History Of Coffee

Legend abounds about the discovery of coffee.

Many romantic and colorful tales speak of an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. Noticing his goats acting in a strange and spirited manner after they ate the leaves and berries of a shrub found on a nearby hillside, Kaldi, curious about this phenomenon, ate the berries himself. He found himself motivated with renewed vigor. He told his friends, and news of the energy-laden fruit spread throughout the region.

Monks hearing about these special berries consumed the fruit, which seemed to give them more "awakened" time for prayer. The monks then dried the berries so they would not spoil when transported long distances to other monasteries. When these dried berries were reconstituted, the first coffee beverage was created.

Coffee grows wild in Ethiopia, where today it is still gathered from wild trees. It is believed that shortly after its discovery, coffee seeds were brought to the Arabian Peninsula to what today is the country of Yemen. Thus in the seventh century, the first true cultivation of coffee began.

The Arabs consumed coffee in several different ways:  as a fruit; boiled it with water to make a beverage and as a wine made from the fermented pulp of the ripe berries.

After the coveted seeds were transported to neighboring Turkey, they were roasted for the first time over an open fire, creating a crude version of the coffee similar to what is familiar to us today.

Coffee came to the European continent by means of Venetian trade merchants around 1615. By 1763 there were more than 200 coffee bars in Venice alone. Some considered this new beverage the drink of the devil and urged the Pope to ban the beverage. But the Pope, a coffee drinker himself, blessed the drink instead and proclaimed its virtues.

Debate has always raged about the health benefits or ill effects of coffee consumption. In 1732 Bach wrote theCoffee Cantata, which ridiculed German physicians' campaign to discredit coffee.

As coffee houses spread throughout Europe, their political, social and economic importance became apparent. Trade was extensive, and the intellectual conversation heard in coffee bars was quite different than the less cerebral talk heard in pubs. Coffee houses became intellectual and artistic gathering places. Many great minds in Europe have used the beverage throughout the centuries as a tool to enhance sharper thought processes.

The first coffee plants were brought to the New World in the early 1700s by a French infantry officer. He planted them on the French-colonized island of Martinique in the Caribbean. Fifty years later, nearly 19 million coffee plants were growing on the island. From here the coffee plant found its way to the rest of the tropical regions of South and Central America.

Before the United States became independent, the Continental Congress declared coffee the national drink of the American Colonies. This was done to protest the excessive tax on tea levied by the British crown.

Espresso, a fairly new innovation in the way to prepare coffee, appears to have originated with the development of the first crude espresso machine in France in 1882.

The Italians refined and perfected the espresso machine to its present level of development. They were the first to commercially manufacture these machines. Italy is considered by most to be the true homeland of espresso. It is so essential to daily life there that cafe prices for coffee are regulated by the Italian government. There are over 200,000 coffee bars in Italy today.

As we begin the new millennium, coffee is a giant industry, employing over 20 million people worldwide. This valuable commodity ranks second only to petroleum in terms of dollars traded in the international marketplace. With over 400 billion cups consumed annually, coffee is the world's most popular beverage. In Brazil alone over five million people are employed in the cultivation and harvesting of over three billion coffee plants.

Gourmet coffee sales in the United States have reached a multi-billion dollar level, and sales are significantly increasing for premium specialty coffees on an annual basis.