The Origins of Coffee
It is unclear how or when coffee was found, while there are several tales surrounding its discovery.
Historically, coffee growing around the globe may be traced back to old coffee woods on the Ethiopian plateau, which date back thousands of years. A goat herder named Kaldi is credited with discovering the potential of these valued beans in this location, according to local mythology.
Apparently, Kaldi found coffee after seeing that his goats got too lively after eating berries from a certain tree, and that they were unable to sleep at night after eating the berries.
He brought his discoveries to the attention of the abbot of the nearby monastery, who concocted a drink out of the berries and discovered that it kept him attentive during the lengthy nightly prayer session. Eventually, word of the revitalizing berries spread throughout the monastery as a result of the abbot’s finding being passed along to other monks.
After spreading eastward and reaching the Arabian peninsula, the coffee bean embarked on a voyage that would take it to every continent on the planet.
The Arabian Peninsula is a geographical region that includes the countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United States.
Arabian Peninsula is where coffee growing and trading started. After being introduced to Arabia by the 15th century, coffee became well-known in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. By the 16th century, it had spread across the world.
Throughout the Near East, coffee was not only consumed at home, but also at the many public coffee shops — known in Arabic as qahveh khaneh — that started to spring up in towns around the region. The popularity of the coffee cafes was unrivaled, and people attended them for a variety of social occasions.
Along with drinking coffee and engaging in discussion, the customers also listened to music, saw entertainers, engaged in chess, and stayed up to date on current events. It didn’t take long for coffee shops to establish themselves as such major hubs for knowledge sharing that they were dubbed “Schools of Wisdom.”
Due to the large number of pilgrims who go to Mecca each year from all over the globe to pray, word of this “wine of Araby” started to spread quickly.
Europe is getting its first taste of coffee!
Travelers from Europe to the Near East have returned with tales of a peculiar midnight black liquor that they have encountered there. When coffee first arrived in Europe in the 17th century, it quickly gained popularity across the continent.
It was not uncommon for some individuals to react negatively to this new beverage, labeling it as the “bitter creation of Satan.” When coffee first arrived in Venice in 1615, the local church denounced it. A request was made to Pope Clement VIII to intercede since the debate had become so large and widespread. After deciding to test the beverage for himself before reaching a final judgment, he found it to be quite delicious, and he so granted it his papal blessing.
However, despite the controversy, coffee shops were swiftly emerging as hubs of social activity and communication in major cities around the world. This was especially true in the United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, and Holland. Throughout England, “penny colleges” popped up, so named because for a penny, one could have a cup of coffee and participate in fascinating discourse.
It was at this time that beer and wine were beginning to be replaced by coffee as the traditional morning beverage. Coffee drinkers were more attentive and invigorated as they started the day, and it should come as no surprise that the quality of their work improved dramatically as a result of this. In our opinion, it was an early version of the present workplace coffee service.
As of the mid-17th century, there were more than 300 coffee shops in London, many of which drew consumers who shared their interests, such as merchants and shippers. Brokers and artists were also frequent customers.
Specialized coffee shops were the seedbed for many other ventures to come into fruition. A coffee house called the Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House, for example, was where Lloyd’s of London got its start.
The Beginning of a New Era
New Amsterdam, which the British eventually dubbed “New York,” received its first shipment of coffee in the mid-1600s.
Tea remained the preferred beverage in the New World, despite the fast proliferation of coffee establishments, until the colonists rose up in protest against a hefty tax on tea imposed by King George III in 1773. Because of the Boston Tea Party, American drinking preferences for tea would forever be changed in favor of espresso.
In the civilized world, coffee is the preferred beverage. – Theodore Roosevelt
Planted Landscapes from Every Corner of the World
Coffee cultivation in countries other than Arabia became more difficult as demand for the beverage increased.
Planting seedlings was only accomplished in the second part of the seventeenth century. Despite the failure of their first attempts to establish them in India, they were successful in their efforts in Batavia, on the island of Java, in what is now Indonesia, where they established them.
The plants flourished, and the Dutch quickly established a thriving and profitable coffee trade. In the following years, they extended their coffee tree plantings to the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Celebes.
Coming to the Continent of North and South America
An early coffee plant was sent to French King Louis XIV in 1714 by the Mayor of Amsterdam as a gift from the city. This tree was given to the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris by King Louis XIV. When the King’s plant was destroyed, a young naval officer named Gabriel de Clieu managed to steal a seedling from it. The seedling was successfully transported to Martinique despite the difficulties of the journey, which included severe weather, a saboteur who attempted to kill the seedling, and a pirate assault.
Next its transplantation, the seedling not only flourished, but it is also credited for the establishment of more than 18 million coffee trees on the island of Martinique during the following 50 years. That this seedling was the ancestor of all coffee plants in the Caribbean, South and Central America is even more remarkable.
Franciso de Mello Palheta, a Portuguese explorer who was sent by the Emperor of Brazil to French Guiana in search of coffee seedlings, is credited with the invention of the world-famous Brazilian coffee. Despite the French’s refusal to share, the French Governor’s wife, taken with his attractive looks, presented him with a big bouquet of flowers before he departed. Buried inside the bouquet were enough coffee seeds to launch what is now a billion-dollar enterprise.
Coffee seeds were carried to other places by missionaries and travelers, merchants and colonists, and coffee plants were planted in new locations all over the globe. Spectacular tropical woods and steep mountain ranges were used as locations for plantations. There were some crops that did well, and others that did not fare as well. On the backs of coffee economies, new countries were born. Both fortunes and tragedies were experienced. As time passed, coffee had risen to become one of the world’s most valuable export crops, reaching its peak at the end of the 18th century. In the globe, coffee is second only to crude oil as the most in-demand commodity.
READ MORE—–Health benefits and risks of drinking coffee 6 DISADVANTAGES OF COFFEE FOR YOUR HEALTH AND 12 BENEFITS
