Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
- Ahh, coffee, sweet nectar of the Gods.
Always so delicious, so empowering,
and once illegal?
Welcome to Facts in Five, the series that covers
the coolest and most interesting facts
on a topic in five minutes or less.
For today's caffeine-charged episode,
I'll be telling you some incredible things
you never knew about that morning cup of Joe.
Like for example, how in 1675 it became outlawed in England
when King Charles the second became worried
that coffee shops were where people
were conspiring against him.
In addition to royal paranoia, the brew that we all love
has a huge number of amazing facts
that you need to hear to believe.
Add cream and sugar if needed because today's
Facts in Five is all about Coffee.
So, what is coffee?
Now this might seem like an obvious question,
but the real answer is going to surprise you.
Of course it's a hot beverage made from
brewing roasted and ground beans,
but did you know that those beans
aren't actually beans at all; they're fruit pits.
Coffee beans are seeds from the bright red
berries of the coffee plant.
In fact, the beans that come out of the berry
aren't even the brown color that we're all familiar with.
They're actually green.
They only become brown through the process
of drying them out and roasting them
which caused them to pop and double in size,
and if you were to walk into a cafe,
you could order any number of different coffee beverages,
however they aren't made with special beans.
Drinks like espresso use the same beans
as a regular cup of coffee only ground much finer.
But perhaps one of the most fascinating things about it
is that that simple beverage that you
drink every day is much more.
It's actually the second most valuable commodity
traded by developing countries, second only to petroleum.
So, who discovered coffee?
Well, it's believed that coffee originated in Ethiopia
as far back as the tenth century,
but the first evidence of drinking it
was in the Sufi Monasteries of Yemen in the 15th century.
The effects of coffee were discovered
when farmers found their goats
eating the berries of the coffee plant
and then found them acting crazed
as they started running around and dancing.
Does anyone else want to see a bunch of baby goats
jumping and dancing around or is that just me?
Now, instant coffee was invented in 1906 by a Belgian man
named George Washington, not the president,
who was living in Guatemala,
but that's not the only great invention involving coffee.
In 1991 at Cambridge University, a small group of scientists
fed up with always finding the coffee pot empty,
set up a camera pointed straight at
the break-room coffee machine.
They streamed the footage live on the web
so that they could see before standing up
if there was any brew left.
That's right.
The first webcam ever made was for coffee.
Where does coffee come from?
Needing specific conditions to survive,
all coffee is grown along the strip of the earth
called the coffee belt.
This tropic area delivers lots of sunshine and heat
to the coffee plants.
Exported from these areas, coffee is sent
all over the world and often in
ridiculously large quantities.
For instance, did you know that New Yorkers drink
nearly seven times more coffee than
any other city in the USA,
or how about the Netherlands, where people consume
an average of 2.4 cups of coffee every day.
The entire population must be constantly
trembling on a caffeine high.
When does coffee affect us the most?
Well, research shows that coffee is most effective
if it's consumed in late morning,
specifically between 9:30 and 11:30 am.
It only takes about 10 minutes to start feeling
the effects of coffee on your body,
and it's been proven that drinking coffee before a workout
leads to a better physical performance.
Not only does caffeine increase adrenaline,
but it releases fatty acids from fat tissues
and increases your metabolism by as
much as three to 11 percent.
It's also important to note that if you're
one of those people who have lived on energy drinks
and have since replaced them with coffee,
it might interest you to know that there
is more caffeine in a single grande cup of coffee
than your average energy drink.
So, why should we drink coffee?
Well, believe it or not, drinking that cup of Joe
can actually extend your life.
Coffee is the dominant source of antioxidants
in the average diet in Western civilization.
Those antioxidants help the body fight off diseases
such as Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes
and heart disease.
In addition, consuming a cup of coffee
significantly improves blood flow.
Studies have shown that people who drink
upwards of four cups of coffee a day
are 80% less likely to develop a condition called cirrhosis.
If that wasn't enough for you, another study
revealed that regular coffee drinkers are 65% less likely
to develop Alzheimers, so, as it turns out,
that cup of Joe isn't bad for you after all.
Bottoms up.
I want to give a big thanks to Coffee Mate
for sponsoring this video.
Bonus fact, one in five cups of coffee in the United States
are whitened with Coffee Mate.
That's a lot of coffee.
They've teamed up with Star Wars
to create limited edition collectible bottles,
and of course they sent me them
from the beautiful United States of America
because they know how much I love Star Wars and coffee.
Not only do they look cool, but the flavors
make perfect sense for the characters.
Like Darth Vador repping that espresso chocolate.
It's like liquid dark side.
Like I said, they're limited edition,
so be sure to collect all five before they're gone.
Although if any of you are fans of the franchise like I am,
I'm sure you're already on it.
Thanks again for watching, guys,
and be sure to leave a comment below
letting me know what you want the topic
of the next Facts in Five to be.
Remember to click that red subscribe button
to be notified of future videos on my channel.
On the right, you'll find an annotation to my last video
as well as an annotation to my second channel
where I make vlogs, unboxings and more,
so be sure to subscribe to that,
and you'll also find an annotation to my merch store
if you feel like picking up some cool swag.
And, as always, for all of you on your mobile device,
such as tablets or phones, all of the links
I just mentioned will be in the description below.
I love you guys, and I'll see you next time.
Peace.