The Basics of Coffee 咖啡的知識
Coffee is a brewed beverage prepared from the roasted or baked seeds of several species of an evergreen shrub of the genus Coffea. The two most common sources of coffee beans are the highly regarded Coffea arabica, and the "robusta" form of the hardier Coffea canephora. The latter is resistant to the coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), but has a more bitter taste. Coffee plants are cultivated in more than 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Once ripe, coffee "berries" are picked, processed and dried to yield the seeds inside. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor, before being ground and brewed to create coffee.
Coffee is slightly acidic (pH 5.0–5.1) and can have a stimulating effect on humans because of its caffeine content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. The effect of coffee on human health has been a subject of many studies; however, results have varied in terms of coffee's relative benefit. The majority of recent research suggests that moderate coffee consumption is benign or mildly beneficial in healthy adults. However, the diterpenes in coffee may increase the risk of heart disease.
Coffee cultivation first took place in southern Arabia; the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen. In East Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in native religious ceremonies. As these ceremonies conflicted with the beliefs of the Christian church, the Ethiopian Church banned the secular consumption of coffee until the reign of Emperor Menelik II. The beverage was also banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.
An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for twelve countries in 2004, and it was the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005. Green (unroasted) coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation and its impact on the environment. Consequently, organic coffee is an expanding market.
咖啡是由幾種常綠灌木咖啡樹的種子烘焙釀造而來的飲品。咖啡的最普通來源是COFFEA.“羅布斯塔咖啡”是更苦的一種，這種植物對咖啡葉鏽病（驼孢锈菌vastatrix）具有抵抗力。世界上有超過70個國家都種植咖啡，主要分佈於赤道拉丁美洲，東南亞和非洲。收割咖啡種子之後，處理使其乾燥，將種子烘烤到不同程度，粉碎以及釀造即可得到不同口味的咖啡。
咖啡是弱酸性的（PH值為5.0﹣5.1），由於含有咖啡因，對人體有刺激作用。咖啡是人類最受歡迎的飲料之一，可製作成不同種類的飲品。咖啡對人體健康的影響一直是人類研究的熱門話題，研究結論又因其相對的收益而有所差異。近期的研究表明適度飲用咖啡有益於人體健康。然後咖啡中的“雙萜類”成份可能增加心臟疾病的患病風險。
最早的咖啡種植地是阿拉伯南部；最早的咖啡飲料成品則源自於15世紀也門的蘇菲聖地。在東非和也門，咖啡被用於宗教儀式。在孟尼利克二世統治時期之前，由於宗教儀式與基督教相悖，埃塞俄比亞教會禁止咖啡消費大眾化。在17世紀的奧斯曼土耳其，咖啡也因為政治因素及當時的政治活動而被禁止。
咖啡作為世界上最重要的出口商品，在2004年已列於12個國家的出口商品之首。在2005年，咖啡成為了世界第七大農業出口商品。未加工的咖啡豆是世界上最重要的貿易商品之一，雖然在種植咖啡以及種植對環境的影響上還存在很多爭議，但總而言之，有機咖啡的市場仍在不斷擴大。