Duration: 1st October – 31st December 2020
Number of books: 18
Hosted by: Crazy Challenge Connection
Fall Scavenger Challenge 2020 – Coffee
I was a tea drinker for a very long time, until I started associating tea with early morning cramming for exams – it was so anxiety inducing that I avoided tea for a couple of years after college, and I turned to coffee. Black coffee, generously topped with cayenne, helps my migraines as well, so I’m a fan. I had to come up with this challenge for fall, because this is when Starbucks starts carrying pumpkin spiced latte, one of my favorite flavored coffees.
To finish, choose a book to fit one of the options and finish all 18 tasks!
CHALLENGE RULES – PLEASE READ!
See this thread for more detailed rules for CCC challenges.
❖ If you want to participate in a challenge, sign up by posting at least a partial list of the challenge requirements. This gives us a post to link you to, which you can use to update your books as the challenge progresses.
❖ Books must be at least 150 pages long (unless they are graphic novels, see below) and may only be used for one task in this challenge, but cross-challenge posting is encouraged.
❖ Graphic novels must be at least 300 pages long, but two books can be combined to make up the page count as long as they both meet the same criteria.
❖ For each book you read, please post a link to the title and mention the author and the date you finished reading it. If a challenge task gives several options, make it clear which option you’ve chosen. If the task calls for an item/color on the cover, include a link to the book cover.* If it’s not obvious from the book title or cover, be sure to explain how your book fits the task. If you don’t, you won’t get credit for completing that task.
❖ If you want the challenge moderator to verify those books as you post them, please copy/paste your update into a new message. If you do this while you still have the Edit window open, it will copy all of your formatting, etc. too. It will make it easier on the moderators if we won’t have to scroll back through the entire thread looking for “message #15,” or to follow links back to an original post.
❖ When you complete the challenge, please post your entire list as a new message to make it easier for everyone to see what you’ve read 🙂 If you don’t repost your list, your name will not be added to the list of those who have completed the challenge.
❖ Rereads are allowed, as long as you read the entire book and not just skim the best portions! 🙂
* If you don’t know how to post a link to the book title, cover or author, see the instructions HERE.
1. Coffee beans are actually seeds, which come from the inside of a fruit very similar to a cherry. In fact, they are often called coffee cherries. The plant’s scientific name begins with the genus Coffea, followed by the species. For example, arabica beans come from the Coffea arabica plant.
☕ Read a book with a fruit on the cover (post the cover) -or- read a book in which scientific names of a plant or animal is discussed (tell us both the common and the scientific names).
2. When coffee berries turn from green to bright red in color – indicating ripeness – they are picked, processed, and dried. Processing can be wet process, which requires a substantial amount of water to wash the fruit. It can also be dry, in which the fruit is dried unwashed. Dried coffee seeds are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. Roasted beans are ground and then brewed with near-boiling water to produce the beverage known as coffee. It can be prepared and presented in a number of ways (espresso, French press, Caffe latte and so on).
☕ Read a book with water on the cover (post the cover) -or- read a book which takes place in a dry season or climate (tell us where and/or when your book is set). – The Stone Mage and the Sea by Sean Williams
3. Coffee is next only to crude oil when it comes to the world’s most traded commodity. The global consumption reaches approximately 2.25 billion cups of coffee each day. The best climates for growing coffee beans are known as The Bean Belt. This includes Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Sumatra, Honduras, Peru, Guatemala, Columbia, and Ethiopia. Coffee is now grown in over 70 countries with Brazil being the leading coffee grower of the world producing 35% of the world’s coffee.
☕ Read a book you bought -or- read a book set in a Bean Belt country (tell us where the book is set). – Bad Boys in Black Tie by Lori Foster, Erin McCarthy & Morgan Leigh
4. The part of Ethiopia where wild coffee originated was called the Kingdom of Kaffa from the 14th century onward. That may be where the drink gets its name. Another theory says that the Arabians who first popularized coffee named it qahwah after one of their ancient drinks that was similar to wine. Qahwah became kahve in Turkish, then koffie in Dutch, and finally coffee in English. Cappuccino is so called because the drink resembles the clothing of the Capuchin monks.
☕ Read a book with a Q anywhere in its title (title only, no subtitles) -or- read a book with a hair covering of some sort on the cover (post the cover). – I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
5. Other legends and myths state that a goat herder by the name of Kaldi found the first coffee forest in Ethiopia centuries ago and he reported the mysterious beans to the local monastery. Supposedly, the monks made a beverage with the beans and felt energized. Another legend about Kaldi the goat herder also states he stumbled upon the coffee when his goats ate the cherries and became sprightly. However, the most credible accounts of early coffee drinking comes from Sufi shrines in Yemen during the 15th century.
☕ Read a book with a farm animal on the cover (post the cover) -or- read a book that makes you feel happy and energized. – The Pregnancy Test by Erin McCarthy
6. Over 60 percent of the world’s coffee is made out of Arabica beans, and they are popular and common for a reason. These beans are grown at high altitudes and therefore, they receive the perfect amount of shade and rainfall to result in a full, delicious taste. Arabica trees are usually fairly small – no more than six feet in height – and they are easy to take care of, which is one of the reasons they are such a commonplace bean to make coffee from.
☕ Read a book with a mountain on the cover (post the cover) -or- read a book with a 6 in its first published year (tell us the year). – Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn (2016)
7. Robusta beans, grown primarily in Africa and Indonesia, are the world’s second favorite coffee beans. They contain almost double the caffeine of their arabica cousins—just under three per cent, to 1.5% for arabica. This extra caffeine also helps make Robusta easier to grow, because it turns off some pests and makes the tree practically immune to disease.
☕ Read book #2 of a series (tell us the series) -or- use a book which kept you up at night. – Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh
8. Mecca banned coffee in the 16th century because they believed it inspired radicals. Nevertheless, Catholic clergy viewed it as a Muslim drink (Satanic, in their view) and asked Pope Clement VIII to ban it. The pope tried it, and liked it so much he had it baptized, jumpstarting its popularity in the Christian world. In 1675, King Charles II of England banned coffeehouses because he believed people gathered there to plot against him. But then again, maybe he was right, because both the American and the French revolutions were plotted in coffee houses.
☕ Read a banned book (tell us where and why it was banned) -or- read a book with a revolution in its plot (tell us how it fits). – Looking for Alaska by John Green (not sure, it’s just on the Banned Books List)
9. In 1732, composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a comic opera called Coffee Cantata about a coffee-crazy young woman whose father tries to come between her and her coffee. Beethoven counted the number of coffee beans he used to make his coffee and insisted on 60 beans per cup.
☕ Read a book whose main character is a musician -or- read a book with HUMOR on its main GR page. – Beard Science by Penny Reid
10. A tea tax imposed by the British government in 1773 not only led to a raid on tea ships in Boston Harbor and the American Revolution, it also paved the way for coffee. During and after the revolution, many Americans considered drinking tea to be unpatriotic and switched to coffee. Many never went back. Only 2 US states produce coffee alongside Puerto Rico – Hawaii & California. Hawaii cultivates Kona Coffee on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa of Big Island. It is one of the most expensive coffees in the world (and delicious!)
☕ Read a book with a ship on the cover (post the cover) -or- read a book set in Hawaii or Puerto Rico (tell us which one your book is set in).
11. Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee, coffee crystals, and coffee powder, is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans that enables people to quickly prepare hot coffee by adding hot water or milk to the powder or crystals and stirring. Instant coffee is commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated. Instant coffee in a concentrated liquid form is also manufactured.
☕ Read a book that is 150-200 pages long (tell us the number of pages) -or- read a book that is available to you right now (as in, you have it out of the library right now or you own it). – The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (owned)
12. Instant coffee was invented and patented in 1881, by Alphonse Allais, France. The invention was previously attributed to Satori Kato, a Japanese scientist working in Chicago in 1901. Kato introduced the powdered substance in Buffalo, New York, at the Pan-American Exposition. George Constant Louis Washington developed his own instant coffee process shortly thereafter, and first marketed it commercially in 1910. The Nescafé brand, which introduced a more advanced coffee refining process, was launched in 1938.
☕ Read a book with a French or Japanese origin character in the story (tell us who) -or- read a book whose author’s first and last initials are in NESCAFE. – Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
13. Turkish coffee is made by bringing finely powdered coffee, water and usually sugar to boil in a special pot called cezve. Turkish coffee is also a part of the traditional Turkish wedding custom. During a pre-wedding meeting of the prospective bride and groom, the bride-to-be must prepare and serve Turkish coffee to the guests. For the groom’s coffee, the bride-to-be sometimes uses salt instead of sugar to gauge his character. If the bridegroom drinks his coffee without any sign of displeasure, the bride-to-be assumes that the groom is good-tempered and patient. In some parts of the country, salt or a lack of sugar in coffee might also be received as a lack of desire on the part of the girl to marry the suitor.
☕ Read a book in which a wedding occurs -or- read a book in which a character is even tempered or patient (tell us the character). – Becoming by Michelle Obama (Michelle Obama)
14. Black Ivory coffee costs more than $500 per pound, or $50 per cup. The beans are sourced from the poop of elephants in Thailand, after they’ve eaten coffee cherries and excreted the pits. The elephants’ digestive enzymes are said to transform the compounds in the beans. It’s not a new concept—for many years, Kopi Luwak coffee sourced from the feces of civets was regarded as the world’s priciest.
☕ Read a book with a predominantly black colored cover (post the cover) -or- use a book that you think should have not been written! – Death’s Excellent Vacation edited by Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner
15. The world’s first webcam was created to watch a coffee pot. Computer scientists at Columbia University didn’t want to waste a journey to the coffee pot only to find it empty, so they set up a camera to watch the coffee pot. When switched on, the camera provided a 129X129 pixel grayscale image of the coffee pot at one frame per second. The camera stream predates the world wide web by a couple of years, but it went on the web as soon as the web itself went live.
☕ Read a book set in a school or college -or- read a book in which a webcam is used for whatever reason (tell us how it fits). – Bad Boys Online by Erin McCarthy (cybersex)
16. A UK company called Bio-Bean partnered with Shell on a project to turn coffee grounds into biodiesel. The fuel worked without any modifications to the buses. Bio-bean now makes “coffee logs” out of recycled coffee grounds, for use in fireplaces and wood stoves.
☕ Read a book with a vehicle on the cover (post the cover) -or- read a book in which climate change is a concern.
17. A 2017 review of clinical trials found that drinking coffee is generally safe within usual levels of intake and is more likely to improve health outcomes than to cause harm at doses of 3 or 4 cups of coffee daily. In 2012, the National Institutes of Health–AARP Diet and Health Study analyzed the relationship between coffee drinking and mortality. They found that higher coffee consumption was associated with lower risk of death, and that those who drank any coffee lived longer than those who did not. However the authors noted, “whether this was a causal or associational finding cannot be determined from our data.” A 2011 review found that regular coffee consumption of up to 6 cups per day reduced the risk of several types of cancer. Trials have also found that long-term coffee consumption is associated with lower risk of Parkinson’s, Type II Diabetes and so on, but adversely affects anxiety.
☕ Read a book in which a character has a disease -or- read a book which reduces your anxiety (it could be a favorite author or genre, the subject is something that makes you happy, tell us how the book fits). – Houston, We Have a Problem by Erin McCarthy (a sweet, easy to read romance)
18. The first Starbucks opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 31, 1971, by three partners who met while they were students at the University of San Francisco: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker. The company took the name of the chief mate in the book Moby-Dick: Starbuck, after considering “Cargo House” and “Pequod”. The siren of the famous Starbucks logo is intended to represent the seductive power of coffee. There are over 87,000 possible drink combinations at Starbucks.
☕ Read Moby Dick (sorry!) -or read a book with a title word that matches a word in one of these Starbucks Secret Menu drinks (tell us the drink!) – Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
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Earth and Skye 
