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• Brazil is the world’s biggest producer of coffee by a wide margin, followed by Vietnam and Colombia.    In fact, in 2011 Brazil produced nearly twice as much as Vietnam and Colombia combined and a third of all of the coffee produced in the entire world. This statistic has remained fairly constant for the last 150 years!

• There are two main types of coffee “beans” – Arabica and Robusta.    Robusta plants are grown at low elevation and produce less flavorful coffee beans. However, Arabica plants are grown at high altitudes and produce the best tasting and highest quality coffee beans.

• Despite what most people think, an espresso has 1/3 the caffeine of a cup of coffee due to serving sizes.    Consider throwing a double- or triple-shot into your favorite beverage, because just one might not cut it for the more hardcore caffeine addicts. Or you could make a Red Eye- a shot of espresso inside a cup of coffee, or as we like to call it, beanception.

And yet…

• The drink “Americano” comes from when American GIs in WWII would order their espresso with water because it was too strong .   Sort of funny when you think about how tough soldiers are supposed to be: Asking for your hosts to water down their coffee because it’s too strong for you definitely isn’t the most rugged of requests.

 

These Awesome Facts about coffee are brought to you by Coffee Cup News, Coffee Fact Sheet, Coffee Time, Spot On Lists, DailyPix, and TinyBytes.

This started as a fun list of “12 Awesome Facts About Coffee” but with further research, more awesome facts were discovered, so here are just a few fun facts to get started and more will be added over time.

•  Coffee is actually a fruit –  a cherry. 

Coffee comes from a tree or bush that bears cherry fruit. The coffee bean is the seed that resides within the cherry. If the coffee itself wasn’t such a valuable and tasty commodity we might see coffee cherries in the grocery store. The coffee cherrie’s taste is one of a very delicious tart fruit that some describe as light, honey, sweet, peachy and watermelon.

 

• One coffee tree yields only about one pound of roasted coffee each year. 
• The word “coffee” comes from the Arabic “qahhwat al-bun,” meaning “wine of the bean.” 

This tidbit is brought to you by the people who want you to feel classier while drinking your morning beverage. Remember; you’re not desperately trying to get yourself awake for work after a sleepless night, you’re enjoying a little wine of the bean!

• Legend has it that coffee was discovered by Ethiopian shepherds who discovered their goats dancing around after eating the beans.              

  Yup you heard right coffee was first discovered by a goat!

More specifically a young goat herder by the name of Kaldi in the 9th-century. He noticed his goats acting strange when they ate the cherries from the coffee tree so he tried it for himself. This story does not show up in writings until the 16th-century but it is a good  story and it sounds very plausible.

How exactly do goats dance?  Or…do goats need coffee to act strange, be giddy  and appear to dance around?  In any case, we’re forever grateful for the contribution of these anonymous, possibly-fictional 9th century goat herders; without them, restless New Yorkers would have no way to wake up in the morning! 

• New York drinks about 7 times as much coffee as the rest of the world

  Well, they DO call it the city that never sleeps….maybe this is why? You know, New Yorkers, we’ve heard it helps if you don’t drink any coffee after sunset. Just a tip.

 

 

 

• These Awesome Facts about coffee are brought to you by Coffee Cup News, Coffee Fact Sheet, Coffee Time, Spot On Lists, DailyPix, and TinyBytes.

From fun (and healthy) Fruity and Veggie Trains to the ultimate: A CHOCOLATE Train! (But, hey – chocolate is healthy too, right?).

Not only is this decadent chocolate train an amazing piece of artwork and sculpting, and a tribute to chocolate sculpting (read:  JOY TO CHOCOLATE).…..it might also be considered by some chocoholics as a waste of good chocolate – especially if no one is ever going to get to eat any of it!

Confirmed to be pure chocolate (no other materials used) and weighing over 2,755 pounds, nothing is said of the value of the chocolate used!  However, the talent, hours and chocolate invested, and overall size of this train is truly astounding.

Unveiled last November at a train station in Brussels, Belgium,  this train, made entirely of chocolate, set a new Guinness World Record as the longest chocolate structure in the world.

Originally on display at the busy Brussels South station, the sculpture is 112-feet (34.05 meters) long and weighs over 2,755 pounds (1250 kilos).

Maltese chocolate artist, Andrew Farrugia, spent over 700 hours constructing this masterpiece.

He was inspired last year after visiting the Belgian Chocolate Festival in Bruge: “I had this idea for a while, and I said,  ’what do you think if we do this realization of a long chocolate train’, you know, because a train you can make it as long as you like.  Actually it was going to be much smaller than it was, but I kept on adding another wagon, and another wagon, and it’s the size it is today.”  Farrugia had previously built a smaller train of 12 feet for an event in Malta, which he said gave him insight about how to build this much larger version.

The train’s many components include seven wagons modeled after

modern Belgian trains. The remaining trains recall Belgium’s older train wagons, including one with a bar and restaurant.

Most of the structure was constructed in Farrugia’s home country, but the world record almost wasn’t — many pieces were damaged in transit to Brussels.  Three days before the event, Farrugia transported the chocolate train by truck in 25 wooden boxes from Malta to Belgium.

Farrugia said the train incurred considerable damage during the drive and several of the train’s walls had completely collapsed. Luckily, with hard work and little sleep, the chocolate artist was able to fix all the damages before presenting the train to the public on Monday.

After measuring the length of the train and confirming no material other than chocolate was used, officials from the Guinness Book of World Records added a new category to the collection of world records and declared the train to be the longest chocolate structure in the world.  The train will be on display at various chocolate museums in Belgium as well as at the Brussels’ train museum.

 

A VIDEO (From NTDTV):

MORE INSIGHTS (From The Telegraph):

The train, which is on show near the Eurostar train platform at Brussels’ Gare du Midi, was created to promote the country’s chocolate industry in the face of shrinking European market.

Belgium’s three hundred chocolate companies produce some £2 billion worth of chocolate every year.

Global trends suggest that demand for luxury chocolate is growing in emerging economies, but slowly shrinking in richer countries, with production slowly shifting to new markets where labour costs are low and the beans do not have to be shipped to Europe to be processed.

Since the recession, Belgian chocolatiers have been shielded from a dip in local demand by growing demand in eastern Europe and emerging markets Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The Belgian tourist minister Christos Doulkeridis said the industry was well able to withstand the growing international competition.

“We have the science and artisans to do it. We promote the chocolate of quality,” he said.

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS (From The Huffington Post)

 

 

More Fun Food-Art

Not only an adorable Veggie Train – there is also the Fruity Train – both great ideas for fun – and edible – food center pieces!

 

 

 

From Raw Food Rehab:  ”All Aboard! Who’s on the Veggie Train? More veggie cuteness via Sunwarrior“

I hope you find this brief rambling as amusing and entertaining as I do.   And Informative: 

Did you know salt over an egg forms a ‘white egg scab’? and that vinegar in the water helps ‘set the eggs’ while boiling?

Enjoy!

Math.  I use it daily.

I went shopping yesterday.  I had 30 minutes to shop, check the post office, drive home to unload the groceries and then back downtown to go to work.

We are big egg eaters. Not that we eat huge eggs but we enjoy them frequently.  One dozen eggs, large, were $1.70 and the 18 egg carton was $2.50. I saved a nickel by buying the larger carton. When I got home I removed the 18 egg carton by grabbing the right front of the carton and bringing it out of the sack. The left front closure was misnamed, no closure. The carton came out of the sack and plop, plop, plop spilled eggs on the floor and counter. The 3 eggs on the floor were gone, huddled together, naked on the floor.

I covered them in salt to form a white egg scab. The 3 on the counter? The shells were badly cracked and leaking. I asked for vinegar but it had all been used earlier and had not been replaced. I was going to boil the 3 eggs with a few drops of vinegar to set the eggs. There were no heroic efforts, too much blunt force trauma, and the eggs were gone. I was disappointed because of the lost time, the lost eggs, the lost savings.  Speaking of lost time, thanks for reading.

 

 

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

 Everyone  needs a friend who is all ears.

There’s no such thing as too much candy.

All work and no play can make you a basket case.

A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.

 Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.

Let  happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.

Some body parts should be floppy.

Keep your paws off of other people’s jelly beans.

Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.

The grass is always greener in someone else’  basket.

To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.

The  best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

May  the joy of the season fill your heart.

AND

 MAY GOD BLESS YOU!

Author Unknown

 

This was a fun family project:  Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs.

 Using men’s neckties purchased at Goodwill and similar places (or pull some out of the back of the closet!), wrap eggs with swatches of fabric, secure with string, and boil to extract the colors.

We were having so much fun, we sent the troops out to purchase more eggs.

And on Easter Sunday….have a glorious egg hunt!

 

Egg dyeing is a fun way to celebrate this time of year—and it’s a tradition that goes way back—as much as 5,000 years when Persians celebrated springtime with eggs colored with plant-based dyes. Plant dyes can be just as useful today and they’re plentiful; in fact you very well might have dye-worthy ingredients in your kitchen already.

Read More: This wonderful article from Co+op Stronger Together shares some great plant-based dyes—fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers and some great ideas of how to get the job done.

More Ideas and Guidelines:

• Care2 Natural Egg Dye Guide
• Martha Stewart’s Guide To Dyeing Eggs Naturally
• Brooklyn Supper’s Step By Step Guide to Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

 

If you are a Chinese – Asian food lover, you’ll love P. F. Chang’s.  They have something for everyone from starters, soups, salads, seafood, to vegetarian plates and much much more. P. F. Chang’s is one of my favorite places to go. I have been going there every year for my birthday since I first discovered it.P. F. Chang’s is busy every time we go but never a very long wait. With all their seating they can seat many large families at a time. In my Opinion their prices are good for the amount of food you get. You get a large amount of food, not to much but always enough to  bring home left overs. Next time you’re craving Chinese-Asian food, go to P. F. Chang’s!

 Good Fortune 

For coffee addicts and wine connoiseurs –  a cozy ‘chic’ environment offering rich coffees, elegant wines, refreshing teas, and fresh seasonal fare.

Talebu Coffee and Wine Cafe, is “not an ordinary coffe shop but an experinece with panache”. With gracious inside seating, including small vignettes for ‘cozy’ conversations, tables for computer work, and an area for entertainers (open to local artists, musicians, and live acts), and outside seating for enjoying the beautiful Arizona weather.