COFFEE INFORMATIONThe word coffee is derived from the Arabic word "qahwah", meaning "that which gives strength". The coffee tree was first discovered centuries ago in Ethiopia, although it’s use has now spread to every country in the world. Coffee is the fruit, or berry, of an evergreen bush. Each bush yields about 2,000 berries a year, enough for a pound of roasted coffee. Initially coffee was prepared as a food by tribes who would crush the cherries and mix them with animal fat to give them energy. Coffee was also used in Africa as a wine made from the fermenting coffee cherries mixed with water. By 1000AD the Arabs began mixing crushed coffee with boiling water, which would soon evolve into the beverage we are most familiar with these days. There are two species of the coffee bush -- ARABICA is the high grown, high quality coffee bean and ROBUSTA, the lower grown quality coffee. Simpson & Vail uses only the high grown, high quality Arabica beans.
Coffee Glossary |
