It is one thing to have a love affair with your cup of Joe every morning, but what do you know about where your coffee came from and the history behind it? Every country experiences their Java culture in a different way, and if you are a US coffee drinker, then it is important that you know how your Java found its way to your cup to give you even more insight and enjoyment in your drink.
First of all, about 33% of the entire world's population are regular Java drinkers.
Statistically, Americans prefer Java 10 to 1 to a cup of tea, and Belgians actually drink 39 gallons of coffee every year.
Compared to their tea intake, which is 1.
6 gallons per year, you can tell that all over the world, Java is the more popular beverage of choice.
The exception to the rule is found in England, where the tea to Java ratio is 1.
6 gallons to 69 gallons of tea per year.
This is a cultural custom, and one of main reasons that Americans are so preferential to Java is because they shunned the tea drink when they came over in the colonial days because of the heavy-handed rule of the British monarchy.
This was symbolic of their new independence, and tea had to go by the wayside as a result.
I can't say that I am too sad about that because I am a Java fanatic myself.
It is important to note that the majority of Java that you get on a daily basis comes directly from Brazil, which is the largest exporter of beans in the world.
This is a huge advancement from where Java originated, which was actually not in Brazil itself - though Brazil is calling all of the Java shots these days.
Coffee was originally discovered in Ethiopia, where it then it moved to Turkey.
Java did used to be served as a food, and many people relied upon it for medicinal purposes, which is ironic since there are so many health studies disagreeing with Java drinking today.
The truth behind that is because some of the "scientific" studies shunning Java in years past were actually done on it coffee drinkers who are also smokers, thus causing the results to be skewed.
From that point, Java trees were then exported to India and taken up by the Dutch in the 1600s.
In the 1700s, the French brought Java beans to French Guiana, where they were then found by a Brazilian army officer that brought them back to Brazil.
It was a long chain of events, but that is the rough sketch of how Java came to be in Brazil, making it the most productive export country that we know worldwide.
Brazil offers the best climate for these type of crops, especially since it is tropical and humid, which is ideal for growing the beans.
As for yourself, if you want to sample the best of the best in coffee wares, then Brazil is a good place to start, but don't stop there! So many countries produce quality Java, and it would be a crime to not try them all!