What is the history of coffee? What is the origin of our consumption of this precious liquid? When did it begin? Today, many view Coffee as the key to a successful and effective day.
The cultivation and spread of coffee throughout the world can be traced back to a goat herder named Kaldi in Ethiopia. Coffee has grown to become one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world today.
Since the centuries-old revelation of the power of coffee to give people energy, it has seen a variety of tests and tribulations.
What is the process behind the transformation of the small, vibrant red coffee cherry into the incredibly popular beverage enjoyed by two billion people on a daily basis? We will trace the history of coffee, from its origins in the legendary nation of Ethiopia, to its current status as an international beverage grown in more than 70 nations and imbibed in every nation on earth.
Origin of the Magic Bean
The coffee origin has an interesting back story. The earliest known record of coffee plants can be traced back to the year 850AD, which is over a millennium ago. A popular myth claims that Kaldi, a goat herder from Ethiopia, was the first person to discover coffee. This is where the history of coffee starts.
One day, Kaldi observed that his goats were unusually lively. He observed a change in behavior after they had ingested a particular variety of red cherries. There are some stories that suggest that the goats were performing a dance, however, it remains unclear if that is actually true.
The goat wrangler chose to experiment with the herbs and discovered they were quite stimulating. It was clear that the berries in question were from a coffee cherry plant. Kaldi brought a bunch of cherries to the nearby monastery in order to ask for advice.
As per the narrative, the monk was incensed and declared the coffee cherry an “evil creation” before hurling it into the flames. The smell of freshly brewed coffee soon filled the air, prompting the monks’ curiosity and prompting them to soak the beans in hot water.
This is how the first brewed coffee was created. In the same way that many other noteworthy discoveries have been, this one was uncovered by chance. Monks rapidly grew fond of this drink since it enabled them to remain alert and pray for a greater time period.
The Expansion of Coffee From Africa
Sufi Baba Budan was responsible for smuggling out the first batch of green, unroasted coffee beans away from their origin, thus breaking the monopoly held on them by the Arabs.
He is widely respected by Muslim and Hindu cultures due to his smuggling act and is usually depicted with seven green coffee beans tied to his torso; nevertheless, some versions of the story mention that he hid the beans in his facial hair.
Sufi transported these beans to Mysore, India, his homeland, to be planted there. This is the spot from which coffee is believed to have spread to Europe, and then was transported to the colonies of the colonists and disseminated to other areas.
Spread Into the Middle East
The Ethiopian story can be told variously, yet all of them end up pointing to the expansion to Yemen and the Middle East in the 15th century across the Red Sea. The initial place of introduction of coffee was Mocha, from which the linkage of the name of this beverage and its origin took root.
Coffee started becoming well-liked in Yemen and eventually traveled to other places around the Arabian Peninsula, such as Egypt, Persia, and Turkey. During this time, the first coffee houses were opened, which were called ‘Schools of the Wise’ and were the heart of social events.
Coffee soon came to be referred to as the “wine of Araby,” and in the early 1500s, the rulers of Mecca ultimately decided to outlaw it. This provoked strikes in opposition to the edict, leading to the repeal of the prohibition on beans.
The tale of a Sufi saint named Baba Budan, who managed to sneak coffee beans with him when he went to Mecca on a pilgrimage back in 1670, is another piece of legendary coffee history. Large-scale coffee cultivation began in the southern part of India. The tale of Baba Budan, or simply his name, is often employed by cafes worldwide to signify their anti-establishment attitude and fondness for coffee, spurred on by his endeavour to obtain some from Yemen.
Europe Catching Up
Netherlands
It was not until the next hundred years that the European nations began to get on board and become intrigued by coffee as well. In the late 1600s, Dutch traders acquired coffee beans secretly from Yemen and attempted to cultivate them in the Netherlands. This endeavour was a disappointment as the temperature where the coffee plant was planted was too low. In spite of this, during the 17th century, Dutch people endeavored to keep some tulips alive in greenhouses.
Italy
It was in 1570 when coffee was first introduced to Venice, and because it was known to have energizing powers, many thought it to be of demonic origin. The Italians even called for papal help. Pope Clement VIII looked at the beverage in 1615 and liked it so much that he provided it with his endorsement.
Austria
During the 1700s, coffee began to make its way into France, Germany, and Austria. In Austria, the drink we now know as coffee was introduced after the Battle of Vienna in 1683, when the Ottoman Empire occupied the country, and left their stores of Turkish-style coffee after they departed. The drink was invented and the notion of adding milk and sugar became widespread in this area.
England
As coffee became more and more prevalent in England, much like what happened in the Middle East beforehand, the first coffee shops emerged and became the focal points of socializing. A penny was all it took to attend a renowned “Penny University” which offered a cup of coffee in exchange for stimulating intellectual discourse.
Women grumbled that their partners spent all of their time either drinking booze or drinking coffee. Things had gotten to the point that in 1674, women protested against coffee in a “Women’s Petition Against Coffee” in order to persuade men to leave their coffeehouses and return home.
As coffee consumption was on the upswing in Europe, struggling to cultivate and gather it was an issue. At long last, in 1704 a breakthrough occurred in Indonesia when the perfect environment for growing coffee was identified. Java coffee was created at some point in time, and eventually became available in Sumatra and Celebes, where it was then cultivated.
Coffee in America as a Symbol of Patriotism
As Europeans became increasingly enthralled with coffee, it was necessary to transport it to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The story goes that Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, the captain of the French Navy, pilfered some coffee beans from the garden belonging to King Louis XIV and then sailed off to the Caribbean in the early 1700s.
He had no clue that the place he was taking the coffee to would be its most successful spot, Central America. In the eighteenth century, coffee was brought to Jamaica and cultivated in the Blue Mountains.
The 18th century “Boston Tea Party” is credited with the proliferation of coffee, when Americans expressed their disagreement with the English taxation system by making a symbolic gesture of tossing British tea into the ocean. Beginning at that point, tea became viewed as unpatriotic and was thus substituted with coffee.
The Tontine Coffee House was the birthplace of the New York Stock Exchange in the 1700s and was a significant establishment in the city at the time. The coffee house was packed with merchants of all types, politicians, and brokers engaged in exchanging, buying, and guaranteeing, completely absorbed in business matters.
Thomas Jefferson referred to coffee as “the beloved beverage of the civilized world”, and the United States has not looked back since. The United States is now the top consumer of coffee globally.
The Origin of The Word: Coffee
Where did the term ‘coffee’ first come from in the English language? Coffee is referred to in various ways in many different tongues around the world, and typically the sound of it is comparable to how we would enunciate it in English, with renditions often being similar to the words ‘coffee’ or ‘cafe’.
The English term “coffee” is derived from the Dutch “koffie”, which originates from the Turkish “kahve”, which in turn comes from the Arabic word “Mahwah”. You can observe how our phrase “coffee” and its related terms in different languages have progressed accordingly along the path listed above, even though all these words have been altered to Roman script.
But why, coffee? Or, we might be better off asking, why Yahweh? This Arab expression initially portrayed a wine; particularly a wine that would stifle one’s hunger like coffee would. This is the most generally accepted explanation for why the phrase “Yahweh” is now used to refer to a beverage made from toasted, ground coffee beans.
The Original Coffee Drinkers
The earliest documentation of people consuming coffee appears to be of the patrons of Sufi monasteries, the Islamic mysticism sect, having it to stay alert for evening prayer services. Coffee began to spread out of this location toward Mecca, although it was not just used in religious places.
Coffee shops began to appear in the area and were locations for men to get together to enjoy coffee, mull over the events of the moment, and smoke hookah. Homes also provided coffee as a gesture of courteousness and hospitality, making people feel welcomed and at home.
As coffee made its voyage to Europe, it was viewed in the same fashion as any other imported good: something the wealthy and privileged could afford to indulge in.
The Rise in the Popularity of Coffee
Coffee began in Ethiopia and the Arabian peninsula, then shifted to northern Africa as well as Turkey, and eventually arrived in Europe in Venice through trade with North Africa and the Middle East.
Traders who went to the destination brought it to the affluent Venetians, and they appreciated it. As imports increased from this point, the prices decreased and the accessibility extended.
Coffee was initially viewed by Muslims as a drink of their own and Italian Christians commonly cautioned against drinking it. Nevertheless, after Pope Clement VII sampled it and declared it a “Christian drink”, it was received with open arms in the public domain. Earlier, there had been numerous requests in Italy to totally prohibit coffee.
It is interesting to remember that even before the Europeans tried coffee at the beginning of the sixteenth century, it was forbidden in the Arabian peninsula twice due to its stimulating effects.
Despite its presence in many of the affluent households across Europe, it wasn’t until the Europeans imported coffee from India’s colonies to their native territories that it truly became a popular globally-consumed beverage.
Large Scale Coffee Exportation
The Dutch, and then the British, colonized a lot of India and shipped back to their countries great amounts of coffee. Previous to that point, nations located on the Arabian peninsula had exclusive control of the coffee marketplace and charged greatly inflated prices.
Imports that are coming in to northern Europe are helping to make the cost of this distinctive beverage go down and enabling it to become more widely available.
Demand for the beverage increased after its supply had grown and members of the upper class in Europe were able to try it for themselves. Soon, people started looking for the source of the coffee tree.
The Dutch were the first to obtain the coffee tree, and they had it growing in the Amsterdam Botanical Gardens in the early 1600s. By the middle of the 1600s, the trees had grown very well and some were taken to be introduced in the areas under their control in southern India and Sri Lanka, which was formerly known as Ceylon.
The Dutch soon ceased to utilize these areas and shifted their plantations to Indonesia and Suriname. It wasn’t long before these colonies became the main providers of coffee to Europe.
At the time of sealing a treaty, the Dutch presented the French King with a clipping of a coffee tree as they were the only Europeans to possess the shrub.
Eventually, Gabriel de Clieu, a Frenchman, was able to get the gardener at the King’s garden to give him a cutting from the particular plant, which he brought to the Caribbean area under French control. In Gabriel’s own words, we discover that there was a limitation on the water available during this journey, and he divided what he had with his cargo.
He recounts how he had to head off an effort to sabotage the facility. The coffee tree prospered greatly in the Caribbean, and because of this, many of the coffee plants present in South America, Central America, and Mexico originate from a cutting of the tree in this region.