According to Wikipedia, "Coffee use can be traced as early as the 9th century, when it appeared in the highlands of Ethiopia. According to legend, Ethiopian shepherds were the first to observe the influence of the caffeine in coffee beans when the goats appeared to "dance" and to have an increased level of energy after consuming wild coffee berries."

Isn't it nice that the goats' energy came from the coffee beans and not their smell?

Brazil is the largest exporting nation along with Colombia. Recently Vietnam has become a major producer of the robusta bean which is not as desirable as the arabica.

The concept of fair trade labeling, which guarantees coffee growers a negotiated pre-harvest price, began with the Max Havelaar Foundation's labelling program in the Netherlands.The production and consumption of "Fair Trade Coffee" has grown in recent years as some local and national coffee chains have started to offer fair trade alternatives. Now this is a good thing, so read the labels.

Coffee berries and their seeds undergo several processes before they become the familiar roasted coffee that we all know and love.

The coffee berries are usually picked by hand then they are sorted by color and ripeness. At that point they are dried and labeled as green coffee beans.

Now we're getting down to the nitty gritty - the roasting process. I could add a lot of technical stuff here, but let me just say that it is the roasting process that influences the taste of the beverage by how it changes the coffee bean both physically and chemically. And all coffee beans are roasted before they are consumed.

Depending on the color of the roasted beans as perceived by the human eye, they will be labeled as light, medium-light, medium, medium-dark, dark, or very dark. Darker roasts are generally smoother, because they have less fiber content and a more sugary flavor. Lighter roasts have more caffeine, resulting in a slight bitterness, and a stronger flavor from aromatic oils and acids otherwise destroyed by longer roasting times. So there's a tade-off I bet you didn't know about - right?

Once roasted, coffee beans must be stored properly to preserve the fresh taste of the bean. The best conditions are air-tight and cool. The order of importance to preserving flavor in coffee beans are:

1. Air
2. Moisture
3. Heat
4. Light

Here's a hint: Put a pinch of salt in to your fresh ground coffee just before your brew - it helps bring out the flavor.

Another tip I've found is using the Stevia sweetener (if you like your coffee sweet). For some reason it seems to really bring out the best of the coffee flavor. For more information about this all natural zero calorie sweetener see my hub about it.

P.S. The painting of the coffee and donut below if one of mine in case you might be interested in purchasing it or any other greeting cards the not very visible link is just below it, called Sophie's Card Store.