Portal:Coffee

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Introduction

A cup of black coffee

Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It has the highest sales in the world market for hot drinks.

The seeds of the Coffea plant's fruits are separated to produce unroasted green coffee beans. The beans are roasted and then ground into fine particles typically steeped in hot water before being filtered out, producing a cup of coffee. It is usually served hot, although chilled or iced coffee is common. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways (e.g., espresso, French press, caffè latte, or already-brewed canned coffee). Sugar, sugar substitutes, milk, and cream are often added to mask the bitter taste or enhance the flavor.

Though coffee is now a global commodity, it has a long history tied closely to food traditions around the Red Sea. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking as the modern beverage appears in modern-day Yemen in southern Arabia in the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines, where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in a manner similar to how it is now prepared for drinking. The coffee beans were procured by the Yemenis from the Ethiopian Highlands via coastal Somali intermediaries, and cultivated in Yemen. By the 16th century, the drink had reached the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, later spreading to Europe. (Full article...)

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Two standing men in uniform are seen inspecting a group of three women sitting around a table with one men inspecting the coffee pot. One of the women is hiding a pot under the table. A maid is standing nearby looking at the scene.
Die Kaffeeriecher, based on a painting by L. Katzenstein

The coffee sniffers (German Kaffeeriecher or Kaffeeschnüffler) were a group of about 400 war invalids who were employed by the Kingdom of Prussia between 1781 and 1787 by decree of Frederick II (the Great). Their job was to literally sniff out the illegal roasting of coffee beans after a high luxury tax was instituted on coffee to raise funds, keep money in the country and to support the national producers and suppliers of beer brewed in Prussia as well as producers of chicory as a coffee substitute.

Besides Prussia, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel also employed coffee sniffers to enforce a ban of coffee instituted in 1766 and tightened in 1774 by Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. (Full article...)
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... that under the Thai/United Nations Crop Replacement and Community Development Project, coffee has been experimented with as a replacement crop for opium?
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Ristretto

Ristretto (Italian: [risˈtretto]) is a "short shot" (20 ml (0.7 imp fl oz; 0.7 US fl oz) from a double basket) of a more highly concentrated espresso coffee. It is made with the same amount of ground coffee, but extracted with a finer grind (also in from 20 to 30 seconds) using half as much water. A normal short shot might look like a ristretto, but in reality, would only be a weaker, more diluted, shot. The opposite of a ristretto (Italian for 'shortened', 'narrow') is a lungo ('long'), which has double the amount of water. The French call a ristretto a café serré.

Regardless of whether one uses a hand pressed machine or an automatic, a regular double shot is generally considered to be around 14–18 g (0.49–0.63 oz) of ground coffee extracted into about 40 ml (2 fl oz; two shot glasses). Thus, a "double ristretto" consumes the same amount of coffee beans but fills only a single shot glass. (Full article...)

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Credit: Fernando Rebelo
Red Catucaí Coffee, a variety of Coffea arabica at various stages of maturation. This image was taken in Matipó City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil.

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