The Wide World of Coffee Lovers

Want to start the day bright-eyed and alert? Have a cup of coffee. Need a pick-me-up in the middle of a busy work morning or something to get through a long, hard afternoon? A cup of coffee will do the trick. Is a project or homework dragging late into the night? Power through with coffee.

Planning a chat or get-together with close friends? Invite them over for a cup of coffee or meet them at a coffee bar. Want to plan a date with someone in a casual spot that makes it easy to socialize? Meet them for coffee.

Want to start a business meeting off on the right foot? Offer coffee to everyone. Are you welcoming guests into your home on the weekend? Get the coffee brewing! Looking to curl up all by yourself with a good book or the Sunday papers? A steaming cup or mug of coffee is the perfect companion.

It seems we're all coffee lovers!

Coffee: The Perfect Companion

For more than ten centuries, humankind has found in coffee the perfect companion for so many of life's special moments. Why? The effects of its most active ingredient, caffeine, a substance that safely and gently makes coffee drinkers more alert, vital, and alive is undeniable. But there's so much more to coffee than that, a phenomenon evident in the simple fact that coffee lovers drink and enjoy coffee even when 97 percent of its caffeine has been removed through the process known as decaffeination.

A cup of coffee presents us with one of the most complex and pleasing flavors in the world of food and drink. Described variously as "full-bodied," "aromatic," "buttery," "chocolaty," "delicate," "fragrant," "mellow," "rich," "nutty," "spicy," "creamy," and a wide range of other appealing coffee terminology, coffee offers an incredible range of sensations with every sip. Different coffees from different growers in scores of countries around the world offer a range of vastly varying characteristics, which gain even greater variety through the wide range of coffee roasts. The result is quite literally a world of discovery every bit as intriguing as that of fine wine.

Coffee: The Common Man's Gold

Add to that the many different ways we've developed to brew coffee down through the ages, from simply combining ground coffee with hot water to dripping water through ground coffee to forcing pressurized hot water through finely ground dark-roasted coffee to make espresso coffee. Then there's the cold milk, hot milk, steamed milk, or cream we add to make various coffee drinks. And don't forget all the complementary flavorings that can be added to coffee, from the essences incorporated after roasting to make flavored coffee beans to the spices that can be ground with the beans to flavored coffee syrups ready to stir into freshly brewed coffee.

In short, there seems to be a coffee drink ready to satisfy and delight coffee lovers of every imaginable taste and personality. And the relatively low cost of even the finest coffee beans make coffee a pleasure everyone can enjoy. The reason we love coffee today remains unchanged from the phenomenon described more than four centuries ago by the Arabic writer Ansari Djezeri Hanball Abd-al-Kadir: "Coffee is the common man's gold, and like gold it brings to every man the feeling of luxury and nobility. Where coffee is served there is grace and splendor and friendship and happiness."