A Short Guide To The History Of Coffee...
| ![A Short Guide To The History Of Coffee...]() |
|
Traditional History of Coffee...
Tradition has it that coffee was first discovered in or around the 9th century in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) by a young goatherd called Kaldi. He noticed that his goats liked to graze upon the red berries of a nearby shiny dark-green shrub, which seemed to have interesting side effects! The goats jumped and danced around on their hinds legs, seemingly full of energy and bleating gleefully. Tossing caution to the wind, he sampled the berries himself and experienced an immediate boost in his spirits and energies. Realising that the berries must have some magical property Kaldi offered some of the berries to the head monk of the local monastery, who conducted a series of experiments on them, including parching them, crushing them in a mortar and pestle, and stirring the crushed berries in boiling water. The monk's efforts resulted in a fragrant beverage which he termed "heaven-sent," and henceforth gave it to all the monks in the evening to keep them from falling asleep during their prayers. News of this elixir quickly spread from the monastery to the nearby town and eventually throughout the world. The "magic" berries were actually coffee beans, and the heaven-sent beverage, of course, was coffee. From this point on coffee plants were cultivated by man purely for their precious crop. |
|
The Ethiopians and Arabs...
The Ethiopians traded with the Arabs and coffee spread eastwards. The Arabs jealously guarded the coffee plant and although they traded widely across the Islamic world all beans for export were boiled to prevent any chance of transplantation. However the Dutch managed to transplant some to Java (Indonesia) in late 1600's, and this was the catalyst for the worldwide growth of coffee cultivation. In the late 17th Century coffee came to the masses of Europe and the first coffee houses opened in Italy, Austria and England. Lloyds of London and the London Stock Exchange are just two of the key institutions whose roots can be traced back to a 17th Century coffee house. |
|
18th Century Coffee...
By the 18th Century the French had introduced coffee cultivation to Martinique, and by the end of the century there were between 18 and 19 million coffee bushes firmly establishing Central America and South America as important coffee producers. |
|
Coffee Today...
Today coffee is grown on five continents, is consumed worldwide, and is one of the most important commodities traded on the world markets, second only to oil! |
|
