFFEE CAN ACTUALLY BE A TEA
Yes you read that correctly. ‘Cascara’ is a sort of tea, also known as coffee cherry tea. It’s an infusion made with the skin of a coffee cherry, or berry. Until recently these skins were discarded after the core beans inside were removed, but now they’re sun-dried and bagged for sale. The caffeine is low and the taste is comparable with a fruit infusion or tisane rather than a herbal or leaf tea.
