Candace Rose Rardon - Stuff Every Coffee Lover Should Know

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.,

19th-century American physician and poet

Every day across the globe, approximately 1.6 billion cups of coffee are consumed. The United States alone is responsible for a quarter of that amount, and coffee is also the second most traded commodity in the world after oil. These are big stats and point to the tremendous role that coffee plays in our global economy. But as Ive traveled the world over the past decade, Ive also seen how important coffee is on the smallest, most human level.

Ive been welcomed into family kitchens in Tamil Nadu, India, and was taught how to prepare rich creamy South Indian filter coffee. Ive made new friends in some of Europes oldest coffeeshops in Vienna and Paris, and sipped tiny Styrofoam cups of tinto in Cartagena, Colombia, which I always bought from a roving coffee vendor named Wilmet.

Theres no question that coffee is one of the worlds top drinks. Here are just a few of its most striking attributes.

Coffee is energizing. Each humble coffee bean holds over 1,000 chemical compounds, which give coffee its singular aroma and flavors. To coffee lovers, caffeine is often the most prized of these elements. Where would we be without our morning pick-me-up?

Coffee is evolving. Coffee has been consumed as a beverage for the past five or six hundred years. Compared to the 5,000-year history of tea, coffee seems pretty young. Some of the most popular manual brewing methods, such as the AeroPress and Hario V60, were invented as recently as the twenty-first century.

Coffee is global. Coffee isnt simply an essential part of cultures around the world. The physical journey that takes coffee from seed to cup is also extraordinary. The biggest coffee-drinking countries are not places where coffee is grown, so oceans and continents must be crossed for our esteemed brew to arrive in our cups.

Coffee is social. The specialty coffee industry honors this journey, with many roasters sourcing their coffee directly from growers, developing ongoing relationships with coffee farmers, and sharing their stories with customers. Relationships and storiesthe very things coffee has been about since the beginning.

If youre reading this book, no doubt you and I already share a love for coffee. My hope is to help you discover an even greater appreciation for its nuanced flavors, complex history, and the role that we can play in bringing out the best in our beloved beverage.