Did You Know... A 101 Lesson on Random Food Facts

Here are a few random, yet fascinating facts about food.  Many are bizarre, some are gross, but ALL are strangely fascinating...


DID YOU KNOW
...that milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter, who sold the concept to his neighbor Henri Nestlé?


...TIP is the acronym for "To Insure Promptness"?


...there are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes and botanically speaking, a tomato is a fruit?


...the can opener was invented 48 years(!) after cans were introduced?



...carrots have ZERO fat?


...France exports 140 million bottles of champagne each year, but keep 180 million bottles for themselves?


...an onion, apple, and potato all have the SAME TASTE?  The differences in flavor are caused by their smell!


...Americans eat 2x as much meat as Europeans (about 110lb per capita)?


...China uses about 45 BILLION chopsticks each year?  That's about 25 million trees worth of chopsticks!


...Pepsi-Cola was invented by Caleb Bradham in 1890 as "Brad's Drink" as a digestive aid and energy booster?  8 years later, it was renamed Pepsi-Cola.


...watermelons, lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots are composed of over 90% water?  (That's 97% for watermelons and lettuce, 95% tomatoes, and 90% for carrots.)



...tea was supposedly discovered in 2737 BC(!) by a Chinese emperor?  Apparently some tea leaves accidentally blew into his pot of boiling water.


...to make 2.2 pounds of honey, bees have to travel a distance equal to 4 times around the earth to visit about 4 million flowers?  (Thanks goodness for LOTS of bees!)


...in 1994 an artist from Chicago sent David Letterman a statue of Madonna, made of 180lb of ham?


...about 1 BILLION snails are served each year in restaurants?  I know it's considered a delicacy when served as "Escargot," but I can't help it... EEW!




And finally, a few things you probably didn't know about caffeine and coffee.


Did you know that... coffee is the seed of a cherry from a tree?  (The tree genus Coffea produces the cherry, hence the term coffee... logical.)

An Indonesian coffea tree with cherries
(the beans are inside!)

...that 1 cup of coffee has about 115mg of caffeine, but a caffeinated soda typically has between 23-36mg of caffeine?  1oz of chocolate has about 20mg and tea about 40mg.


So the best early morning stimulant... err, pick-me-up, is coffee!  And if you're drinking a soda for the caffeine boost, you might as well eat a chocolate bar!




Happy Random Fact Friday (with a little bit of Thursday mixed in for a 101 lesson!)


Today I get to celebrate Miss A's and her twin sister Miss L's birthday... party food recommendations & recipes, yummy drink ideas, and mouth-watering baked goods to come!!