The Best Coffee Ever

Coffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. Due to its caffeine content, coffee has a stimulating effect in humans. Today, coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide.

Coffee beans may have first been consumed as a beverage in the ninth century, by Arabs who encountered it in the highlands of Ethiopia.Mekete Belachew, "Coffee," in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (Weissbaden: Horrowitz, 2003), p.763. From there, it spread to Egypt and Yemen, and by the 15th century, had reached Armenia, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, to I...

In English, barista is a name applied to a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks. The word is borrowed from Italian, where it has a wider meaning of "bartender". The term persists in American coffeehouse jargon, with many employers such as Starbucks officially utilizing the title for such employees. Often, among coffee enthusiasts, the term is reserved for one who has acquired some level of expertise or particular skill in the preparation of such drinks. Within certain circles, its meaning is expanding to include what might be called a "coffee sommelier" ? a professional who is highly skilled in coffee preparation with a comprehensive...