1.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
2.
Fukushima, Fukushima
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Fukushima is the capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It is located in the part of Nakadōri, the central region of the prefecture. The present-day city of Fukushima partially consists of most of the former Shinobu and Date Districts, the city is located in the Fukushima Basins southwest area and nearby mountains. There are many onsen on the outskirts of the city, including the areas of Iizaka Onsen, Takayu Onsen. Fukushima is also the location of the Fukushima Race Course, the only Japan Racing Association horse racing track in the Tōhoku region of Japan, as of May 2011, the city has an estimated population of 290,064 and a population density of 390 persons per km². The total area is 746.43 km², during the times of ancient Japan, the area now known as the city of Fukushima was called Minekoshi. The mountain in the middle of the city, present-day Mt. Shinobu, was formerly called Mt. Minekoshi. During the Jōmon period, for around 2,000 years there was a settlement on the eastern bank of the Abukuma River. This site has since been excavated and named the Miyahata Remains and it is said that in the 5th century AD, Kumano Atai was appointed by the Yamato court to be the Shinobu Kuni no miyatsuko, giving him control over the Fukushima Basin. Under the Nara periods Ritsuryō system, stations were established along the Seven Circuits so that officials could change horses, one of the stations, the Tōsandō, passed through the area of present-day Fukushima, and Minekoshi Station was established on the route. Minekoshi Station was located south of the Surikami River and north of the Matsukawa River, the area south of the Matsukawa River was then, as it still is now, known as Suginome. Thus it is believed that the station was located north of the area around the present-day prefectural office, the implementation of the Ritsuryō system also resulted in administrative changes, with the area of present-day Fukushima and Date being combined to form the district of Shinobu. This was the northernmost point of the Mutsu Province and held responsibility for preventing the expansion of the Emishi. After 718 and the influence of the Yamato Imperial Court. However, by 724 Mutsu Province was unable to deal on its own with the costs of holding back the Emishi, so Iwaki. In the first half of the 10th century, the Date district was separated from the Shinobu district. As a reform to the tax on rice, labor. This was accomplished both through administrative changes and forced population relocations, with Mutsu Province viewed as reclaimed land by the Imperial Court, the area saw a significant amount of reorganization
3.
Coffee
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Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of berries from the Coffea plant. The genus Coffea is native to tropical Africa, and Madagascar, the two most commonly grown are the highly regarded arabica, and the less sophisticated but stronger and more hardy robusta. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried, dried coffee seeds are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. Roasted beans are ground and brewed with boiling water to produce coffee as a beverage. Coffee is slightly acidic and can have an effect on humans because of its caffeine content. Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world and it can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. It is usually served hot, although iced coffee is also served, the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen. It was here in Arabia that coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in a way to how it is now prepared. Coffee seeds were first exported from East Africa to Yemen, as the coffea arabica plant is thought to have been indigenous to the former, yemeni traders took coffee back to their homeland and began to cultivate the seed. By the 16th century, it had reached Persia, Turkey, from there, it spread to Europe and the rest of the world. Coffee is an export commodity, it is the top agricultural export for numerous countries and is among the worlds largest legal agricultural exports. It is one of the most valuable commodities exported by developing countries, green coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. Consequently, the markets for fair trade coffee and organic coffee are expanding. The first reference to coffee in the English language is in the form chaona, dated to 1598 and understood to be a misprint of chaoua, equivalent, in the orthography of the time, to chaova. This term and coffee both derive from the Ottoman Turkish kahve, by way of the Italian caffè and it has also been proposed that the source may be the Proto-Central Semitic root q-h-h meaning dark. Alternatively, the word Khat, a plant widely used as stimulant in Yemen and Ethiopia before being supplanted by coffee has been suggested as a possible origin, the expression coffee break was first attested in 1952. The term coffee pot dates from 1705, other accounts attribute the discovery of coffee to Sheikh Omar. According to the ancient chronicle, Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was exiled from Mocha in Yemen to a desert cave near Ousab
4.
Liqueur
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A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage made from a distilled spirit that has been flavored with fruit, cream, herbs, spices, flowers or nuts and bottled with added sugar or other sweetener. Liqueurs are typically sweet, they are usually not aged for long after the ingredients are mixed. In the United States and Canada, where spirits are often called liquor, there is confusion over liqueurs and liquors. You can distinguish them from each other because liqueurs are quite sweet and often syrupy in consistency, most liqueurs have a lower alcohol content than spirits, but some contain as much as 55% ABV. Liqueurs are historical descendants of herbal medicines, they were made in Italy as early as the 13th century and were prepared by monks. Nowadays, liqueurs are made worldwide and are served in many ways, by themselves, poured over ice, with coffee, mixed with cream or other mixers to create cocktails and they are often served with or after a dessert. Liqueurs are also used in cooking, some liqueurs are prepared by infusing certain woods, fruits, or flowers in either water or alcohol and adding sugar or other items. Others are distilled from aromatic or flavoring agents, layered drinks are made by floating different-colored liqueurs in separate layers. Each liqueur is poured slowly into a glass over the back of a spoon or down a glass rod, so that the liquids of different densities remain unmixed, the word liqueur comes from the Latin liquifacere via French. Liqueurs Liqueurs at The Cooks Thesaurus
5.
Rum
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Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts, such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels. The majority of the rum production occurs in the Caribbean. Rums are produced in various grades, light rums are commonly used in cocktails, whereas golden and dark rums were typically consumed straight or neat, on the rocks, or used for cooking, but are now commonly consumed with mixers. Premium rums are also available, made to be consumed straight or iced. Rum plays a part in the culture of most islands of the West Indies as well as in The Maritimes and this beverage has famous associations with the Royal Navy and piracy. Rum has also served as a medium of economic exchange, used to help fund enterprises such as slavery, organized crime. The origin of the rum is generally unclear. In an 1824 essay about the origin, Samuel Morewood. He wrote, As spirits, extracted from molasses, could not well be ranked under the name whiskey, brandy, or arrack, it would be called rum, given the harsh taste of early rum, this is unlikely. Morewood later suggested another possibility, that it was taken from the last syllable of the Latin word for sugar, saccharum, other etymologists have mentioned the Romani word rum, meaning strong or potent. These words have been linked to the ramboozle and rumfustian, both popular British drinks in the mid-17th century, however, neither was made with rum, but rather eggs, ale, wine, sugar, and various spices. The most probable origin is as a version of rumbullion or rumbustion. Both words surfaced in English about the time as rum did. This is a far more convincing explanation, and brings the image of men fighting in entanglements at island tippling houses. Another claim is the name is from the large drinking glasses used by Dutch seamen known as rummers, from the Dutch word roemer, other options include contractions of the words iterum, Latin for again, a second time, or arôme, French for aroma. A short time later in May 1657, the General Court of Massachusetts also decided to make illegal the sale of strong liquor whether knowne by the name of rumme, strong water, wine, brandy, etc. In current usage, the used for a rum is often based on its place of origin
6.
Sugar
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Sugar is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. There are various types of derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose, fructose, the table sugar or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugar is used in prepared foods and it is added to some foods, in the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk, longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol may also have a sweet taste, low-calorie food substitutes for sugar, described as artificial sweeteners, include aspartame and sucralose, a chlorinated derivative of sucrose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants and are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient commercial extraction in sugarcane, the world production of sugar in 2011 was about 168 million tonnes. The average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, since the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, the etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word sugar ultimately originates from the Sanskrit शर्करा, via Arabic سكر as granular or candied sugar, the contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar, respectively, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre and the contemporary French, sucre, the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin – Portuguese jagara from the Sanskrit शर्करा. Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and it was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness, sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule, one of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. Sugar was found in Europe by the 1st century AD, but only as an imported medicine and it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut, sugar is used only for medical purposes. Sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store, crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD
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