Musing #7

The History Of Coffee (well my speech on it at least!)



Once upon a time, Kaldi, an East African goat herder, was tending to his herd when he noticed that one goat was missing. Kaldi being a good goat herder, of course went in search of it. When he happened upon his goat, he found it eating the berries from a strange plant. Then to Kaldi’s wonder and amazement, the goat stood up on his hind legs and started dancing… This is the legend of how Coffee was discovered.

Through my obsession with coffee and the research I have done, I want to take all of you on a journey through out history. We will travel the globe and learn how coffee has had a long and sometimes tumultuous voyage from those humble beginnings to what we drink today.

Now, Let us revisit Kaldi. It was somewhere between the year 600 and 800AD when Kaldi saw his now dancing goat; he decided to try some of the berries himself. In no time at all Kaldi was dancing right along with his goat! The legend continues and it is said that a local monk happened by while they were dancing and inquired about what was going on. Well he took the berries back to the monastery to share with his fellow monks. At first, the other monks thought they the berries were evil; that was until they realized how they could stay awake during prayers and that they had more energy when doing the chores. The monks started drying the coffee cherries and crushed them to make a tea-like drink. Now there is no concrete evidence of the validity of this story and. we really don’t know how coffee was first discovered.

The early accounts we do have of coffee from “The History of Coffee” at TELLUSPLANET.NET, Originally the coffee plant grew naturally in Ethiopia, but once it was transplanted in Arabia [Yemen] coffee was monopolized by the Arabs.

Who first roasted it is debated, but the accepted belief is that the Arabs started boiling the beans (calling the drink “qahwa” literal translation is that which prevents sleep) and from there someone started roasting.

Coffee moved with the spread of Islam according to National Geographic for almost 200 years Transplant of the coffee plants was forbidden by the government. That was until a young Indian, Baba Budan smuggled out seven coffee cherries on his belly to Mysore, India and started a farm - descendents from those plants are still growing and producing coffee today!

Mark Schapiro stated in “muddy waters” that Coffee started spreading like wild fire from there and in 1453; the Ottoman Turks brought Coffee to Constantinople and there the first coffee shop “Kiva Han” opened in 1475. A new law goes into effect in Turkey making it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

Continuing on in “Muddy Waters” in 1511 the corrupt governor of Mecca was threatened by the spread of coffee through out the Muslim world tried to ban coffee, He was promptly executed! Even at this early stage of coffee was just that important. People would kill for their coffee.

Around 1600 Coffee was brought before the Pope his advisors urged him to ban coffee because it was the Infidels drink. It only took him one sip for his blessing and shortly thereafter coffee started spreading throughout Europe.

The Dutch being entrepreneurs wanted in on the coffee growing business, they were not content to just be a consumer. National Geographic recounts how the first coffee plants were covertly acquired by the Dutch in 1690 and in 1696, the first European owned Coffee Estate was born on Java. And yes, this is where the Nickname Java for Coffee came from.

Now the Dutch trying to improve relations with Louis XVI (fourteenth ) of France reluctantly gave him what became one of his most cherished possessions a Coffee plant for Paris’ Botanical Garden in 1713.

Following the bush so to speak, Mark Schapiro tells us that, a seedling from the botanical garden was stolen in a midnight raid by a young French naval officer after being refused when he asked for one and in 1723 that seedling traveled to the tiny island of Martinique and shortly there after was producing more coffee than Java.

Now the final illicit step for coffee was to Brazil in 1727. Lieutenant Colonel Palheta originally sent to settle a border dispute between the French and Dutch colonies. Well he fell in love with the Governor’s wife and they plotted to become rich by spreading coffee again. Both the French and the Dutch wanted to like the Arabs before them keep coffee firmly in their control. The Governess hid coffee cuttings in a bouquet of flowers that she gave to him as a farewell gift, when he departed for Brazil.

National Geographic reports from then to the 20th century Brazil has been the single largest supplier of coffee in the world. From Brazil Coffee spread the world over through out the “coffee belt.” (The area between the tropic of Capricorn on the bottom and the tropic of Cancer on top) And in 1998, Brazil alone exported over 22 million 60-kilogram bags.

One last item of note according to “Real coffee” on December 16 1773 there was the now infamous “Boston Tea Party” and after the Tea Party, it became very unpatriotic to drink tea and ever since then (even before the birth of our country), coffee has been the single most popular drink in America.

In Conclusion, I hope that I have educated you on the travels and tribulations of the truly exciting journey that coffee has taken. You can all see Coffee has had a very vibrant and lively trip from those early days of Kaldi and his goats, to the wonderful drink that is enjoyed around the world today.