No, that’s not Mark in the photo, just me with some grand old brown magic liquid.

It’s already been a week, but I went to see the first of the “Coffee: From the Grounds Up” lecture series one fine spring evening on the UW campus. Mark Pendergrast led the hour and a half long introduction, and was an all-around funny and well-spoken fellow from Vermont. Here are some of the more interesting facts I jotted down in my journal.

On Robusto vs. Arabica coffee plants: Robusto is cheaper to grow, can grow at lower altitudes, and is less disease-prone than Arabica. Unfortunately, in spite of all its merits as a vigorous species, robusto tastes pretty bad. Arabica is a plant opposite robusto in almost every way – more finicky about its growing requirements, but it tastes damn good.

Coffee blossoms smell like jasmine.

Why does coffee have caffeine? It’s supposed to act as a natural pesticide, to protect the plant from being consumed. That pesticide just happens to have the side of effect of making you feel almost invincible and happy after consuming it.

Ever notice those little buttons on the side of coffee bags? That’s to release CO2, otherwise the coffee bag may explode. Before that nifty invention, in the time of coffee cans, they had to let the coffee get a bit stale so that the can wouldn’t explode.

That’s it for now, until the next lecture or pretty food photo!