Which king banned coffee, and what did sailors brew when they had none? These multiple choice trivia questions about coffee fill four rounds, from the Arabic word for the drink to the foam on an espresso.
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Trivia questions for coffee night
The word, the legends and the nicknames asks where jamoke came from. Coffeehouses, ships and kings goes from an Oxford diary to a ban in Prussia. The plant and the roast counts the seeds in a berry. Grinding, brewing and the cup ends with latte art.
Coffee trivia questions and answers printable
Press any of the four choices to see the right one, with a sentence that says why and the article it comes from. Sets are ten questions long. After a set, Print question sheet appears on the card and Print answer key is under More options there.
Questions and answers
What are some easy coffee trivia questions?
How many seeds are in a coffee berry? What color are the flowers of the coffee plant? Which drink replaced coffee in 18th-century Britain? The answers are two, white and tea.
Where does the word coffee come from?
It entered English in 1582 through the Dutch koffie, which came from the Ottoman Turkish kahve and the Arabic qahwah. Qahwah most likely meant the dark one, for the brew or the bean.
What is a peaberry?
A coffee berry usually contains two seeds. In 5 to 10 percent of berries there is only one, and those berries are called peaberries.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Coffee, linked under every question. Coffee brands and chains, harvest rankings, health claims, caffeine figures and drinks with alcohol are left out.
In 1583 the German physician Leonhard Rauwolf described coffee as "a beverage as black as" what?Answer: Ink. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In one legend, who found coffee berries after being exiled from Mokha?Answer: Sheikh Omar. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In the United States, coffee is sometimes called a "cup of" what?Answer: Joe. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In which year did the term "coffee pot" originate?Answer: 1705. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Jamoke, a once popular nickname for coffee, was made from which two words?Answer: Mocha and java. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
The legend of Kaldi and the coffee plant is likely apocryphal. Before which year does it not appear?Answer: 1671. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
The Ottoman Turkish kahve was borrowed from which Arabic word?Answer: Qahwah. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Qahwah is the name of the drink. What are coffee beans called in Arabic?Answer: Bunn. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Some think the word coffee comes from the name of a region in Ethiopia. Which region?Answer: Kaffa. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What did the Arabic word qahwah most likely mean?Answer: The dark one. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which composer wrote the humorous Coffee Cantata?Answer: Johann Sebastian Bach. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
The word coffee entered English in 1582 by way of koffie. Which language is koffie?Answer: Dutch. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Coffeehouses, ships and kings 12
Coffee reached Austria and Poland after it was captured from the supplies of a defeated army in 1683. After which battle?Answer: The Battle of Vienna. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
During the 18th century, coffee drinking declined in Britain. Which drink took its place?Answer: Tea. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In 1931 a new way of packing roasted coffee was introduced, and it is widely used today. What was it?Answer: Sealing it in a vacuum in cans. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In the 1720s Gabriel de Clieu took a coffee plant to which Caribbean island, the source of much of the world's arabica?Answer: Martinique. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In the Age of Sail, seamen of the Royal Navy made a substitute coffee by dissolving what in hot water?Answer: Burnt bread. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In which year was the coffee vending machine invented?Answer: 1947. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In which year were the first exports of coffee from Java to the Netherlands?Answer: 1711. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Traders of which nation were the first to import coffee on a large scale, and later grew it in Java and Ceylon?Answer: The Dutch. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which country prohibited coffee in the 18th century because of the cost of importing it?Answer: Sweden. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which English diarist wrote that at Oxford in 1637 he first saw someone drink coffee?Answer: John Evelyn. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which English king briefly outlawed coffeehouses to quell what he saw as rebellion?Answer: Charles II. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which king banned coffee in Prussia, worried about the cost of importing it?Answer: Frederick the Great. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
The plant and the roast 12
Arabica berries ripen in six to eight months. How long does robusta take?Answer: Nine to eleven months. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Arabica, the most highly regarded coffee species, is native to the southwestern highlands of which country?Answer: Ethiopia. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Coffee berries start out green. After yellow, which color do they ripen to?Answer: Crimson. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
During roasting, the skin left on the seed comes away. What is it called?Answer: Chaff. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
How is the arabica plant mostly pollinated?Answer: It pollinates itself. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
How many seeds does a coffee berry usually contain?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
One way of taking the caffeine out of coffee starts by soaking the seeds in hot water. Which country is the process often named after?Answer: Switzerland. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
To which plant family do all coffee plants belong?Answer: Rubiaceae. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What are coffee berries with only one seed called?Answer: Peaberries. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What color are the fragrant flowers of the coffee plant?Answer: White. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What happens to a coffee bean as it roasts?Answer: It loses weight and grows in volume. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which oil, created at about 200 °C during roasting, is largely responsible for coffee's aroma and flavor?Answer: Caffeol. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Grinding, brewing and the cup 12
A flat white is steamed milk added to how many espresso shots?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Espresso is brewed under high pressure. What is the typical figure?Answer: 9 bar. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Espresso with equal parts steamed milk and milk froth makes which drink?Answer: A cappuccino. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Grinds are often named after a way of brewing. Which is the finest?Answer: Turkish grind. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
How is cold brew coffee made?Answer: By steeping coarse grounds in cold water for several hours. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
In brewing, what does the "brew ratio" compare?Answer: Coffee grounds to water. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What are the decorative patterns made by pouring milk into coffee known as?Answer: Latte art. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What is brewed coffee served with milk or cream called?Answer: White coffee. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What is the earliest method of brewing coffee?Answer: Boiling. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
What is the reddish-brown foam on a well-prepared espresso called?Answer: Crema. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which force do drip brewers and automatic coffeemakers rely on?Answer: Gravity. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
Which grinder shears the coffee seed between revolving elements?Answer: A burr grinder. Source: Wikipedia: Coffee
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. The questions and the wrong choices are our own. Every answer was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Coffee (en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license), which is linked beside each question, and each explanation restates that article in our own sentence. Stories the article calls legends are asked as legends. Left out on purpose: coffee brands and chains, harvest and sales rankings, which change every year, health claims and caffeine figures, drinks that mix coffee with alcohol, and the faiths that have allowed or forbidden coffee. Facts that the site's drinks pack already asks (the goats of the Kaldi legend, the Sufis of Yemen, espresso, the americano, the latte, the macchiato, instant coffee, decaffeination in 1903, coffee in Brazil) are not asked again. Where the article gives two dates for the first coffeehouse in Constantinople, nothing is asked. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, hard will stump most. Licence: own work