Coffee Break Episode #4

In this episode of Coffee Break with Rio and Jo, they discuss the history and various aspects of coffee. They talk about how coffee was discovered by goat farmers and how it was initially considered a drink of Satan. They also discuss the different regions where coffee is grown, such as Brazil, Kenya, and Vietnam. They mention the process of decaffeination and the different brewing methods, with espresso being their favorite. They also touch on the versatility of coffee, including its use in teas and wines. They mention that coffee can now be grown in Hawaii and California. They also mention that espresso has less caffeine than drip coffee and that the most expensive coffee can cost up to $600 a pound. Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Coffee Break with Rio and Jo. Jo, how are you doing? Catch phrase, my fine. How about you, Rio? You know, we should get that trademarked. I know. Well, I'm doing alright. And today we're going to be talking about some pretty interesting stuff, I think. And one of the interesting things is I saw that coffee dates back over 1,200 years. Did you know that? Yeah. That's from the 800 A.D. period. And how do you think that somebody, because nowadays everybody drinks coffee, nobody thinks twice about it. Well, not everybody, but about 60% of the population does, and they don't think twice about it. But how did you think that the earlier man thought, hmm, I wonder if that's something I could drink? Well, it happened to be with goat farmers. They noticed that when their goats were eating off of certain bushes and shrubs that they were spunkier and hopping around a little bit more. So they brewed some. They got curious about it. But not everything that animals eat is safe for consumption in humans. Well, it's a good thing they verified that way back when. Because they had to take a gamble. They did. They must have had to take one of them people that were on trial in the village and said, you have to try this now. Something like that. If you live, then great. If you die, well, then that was your punishment. So you figure they had the king's tasters back then. I think so. Something like that. Yeah. Which, that's kind of interesting. Yeah. And then there was a monk that took that coffee and he roasted it and he brewed it up and drank it and noticed that it helped keep him awake at night. And the brew was on then. So when it first started, I wonder how many years had gone by, and this is something neither one of us would know, but how many years go by between the caffeinated coffee to the decaf coffee? Well, we came up with the decaf process. Now we're just speculating. But you think that, say, a thousand years later or maybe even longer than that, somebody was like, I like coffee, but I don't want the caffeine. Yeah, I think that it was much later on that that happened because in the process, coffee was demonized. It was the drink of Satan, according to some cultures, and banned. The popes banned coffee for a while, and then there was a pope that said, no, coffee's okay to drink. And it was pretty much restricted to the Arab world when it was first discovered. So they didn't want that coffee getting out to anybody else. And lore and myth have that there was a fellow by the name of Baba Bui that tucked some seeds in his robe and went back to India and started growing that coffee. And from there, coffee spread all over the world. And that's kind of interesting, because in different regions comes different coffees too, and different flavor profiles, and I don't think that that guy really knew all that he was doing. Yeah, I don't think so either. That's an interesting statement you just made, because there were some missionaries on the island of Java, and they fell in love with the coffee that they were drinking there. So they took it back to Kenya with them, and they planted it. And they have one of the most amazing Kenyan coffees I've ever had from the Gituwambo region. And that coffee started on the island of Java, and it's actually an heirloom coffee. It's been growing ever since those missionaries planted it. Fantastic coffee. Most Kenyans are pretty good coffee-wise too, no? For me, it was hard for me to find some good ones that I really enjoyed. This one's kind of like a champagne. There's so many different layers to it, but it depends on the growing regions that those are going to determine what your coffee profiles are as far as flavor goes. Brazil must have some pretty rich land for coffee growth then, because they grow the most amount of coffee in comparison to the whole world. Yeah, they're the number one growers. Would you even know what country would be second? You would think something maybe like Colombia? Vietnam? Yeah, see, that's not one that comes to mind. If you ask me about instant coffee and what we had discovered earlier, yeah, Vietnam makes sense. Uh-huh. But as far as like actual coffee production, I don't know if I've ever had a Vietnamese coffee. Yeah, they're pretty much the biggest growers of Robusta coffees too in the world. Them and India grow the most Robusta coffees. And as we've discovered earlier that Robusta coffee isn't a very good quality coffee, but did you know the price on Robusta has skyrocketed over the last year? There's now a coffee shortage, or what some people think is a coffee shortage going on because it's a very delicate crop to grow, and some of the deforestation going on is leading to a decrease in coffee. Fortunately here at Mojo Roasts, we've never ran into any problems with getting our products. No. Nope. And as far as like, say, your decaf coffees, there was a German coffee merchant, his name was Ludwig Roselius, and he had some of his coffee soaking in the ocean seawater, and they realized that that took the caffeine out of the coffee bean. And he took it back and he brewed it, but it tasted a little bit salty. I suppose. But then when you have the Swiss water process, they soak those beans, and that's what you were talking about on our last podcast, and they soak it in green coffee extract and water, and they circulate that so that the caffeine molecules come out of the coffee bean, and then they filter it and dry it, and we have good... I know you noticed that when we get the decaf in, it looks very different from the regular coffee. It looks a lot darker. Yeah, it almost looks like it was put in the roaster a little bit before, and then re-roasted again. It is a semi-processed coffee, so yeah, it roasts a little bit differently than regular coffee, too. And back to kind of the whole cherry aspect of things, and I gotta talk about this, you were talking about the goat and how they would eat it, and then the farmer would, or the people stumbled upon it after that, but anyway, with the coffee, cherry is a food. Did you know that it was a food? Yeah, they would, in the early days, they would grind those cherries up and mix it with fat and kind of have like fat protein balls for lean times, kind of like the Native Americans did here with pemmican. They would take our berries, our natural berries, and mix them with venison and fat, and it would take them through their lean times. Thankfully, we don't have to do that now. It doesn't sound very good. No, it does not. But also, now people are using the cherries for teas. Yeah, and they make wine out of the cherries, too. It's actually very pleasant to you, and I had the privilege of having a cup that we made, and it kind of tasted a little raisiny to me. Did it taste like raisins to you? It tasted rather earthy to me, and there's just so many things that coffee can be used for. It's just unreal. I don't know if there's any other product that can be used nearly as much as coffee is. Yeah, it's a very versatile product, for sure. And we've got to kind of redact an earlier statement going into the growth of the coffee beans. There's actually two places in the U.S. you can grow it now. Yeah. We were right about Hawaii, but now you can also grow it in California, which makes sense in the southern part of California, because you can get coffee from Mexico. Yeah, exactly. I think with all of our technology nowadays, we might see more coffee crops popping up in the southern part. You have to have it very warm. And it can't just be warm for a couple months out of the year. No, you can't grow it in North Dakota. Like we said, it's a very delicate crop that's easy to be destroyed. We could put it in greenhouses, though. Yeah, I don't think that's going to have the desired result that most people are going to look for. No, but it's really interesting with California. They had, prior to the 2000s, they weren't doing much with coffee. And then now they have 14 different varieties, which is amazing. And there are about 65 farmers that grow it. I think it'll be the new Napa Valley of California. Yeah, it's kind of a boom in the sounds of it. Yeah, between Santa Barbara and north of San Diego is where they're growing the most of it. You said there's 65 farms. Yeah. I wonder how much land that actually takes up, or how much of an actual impact that that has. Economically, I think it's really a good impact. And here's a fun fact. Did you know that the term espresso, which everybody comes to like, everybody needs their espresso right away in the morning, right? Whether it's in their latte or what have you. It actually means pressed out in Italian? Yeah. Did you also know that espresso coffee has less caffeine than drip coffee? Yes, it does. It takes about three shots of espresso to get the equivalent caffeine to one cup of brewed coffee. And that's because it's pressurized in the espresso machine. And it's a very quick process, anywhere from 25 to 30 seconds, versus a coffee pot that has water flowing over their grounds about three minutes or so. So they're extracting more of the caffeine. Yeah, but the drip pot isn't the best brewing method that, or at least I don't think it's the best brewing method. I think that goes down to the French press. What's your favorite way of brewing coffee? Espresso. You think that gets out the most flavor? That's why I drink it. Yeah. It's not, I've never drank coffee for the caffeine effect. I just love the flavor of it. So if I wasn't going to drink espresso, I'd be drinking French press. Or if you have an electric perk pot, it's like an electric French press. It's not filtered. So it's very, very delicious. So let me ask you this question then. Here's another fun. How much do you think the most expensive coffee would cost? And where do you think it would come from? I would say the last I checked, anywhere from three to $600 a pound. And that comes from the island of Java, where a palm civet ingests the coffee beans and it can't digest the seeds. So it comes out in an excrement and the farmers will harvest that excrement and they call it something very pleasant, Kopi Luwak. It kind of reminds me of a movie called Bucket List with, what the heck's his name? He played in The Shining and it's got Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholas, that's his name. And Jack Nicholas's character was a big coffee aficionado and really liked his Kopi Luwak coffee. And Morgan Freeman's character knew what it was all along. And at the end of the movie is Morgan is, well, as the name implies, it's Bucket List. They're both nearing the end of their lives. Morgan kind of tells them what Kopi Luwak coffee is and Jack's character was just dumbfounded by the whole thing. Now, why would somebody want to pay that price for something like that? Well, they say that it has less acidity in it since it's traveled through the digestive tract, that gastrointestinal thing that those palm civets have. So I guess if people want to, you know, say they're serving up, why do they charge a lot for caviar? I wouldn't eat caviar. I hate it. I guess that's fish eggs. Yeah. That's kind of different than an animal crapping something out and you wanting to drink that. It's all about that price factor and that uniqueness. You can say you drink it. Yeah, I suppose. They're doing that now with, they have been for several years, cassowary birds, feeding them coffee cherries and then they collect the excrement from the cassowary. I don't know if they'd have a special pen they'd run those birds into because they're very vicious birds to collect it. But if you think about this too, an animal that's used in just about everything, which is a beaver, they use its glands for vanilla extract, don't they? Yeah, they sure do. And here's another thing. You can overdose on coffee. There's an LD50 on coffee. Yeah. If you're just drinking a regular cup of coffee though, you'd have to drink a phenomenal amount in a short period of time, like 30 cups or more. I don't know anybody that could sit down and drink 30 cups of coffee, say like in an hour. That'd be chugging it. Yeah, that better be cold. Yeah. Well, maybe cold brew, yeah. And then you better not be leaving the bathroom for a while because coffee is a natural diuretic. Yeah, it is. And here's another thing. So we found out that Brazil makes the most amount of coffee, right? Who do you think drinks the most amount of coffee? Should we give our listeners just a minute to think about it? Like 15 seconds? I'd say a minute's too long. Yeah, 15 seconds, think about it, listeners. What country do you think consumes the most coffee in the world? It would be Finland. That's hard to believe, Finland. Well, it's kind of cold there. Well, there's Iceland and Greenland, too. Isn't Iceland warm and Greenland's cold? No, they're both cold. Fire and ice is Iceland. Yeah. And here's another thing. Coffee drinkers tend to live longer. So do you think people in Finland live forever then if they drink as much coffee as they do? It'd be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting. Yeah. And here's another thing. Coffee drinkers tend to live longer. So do you think people in Finland live forever then if they drink as much coffee as they do? It'd be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. Yeah. And here's another thing. Coffee drinkers tend to live longer. So do you think people in Finland live forever then if they drink as much coffee as they do? It'd be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting. Yeah. And here's another thing. Coffee drinkers tend to live longer. So do you think people in Finland live forever then if they drink as much coffee as they do? It'd be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting. Yeah. And here's another thing. Coffee drinkers tend to live longer. So do you think people in Finland live forever then if they drink as much coffee as they do? I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's the average age of people in Finland, like their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's their longevity. I guess I never researched that, but that would be interesting to Google what's their longevity.