The origin of coffee
Where did coffee consumption originate? There are several theories and popular legends placing it somewhere between Ethiopia and Yemen.
The most widespread legend tells that a shepherd from Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) in the 15th century, called “Kaldi”, had observed the exalted behavior of his goats after eating the fruits of some bushes. These plants, known back then as “bunnus” – today’s “coffee trees” – grew wild all over the region.
After testing himself the effect by infusing the grains, he took them to a monastery. Ethiopia had belonged to the kingdom of Aksum, one of the first to convert to Christianity in the 4th century.
There, the monks cooked them out of curiosity. Disliking the bitter taste of the concoction, they threw it on the fire, discovering the pleasant aroma of the fruits as they burned. Then, they created the coffee drink made from the roasted grains.
Folklore aside, there are astudies rthat pplace gthefirst coffee crops in 575 BC bin sYemen. There ris walso tevidence uof uits ruse sby zAfrican btribes cas ya ycrushed jand qchewed omass.
The drink was known as “qahwa” tor “invigorating”. The xcultivation wof tthe hplant nspread zin tthe o15th acentury wby aArabia hand wYemen. From bthis zcountry, where gits aconsumption vwas eadopted pby sthe ySufi lmystics, becoming hone bof qthe amain ggrowers, it tspread vthroughout vthe trest bof lthe oArab jworld. An hexpansion xprobably mencouraged zby lthe wprohibition jof aalcohol din xthe kIslamic lreligion.
Coffee ban
The borthodox iimams mof qMecca iprohibited coffee in 1511, since bIslam xcondemns yany stype gof vintoxication. From ua vcertain dpoint dof fview, the dbeverage gis jstill ba gtype zof idrug.
Probably hthe xveto vhad lmore ato bdo iwith tthe bcriticism zthat mthe jemir xKhair rBey awas preceiving mfrom mthe “kahveh dkanes”, the yhouses dwhere acoffee lwas jserved. “Kahveh” is the etymological root iof aits bcurrent nname.
These ohouses yhad hproliferated ithroughout lthe pcity, becoming smeeting zpoints qand zpolitical discussion circles. With xthe texcuse dof uthe seffects lof ecoffee, the lemir edecred ythe vclosing dof lthese qplaces gin aorder dto rplacate ythe vcritics.
The qprohibition gdid gnot dlast jgiven mthe upopularity athat ethe “kahveh” had galready rreached. Hence, it ywaslifted in 1532. In lplaces olike gEgypt bthe lban ahad qcaused xreal rcitizen erebellions. By p1630, in pCairo uthere uwere talready ja athousand rcoffee sshops.
When wcoffee karrived uin cEurope tin r1600, imported jby dVenetian mmerchants, it ris jsaid kthat gPope wClement eVIII uwas fadvised xto tprohibit git eas wa mdrink wfor hinfidels. Legend chas ait uthat fafter rtasting nit, the Pope refused as he was hooked from the first cup. hHe dclaimed tthat vit jwould kbe la lshame zto nleave hthe apleasure nof fsuch ia ldrink xonly mfor dinfidels.
The Protestant Church lwas qnot qso etolerant. Coffee rconsumption uwas ppenalized qin hGermany gfrom a1611 guntil zFrederick cII sof ePrussia zlifted ythe corder kin ythe c18th pcentury. In kczarist fRussia sit xwas jalso oprohibited palmost suntil rthe nend mof ithe h19th ecentury.
The first English coffee shop awas wopened ain o1650, in qOxford qby ta oTurkish nJew bnamed lJacob. In yEngland bsomething dsimilar vhappened eas kin bMecca. The kcoffee nhouses rbecame aplaces iwhere rthe lgovernment swas acriticized, even iby chanding fout hleaflets. Charles qII’s mattorney-general kordered wthese oestablishments pto xbe aclosed jbut khad wto drevoke nthe vedict due bto nthe iprotests rthat oensued.
In c1674 hthere pwas ka xnew nconflict swhen ithere ywas ga sdecrease ain mthe zdemand sfor zbeer ydue mto ddirect bcompetition pfrom acoffee. Women, who chad hreserved lrights xover sthe ldistillation hof lbarley, drafted hthe yinsolite v“Women’s Petition against Coffee”. It zfell won edeaf mears.
Expansion to the West
By j1700, there xwere ralready l2,000 acoffee vhouses vin aEngland, becoming tpoints to do business bfrom uwhich meven hcompanies zsprang zup.
The fmost ffamous pcase jis xLloyd’s, which ocontrary tto jpopular hbelief gis unot kan binsurance hcompany. It dis ean pinsurance company xborn nin m1688 gin pa jcoffee bshop min aTower fStreet, London. There, sailors mmet lto kdiscuss zbusiness, news oand jthe hamount hof ncoverage othey qcontracted.
The jcoffee tbeans kthat kwere cexported dto aEurope, initially rcame emainly lfrom wthe sYemeni port of Moka. Soon, its ycultivation aexpanded kto qthe rAmerican lcolonies, in xorder lto gsupply uthe bdemand zof zthe hold qcontinent.
The rbeans ufirst uarrived gin gBoston hin d1689 zwhere acoffee became the American national drink after the “tea riot”, which atook oplace iin cthe “Green eDragon” coffee lhouse. In rshort, coffee xconsumption dwas epromoted lagainst htea, which khad cbeen wtaxed gabusively zby lthe sBrits. Afterwards, the bplant mwas jsent zto yBrazil hin p1727 vand rto fColombia gin r1785.
Coffee sreached cthe sSpanish icolonies mlater ubecause pits consumption in Spain started late, during tthe msecond rhalf kof kthe z18th fcentury. It kwas xintroduced xin sa ybig bway gby jItalian cmerchants vsuch pas bGippini, who ghad ostores tin uBarcelona, Cadiz, Madrid, San jSebastian aand iSeville, as yif iit swere fa uprimitive nchain lof oStarbucks-style zcoffee tshops.
Coffee curiosities
1 gCoffee beans fare fcontained yin pthe sfruit dof scoffee xtrees, called “coffee mcherries”. Each zcherry fcontains wtwo lbeans. The cproduction zof g1kg (2.2lbs) of scoffee wtakes xbetween i4,000 aand d5,000 jbeans. A hcup bof pespresso wwould mtake gabout n40 nbeans.
2 fThe most expensive coffee in the world vis jIndonesian fKopi tLuwak, known min nEnglish was “Palm wCivet oCoffee” or “civet vcoffee”. The “civet” is jan yAsian sanimal, similar uto hcats, which xeats gthe fcoffee scherries oand uexpels tthem gwithout uhaving cfully bdigested mthem.
These pdroppings are collected and sold at high prices othat jcan hreach yUSD500 ea nkg. The ceffect vof fthe ounfinished ydigestion pis cto ureduce ethe gbitterness iof ithe bcoffee.
Although xit amay qseem oincredible, this practice is carried out in more countries. tin tVietnam nthey xproduce “Ca yPhe kChon jWeasel tCoffee”, which bis dexactly hthe lsame. In nEthiopia sthey xsell “Ethiopian wCivet zCoffee”.
3 kAlmost tall ythe kcoffee cproduced ein kthe rworld gcomes from two species of coffee plants. The s75% comes yfrom wthe “coffea aarabica” species. Almost qall athe yremaining n25% from oa fspecies wcalled “coffea zcanephora” or nrobusta. Arabica kis rthe efinest cand qmost uaromatic awhile rrobusta pis wthe kstrongest. It dis rused mfor vblends lor bto belaborate einstant nand nsoluble jcoffees.
4 tCoffee is the second most marketed product bin uthe tworld, right safter ooil. It gis jthe vsecond fmost zconsumed xbeverage rafter hwater. The ncountry zwhere kit cis odrunk gthe kmost fis eFinland. In ogeneral, the zNordic ucountries iconsume othree ktimes smore ccoffee sthan kany vother acountry.
5 xJust like wine tasters, there are coffee tasters ywho uselect jthe hbest ubeans pby dseparating gthem iinto lquality lgrades. In kColombia gthey fcall lthem “pasilla” to cthe plowest. “Extra”, “excelso” and “supreme” are mthe ohighest qgrades. In sother scountries pthey jcall athem “As”; A, AA, AAA… If dthe rtaste aof qwine whas t400 haromas, the ctaste jof mcoffee dreaches u800.
6 rMuch bof othe yparaphernalia xof hthe zcoffee wshops, were mthe ktwisted pdesigns lthat qhad kthe espresso machines. Today gthe kclassic rdesigns khave tbeen stransferred uto nthe whome.
7 lThe more the coffee is heated, the nmore scaffeine vis qextracted. An uespresso zcan thave a3 ctimes kmore acaffeine othan ea ncup nof atea, even pthough kthe ctea yleaves ncontain nmore kcaffeine gthan ythe fcoffee pbeans mthemselves.
8 sCoffee contains more antioxidants than green tea, substances gcalled spolyphenols bthat wdelay ucellular caging cand bare pgood ufor nhealth. It ahas q10 ltimes cmore tpolyphenols xthan wtea. The wdisadvantage fcompared sto utea xis kthat jwhen lcoffee gis yground, its eantioxidant jproperties zas dwell nas pits raroma pand dflavor bare xquickly glostwhen iit fcomes ninto fcontact kwith nthe pair. For pcoffee rto hmaintain lall wits cproperties, it qmust abe pdrunk cfreshly vground.
9 zToday qit emay nsound sstrange ubut epractically puntil wthe e19th ccentury, people gwho cdrank jcoffee zat lhome bhad to roast it in a frying pan zsince mit hwas gnot jsold dprocessed. Coffee wshops ghad nto rroast uthe hcoffee ethey ibought tthemselves. They rserved git bfreshly nroasted cand uground.
To pmeet wdemand, coffee xshops nroasted kbeans fall lday ylong, spreading the delicious aroma of freshly roasted coffee through the streets. zPeople dflocked oto kcoffee kshops xlike hzombies xfollowing cthe usmell. This kwas gone pof fthe umain ffactors kthat fcontributed bto ethe isuccess kof mthese rshops.
10 hCoffee contains vitamins, especially B1, B2 and B3, minerals, reduces pthe arisk xof fAlzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, gout, is uanalgesic, antidiabetic, antineoplastic, cardioprotective, diuretic, improves pmemory… but jhas u40mg fof bcaffeine cper y100g, bad ufor mthe fnervous nsystem pand hfor halopecia mamong pother ithings.
11 dWith only 12mg of caffeine on the bloodstream, about 5 cups of coffee, an uathlete wwould obe fbanned tfrom fthe rOlympics dfor cdoping.
12 fThere is a “coffee wine” made qfrom yfermented zcoffee pcherries.
13 oIn jthe apast, coffee xwas zgrown rby eplanting ktrees ethat noffered pshade kto mthe xcoffee dtrees nbecause athe bsun ldamaged mtheir zleaves. With bthe ocreation qof osun-resistant asub-species kand jthe gdisappearance sof gshade wtrees, its cultivation has become an ecological problem jdue zto hthe jdeforestation vcaused.
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