The most frequently asked coffee questions and answers

The following article will try to provide a few answers to some of the most common and frequent questions concerning the world of coffee, so that coffee lovers will be a little more aware when it comes to consuming their favourite beverage!

There is around 95 mg of caffeine in an average cup of coffee. Though, the percentage depends on several factors, including beans, brewing method, and roasting. However, although the concentration of caffeine may affect the flavour, it should be relatively consistent regardless the size of your cup, whether it is a 30 ml espresso or a 250 ml filter brewed coffee.

Although caffeine content may in fact differ by the type of beverage type and the preparation method, the amount of caffeine in tea or coffee may substantially vary according to the quality, the origin, and the preparation of your drink. Tea leaves usually contain 3.5% caffeine, while coffee beans hold a percentage around 1.1–2.2%. Furthermore, consumers tend to use more coffee beans than tea leaves for a single drink. These contributing causes mean a cup of brewed coffee generally contains more caffeine than a cup of tea.

Despite dark coffee tasting more intense and some people usually thinking light roasted coffee preserves more caffeine, neither one nor the other are able to reach a temperature that is high enough to destroy caffeine. This means the caffeine content of each is basically the same.

Nowadays Brazil produces around 40% of the world’s total supply of coffee, half of what it used to be about at the beginning of the 20th century. As the true powerhouse of coffee production, many Brazilian territories do have a climate that perfectly suits coffee farming. This means, coffee plantations cover over 27,000 square kilometres in the whole country, while the most important cultivation areas are in Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Parana regions.

The wide influence of the country in the trade of coffee can be perceived as we think of the 60-kilogram burlap bags traditionally used to export beans from Brazil, still nowadays representing a worldwide standard measure.

In second place for world coffee production, we find Vietnam, whose role in international market is mostly connected with the export of more bitter and less-expensive Robusta bean , as more than 40% of the world’s production of this quality takes place there. Though coffee has been cultivated in Vietnam for ages, its production was encouraged during the 90’s. Furthermore, Vietnamese coffee cultivation is in fact extremely productive: the country’s coffee yields are remarkably higher than those we find in the other top coffee-producing nations.

Colombia is no doubt another renowned producing country, as Colombian coffee is well-known for its delightful and aromatic fruity flavours. The South American country is soon followed by Indonesia, where a few of the rarest and most expensive coffee qualities – including the famous Kopi Luwak – are produced and exported in Western countries.

Prized for its full-flavoured and amazing full-bodied coffee beans, Ethiopia is to be seen as the country where Arabica – the most widely consumed quality all over the world – originated and was initially cultivated. It is interesting to notice how these top producing countries are in fact all located in the “Coffee Belt”, right between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.