10 Incredible things you didn’t know about coffee

12th September 2013

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Coffee’s great. But considering how much of it we drink, how much do we actually know about it? Here are 10 incredible coffee facts:

Coffee was first discovered in 9^th century Ethiopia only the beans were chewed not brewed.
Coffee is the second most sold commodity around the world (the first place goes to oil)
Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world, topping both alcohol and nicotine. It’s no surprise that nearly every language has a word for coffee!
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin drank coffee three hours after landing on the moon, making the event the first ever extra-planetary drug use!
The 18^th century French writer Voltaire apparently drank fifty cups of coffee a day and if you’ve ever read his work you will have felt the caffeine in the long and fast-paced sentences which move characters across oceans and in and out of peril without so much as a backward glance or a full stop...! He did live to 84, though.
The lethal dose of coffee is approximately 100 cups a day.
Instant coffee was invented by George C. Washington in Guatemala in 1906 and has been available commercially since 1909.
A dark roasted coffee bean contains less caffeine than a lightly roasted bean.
The name “cappuccino” is given to frothy, milky coffee because it is the same colour as the habits of the Capuchin monks.
More coffee is drunk at Best of Guildford networking events than at any other business networking events in Surrey.

Well, that last one might not actually be true but I think it’s a pretty reasonable assumption! The Best of Guildford also has a number of lovely cafes and restaurants for you to get your coffee fix, whether you’re working or socialising. Click here for some great ideas for places to meet friends and colleagues, grab a coffee before the theatre or a meeting or just have a quiet half hour to yourself.

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