Coffee Beans Cha Cha Cha
While thinking of a title for this entry I remembered the Coffee Beans Cha Cha Cha Western Airlines TV commercial, the one where the cartoon bird, (parrot?) is riding on top of a Western Airlines plane, sitting with his back against the vertical stabilizer (most people would call this the rudder, but the rudder is the movable area at the tail end of the vertical stabilizer) while a steward or stewardess brings him cool things while on his flight. The end of the commercials, which sometimes featured hand made pizza, or a lion tamer for entertainment, or whatever, always ended with "Western Airlines, the only way to fly". It wasn't, and still isn't, but whatever.
One of these commercial had the steward dancing towards the bird passenger (birdssenger?) in a poncho and sombrero, I think, singing "Coffee beans, cha cha cha, coffee beans cha cha cha..." followed by the bird with a cup of delightful coffee and saying his famous line about Western being the only way to fly. That commercial more than any other stuck with me. Gosh, the things I remember. We'll be back to coffee stuff after the jump...
Anyhow, that became the title, and I tried to find a video clip of this commercial but could not, for whatever reason.
Back to coffee now. And coffee beans.
A good many people don't know that they are probably drinking a blend of two different kinds of coffee beans in their favorite brew. A lot of people do not know that Arabica beans and Robusta beans are far and away the most prevalent coffee beans in the world, and most people further would be stunned to learn that there are actually more that 120 species of coffee plants! I stopped counting at 124. One species is actually caffeine free, naturally, Coffea Charrieriana, but who has time for caffeine free, huh? Huh? Huh?
All that having been said, it really is a Robusta and Arabica coffee bean world. No matter where your coffee is grown.
Starbucks, that's all Arabica. Folgers is a blend of Robusta and Arabica, as is Yuban, and Maxwell House, although I read earlier that Maxwell House was removing the Robusta beans from theirs.
I am not a coffee snob. Myself, I don't care if my coffee is Robusta, Arabica, or a blend, so long as it tastes good, as long as it is delightful coffee, however most coffee snobs will tout Arabica vehemently over Robusta, and for good reason: It usually tastes better. That's not to say that there is not good Robusta coffee, there is, but the preference of most is Arabica coffee.
Arabica beans (Coffea Arabica) are harder to grow, harder to harvest in terms of manpower needed, produces less coffee "cherries" than Robusta (Coffea Canephora) plants do, and are more susceptible to disease and insect damage than Robusta plants. This makes Robusta coffee beans the clear winner in terms of price, as more of it is available. Supply and demand. That
Arabica beans also have about half the caffiene content that Robusta beans have, and blending the two makes sense. It's cost effective, gives a good caffeine punch, and a mellow flavor.
Last note. According to legend Coffee was discovered after an Ethiopian tribe witnessed two goats munching on the leaves and berries, after which they began to mount each other with wild abandon. To this day it is said that some Ethiopians still brew herbal drinks using the leaves. And drink coffee too, of course.
Which leads me to add this to the post. I mean, OF COURSE coffee was inspired by sex, why not?
https://youtu.be/x6QZn9xiuOE
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get In On
