Coffee in the Morning (Plus Other Handy Hints for Using Coffee Other Than Drinking)

This hub is my tribute to coffee. I know it may not be everyone's "cup of tea" (excuse the pun) but a hot steaming cup helps me wake up and get motivated for the day ahead.

Won't you pull up a seat and join me for nice aromatic cup of delicious coffee. Just relax, listen to the music clip of "Sunshine on My Shoulders" (ever since I wrote a hub about John Denver recently I just can't get the tune out of my head) while you read the poem, and who knows you may even learn a thing or two from the coffee handy hints and tips section of this hub.

by John Hansen © 2014

Coffee in the morning makes me happy.

No coffee when I'm writing can make me cry.

Coffee in hot water smells so lovely.

Coffee almost always makes me high.

If I had the chance to make a cup for you,

I'd offer you a cup so good it would make you smile.

If I had a wish that I could wish for you,

I'd wish that we could share a coffee once in a while

Coffee in the morning makes me happy.

No coffee when I'm writing can make me cry.

Coffee in hot water smells so lovely.

Coffee almost always makes me high.

Did you know?

Coffee trees grow to a height of up to six metres, but growers keep them pruned to around two metres to make picking easier and to encourage heavier berry production. Small white blossoms, with the heady aroma of orange and jasmine, signify that the tree is mature and ready to bear fruit. Cherry sized, oval shaped berries soon appear, each containing two coffee beans.

A mature coffee tree will produce around 450 grams of coffee per growing season. It takes 2000 hand-picked Arabica coffee berries (4000 beans) to make 450 grams of roasted coffee. This is why the price of coffee per weight sounds a little expensive.

Ground coffee loses its flavour almost immediately unless it is expertly packaged or brewed. Freshly roasted and ground coffee is often sealed in combination plastic-and-paper bags, however vacuum sealed tins can keep it fresh a lot longer, up to three years.

The world's largest consumer of coffee is the USA, importing well over one million kilograms each year.If an average coffee drinker consumes three cups of coffee per day, in Australia- a country with a relatively small population, that translates to about 43 million cups of coffee guzzled daily.

Coffee Beans

• Freshen your breath: What do you do if you are all out of mints or breath freshening gums? Just suck on a coffee bean for a few minutes and, surprisingly, your mouth will smell clean and fresh again.
• Remove foul odours from your hands: If you have been cooking with garlic, onions, fish, or other strong smelling foods, a few coffee beans may be all that you need to get rid of the odour of these foods from your hands. Put some beans in the palm of your hands and rub them together. The oil released from the coffee beans will absorb the smell, after which you just need to rinse your hands with warm soapy water.

Coffee Grounds

• Deodorise the freezer: It is simple to get rid of the foul smell in your freezer after a power failure. Smply fill a couple of bowls with fresh or used coffee grounds and place them in the freezer overnight. For a flavoured coffee scent, add one or two drops of vanilla essence to the grounds.
• Clean the fireplace: Before you clean the ash out of your fireplace, sprinkle it with wet coffee grounds. It will be easier to remove the ash, and the dust won't pollute the air in the room.
• Keep cats out of the garden: Kitty won't use your garden as a toilet anymore if you spread a mixture of orange peel and used coffee grounds around your plants. Another benefit is that this mix is also a great fertiliser for acid-loving plants such as roses, azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and evergreens.
• Boost carrot harvest: To increase carrot harvest, mix the seeds with freshly ground coffee before sowing. The extra bulk makes the seeds easier to sow, but the coffee aroma also repels cutworms and other pests. The grounds also add nutrients to the sol as they decompose around the plants.
• Keep worms alive: If you are a fisherman/woman, a cup of used coffee grounds will keep your bait worms alive and wiggling all day long. Just mix the grounds with some soil in your bait box before dumping in the worms. They like coffee almost as much as people do, and the nutrients in the grounds will help them live longer as well as giving them a caffeine hit.

This year I was fortunate enough to be awarded the accolade of "Best Poet" in the 2014 Hubbie Awards. I am humbled to have received this award as voted for from my peers especially as there are so many wonderful poets here on Hub Pages.

I was happy to receive my prize of a "Hub Pages" coffee mug in the mail last week. I love it, it is hand made and excellent quality, has my Hubber name "Jodah" on it, and believe it or not coffee tastes better sipped from it :) ...

Thank you Hub Pages and my fellow Hubbers who voted for me.