Coffee

This map shows the countries of the world sized according to the amount of coffee they produce (2007 established.)
Learn more about all things coffee: sustainable coffee production with suggested fair trade and organic coffee producers and retailers, and the impact of coffee production on the environment and bird habitats at this excellent site: coffee and conservation.

The Atlantic (March 14): "We generally estimate caffeine content to average 1% for coffea Arabica and 2% for Robusta (coffea Canephora) by weight. The real issue is the caffeine content of the cultivar, i.e. the species (Arabica or Robusta) and especially the variety of the coffee within the species. [Curator's note: As Jerry helped teach me for my book, good coffee -- everything Peet's and also Starbucks sells -- is Arabica.] The word "varietal" is often incorrectly used referring to coffee.
"Variety" or "varietal" is an important word to an American wine producer since our tradition is to label wines by varietal, eg. Zinfandel. In France or Italy, the tradition is to label by the appellation where the wine is grown, and most wines are blends. But generally only coffee professionals encounter the variety of coffee; the consumer rarely knows whether she is drinking Catuai (red or yellow), Caturra, Typica, Mundo Novo, SL28, or Kent, to pick six of the more than 3000 named Arabica varieties. [Curator's note: For single origin coffees, what customers see is a name derived from the country of origin like Guatemala Antigua or a specific farm like Guatemala San Sebastian; for blends you'll see a proprietary name, like Peet's Major Dickason's Blend.]" Read more.

The Financial Express (January 17): "Global coffee production is likely to rise 15.45% to 134.2 million bags in the 2008-09 crop year, while India’s output would ratchet 17.72% from the previous year, the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) said. ICO is a London-based inter-governmental body of coffee exporting and importing nations. " Read more.