Coffee may be the world’s best beverage with all of the varieties and ways to brew it, you can literally try something new every day. The fact that coffee is not a new discovery means it has a long, rich history. Like with all great things, the history of coffee is sprinkled with lots of interesting and little known bits of trivia.
The espresso machine
The first espresso type machine is said to have been created by the French in 1822! The Italians later perfected and manufactured this wondrous little marvel of modern coffee expression. The first actual patented “espresso” machine was credited to Luigi Berezza in 1901. The modern espresso that most people think of came about in 1945-46. The espresso machine has a very long and distinguished history.
Origin of “cowboy coffee”
Okay, this may not exactly be a detailed history of where the term cowboy coffee came from but it will offer some fun facts about it. To start you off, imagine taking a sock (hopefully it was clean), putting coffee beans/grounds in it and then dipping it into the boiling water on the campfire. Can you imagine what that tasted like? Hmm…then again, when you are in the middle of the prairie, running to the restaurant wasn’t exactly an option.
Another favorite method of making cowboy coffee seems to have been dumping the grounds/beans directly into the pot or pan adding the water and letting it boil! Sounds a bit chewy, doesn’t it? Maybe that was coffee and breakfast all in one pot. The fact of the matter is, if a cowboy wanted his morning coffee, he had to brew in whatever manner he could.
Baristas in Italy are older
The average Italian barista is 45 years old. Being a barista in Italy is a well respected job. To say the very least, coffee is serious business in Italy. Italians love their coffee and to be a barista is a very important job. The Italian baristas are also the first to create “coffee art”, which is making designs in the foam of coffee drinks.
Beethoven was a coffee drinker
Although nothing can be proven definitively, it has been said that the German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven was a little…eccentric. This eccentricity apparently bled over into his coffee drinking; he reportedly counted out 60 coffee beans per cup of coffee he brewed. Can you imagine the caffeine rush from just one cup? Whether this story is true or not, it is still humbling to think that some of the most beautiful classical music ever written was inspired by a good cup of coffee!
This is just a sampling of the interesting coffee facts that are floating around out there. A good cup of coffee and some interesting trivia, what could be better than that?