A part from the fact that we all love our coffee times, most of us know very little about the most popular hot drink of all time. The coffee bush is reported to have originated in the area or province of Kaffa, known more popularly today as Ethiopia. The coffee bush with its attractively coloured coffee beans when ripe has little documented history as to it's origination or even when it was first discovered. It is thought that the natives of Ethopia first chewed the ripe cherries and beans as a snack. But it was the monastery gardens where the beans were thought to have been first cultivated some 1,000 years ago and during the fifteenth century when commercial propagation and coffee bean growing first took off, little did they know what an impact on the wider world coffee would have.

Coffee houses in Mecca were the first recorded coffee bars which worked it's way throughout the Arab world. The coffee houses as they were originally known where thought to be very well decorated with music, dancing, a game of chess and probably lots of wheeler dealing going on. Later these establishments were eventually suppressed after they became political centres and eventually reopened and were back in business once again.

The coffee traders very much guarded their prized commodity and kept their coffee plantations away from foreign preying eyes and did not allow any fertile beans to be taken out of the country. It was only a matter of time of course before the secret was out and plantations started in the Dutch colonies in India and Java. Coffee was eventually traded out of Amsterdam but it was the Venetians that first brought coffee to the whole of Europe in 1615. By the mid 17th century the coffee house culture had spread to most of Europe and was a favourite meeting place for busines and social reasons. It is well known that Lloyds of London began it's life as a coffee house back in 1688. Coffee soon made it's way across the pond to Virginia in the states and then around the rest of the world.

Next to oil coffee is widely considered to be one of the most significant trading commodities in the world and is traded on exchanges in the major financial cities around the globe probably close to twenty four hours of planet earths day.

More information can be found at the International Coffee Organisations website: http://www.ico.org

What every coffee drinker needs to know about coffee.

There are two main types of coffee arabica and robusta:-

Arabica coffee plants grow between 600 and 2000 metres above sea level. Grown mostly in the Americas and east Asia.
Robusta coffee grows between sea level and 600 metres. Grown mostly in the west Africa and Asia.

The coffee plant which actually is a shrub produces the beans or cherries as they are referred to, which are green turning to a rich red and have a little stone at their heart which is in fact the coffee bean, the shrub itself is a good looking plant.

The best high street instant coffee must have a large proportion of Arabica coffee beans preferably from a single source to be a really good coffee, and as a result it will be one of the more very expensive jars - price does say a lot!

Boki Kona Organice Mountain Grown Coffee
http://artful-expressions.com/

Coffee and general coffee information website
http://www.matthew-algie.co.uk/

Coffee website with many different types of coffee.
http://www.baltcoffee.com/catalog/

Coffee and general coffee information website
http://www.ico.org/

Coffee and general coffee information website
http://www.cosic.org/

Coffee and general coffee information website
http://www.costa.co.uk/

Hill and Valley Coffee Ltd - World tour of 3 Costa Rican coffees
http://www.hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk/

Everything coffee
http://www.millstone.com/index.jsp

Coffee and general coffee information website
http://www.britishcoffeeassociation.org/

Great for coffee making roasting equipment
http://www.hasbean.co.uk

Good general information on coffee history and coffee making
http://www.bramahmuseum.co.uk

Another Coffee - Coffee making equipment with online coffee shop
http://www.anothercoffee.co.uk/

Nescafe comprehensive coffee information
http://www.nescafe.co.uk/

Well presented coffee information
http://www.wogancoffee.co.uk/

Speciality Coffee Association of Europe
http://www.scae.com/

Bulk coffee supplier with special offers
http://www.coffeeroyale.co.uk/

Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee and more Coffee - coffee climbing up trees!
http://www.redmonkeycoffee.co.uk/

Healthy ways with coffee
http://www.goodforyoucoffee.com/

History of coffee
http://www.cosic.org/background-on-coffee/history-of-coffee

Freshly roasted coffee delivered to your door.
http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/




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