The history and development of the beverage that we know as coffee is varied and interesting, involving chance occurrences, political intrigue, and the pursuit of wealth and power.
According to one story, the effect of coffee beans on behavior was noticed by a sheep herder named Kaldi as he tended his sheep. He noticed that the sheep became hyperactive after eating the red "cherries" from a certain plant when they changed pastures. He tried a few himself, and was soon as overactive as his herd. The story relates that a monk happened by and scolded him for "partaking of the devil's fruit." However the monks soon discovered that this fruit from the shiny green plant could help them stay awake for their prayers.
Another legend gives us the name for coffee or "mocha." An Arabian was banished to the desert with his followers to die of starvation. In desperation, Omar had his friends boil and eat the fruit from an unknown plant. Not only did the broth save the exiles, but their survival was taken as a religious sign by the residents of the nearest town, Mocha. The plant and its beverage were named Mocha to honor this event.
One early use for coffee would have little appeal today. The Galla tribe from Ethiopia used coffee, but not as a drink. They would wrap the beans in animal fat as their only source of nutrition while on raiding parties. The Turks were the first country to adopt it as a drink, often adding spices such as clove, cinnamon, cardamom and anise to the brew.
Coffee was introduced much later to countries beyond Arabia whose inhabitants believed it to be a delicacy and guarded its secret as if they were top secret military plans. Transportation of the plant out of the Moslem nations was forbidden by the government. The actual spread of coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled beans to some mountains near Mysore, India, and started a farm there. Early in this century, the descendants of those original plants were found still growing fruitfully in the region.
Coffee was believed by some Christians to be the devil's drink. Pope Vincent III heard this and decided to taste it before he banished it. He enjoyed it so much he baptized it, saying "coffee is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it."
Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.
Excerpt from UTNE
READER, Nov/Dec 94, by Mark Schapiro, "Muddy Waters"
Prior to 1000 A.D.: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that
they get an energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed
with animal fat.
1000 A.D.: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate
the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the beans,
creating a drink they call "qahwa" (literally, that which prevents sleep).
1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's
first coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal
for a woman to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with her daily
quota of coffee.
1511: Khair Beg, the corrupt governor of Mecca, tries to ban coffee for
feat that its influence might foster opposition to his rule. The sultan sends
word that coffee is sacred and has the governor executed.
1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs attention
in high places. In Italy, Pope Clement VIII is urged by his advisers to consider
that favorite drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the infidel threat. However,
he decides to "baptize" it instead, making it an acceptable Christian beverage.
1607: Captain John Smith helps to found the colony of Virginia at Jamestown.
It's believed that he introduced coffee to North America.
1645: First coffeehouse opens in Italy.
1652: First coffeehouse opens in England. Coffee houses multiply and
become such popular forums for learned and not so learned - discussion that
they are dubbed "penny universities" (a penny being the price of a cup of coffee).
1668: Coffee replaces beer as New York's City's favorite breakfast drink.
1668: Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse opens in England and is frequented by
merchants and maritime insurance agents. Eventually it becomes Lloyd's of London,
the best-known insurance company in the world. The word “TIPS” is
coined in an English coffee house: A sign reading “To Insure Prompt Service”
(TIPS) was place by a cup. Those desiring prompt service and better seating
threw a coin into a tin.
1672: First coffeehouse opens in Paris. In 1713, King Louis XIV is presented
with a coffee tree. It is believed that sugar was first used as an additive
in his court.
1675: The Turkish Army surrounds Vienna. Franz Georg Kolschitzky, a Viennese
who had lived in Turkey, slips through the enemy lines to lead relief forces
to the city. The fleeing Turks leave behind sacks of "dry black fodder" that
Kolschitzky recognizes as coffee. He claims it as his reward and opens central
Europe's first coffee house. He also establishes the habit of refining the brew
by filtering out the grounds, sweetening it, and adding a dash of milk.
1690: With a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha, the
Dutch become the first to transport and cultivate coffee commercially, in Ceylon
and in their East Indian colony - Java, source of the brew's nickname.
1713: The Dutch unwittingly provide Louis XIV of France with a coffee
bush whose descendants will produce entire Western coffee industry when in 1723
French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu do Clieu steals a seedling and transports
it to Martinique. Within 50 years and official survey records 19 million coffee
trees on Martinique. Eventually, 90 percent of the world's coffee spreads from
this plant.
1721: First coffee house opens in Berlin.
1727: The Brazilian coffee industry gets its start when Lieutenant colonel
Francisco de Melo Palheta is sent by government to arbitrate a border dispute
between the French and the Dutch colonies in Guiana. Not only does he settle
the dispute, but also strikes up a secret liaison with the wife of French Guiana's
governor. Although France guarded its New World coffee plantations to prevent
cultivation from spreading, the lady said good-bye to Palheta with a bouquet
in which she hid cuttings and fertile seeds of coffee.
1732: Johann Sevastian Bach composes his Kaffee-Kantate. Partly an ode
to coffee and partly a stab at the movement in Germany to prevent women from
drinking coffee (it was thought to make them sterile), the cantata includes
the aria, "Ah! How sweet coffee taste! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter
far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee."
1773: The Boston Tea Party makes drinking coffee a patriotic duty in
America.
1775: Prussia's Frederick the Great tries to block inports of green coffee,
as Prussia's wealth is drained. Public outcry changes his mind.
1886: Former wholesale grocer Joel Cheek names his popular coffee blend
"Maxwell House," after the hotel in Nashville, TN where it's served.
Early 1900's: In Germany, afternoon coffee becomes a standard occasion.
The derogatory term "KaffeeKlatsch" is coined to describe women's gossip at
these affairs. Since broadened to mean relaxed conversation in general.
1900: Hills Bros. begins packing roast coffee in vacuum tins, spelling
the end of the ubiquitous local roasting shops and coffee mills.
1901: The first soluble "instant" coffee is invented by Japanese-American
chemist Satori Kato of Chicago.
1903: German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turn a batch of ruined coffee
beans over to researchers, who perfect the process of removing caffeine from
the beans without destroying the flavor. He markets it under the brand name
"Sanka." Sanka is introduced to the United States in 1923.
1906: George Constant Washington, an English chemist living in Guatemala,
notices a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his silver coffee carafe.
After experimentation, he creates the first mass-produced instant coffee (his
brand is called Red E Coffee).
1920: Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales boom.
1938: Having been asked by Brazil to help find a solution to their coffee
surpluses, Nestle company invents freeze-dried coffee. Nestle develops Nescafe
and introduces it in Switzerland.
1940: The US imports 70 percent of the world coffee crop.
1942: During W.W.II, American soldiers are issued instant Maxwell House
coffee in their ration kits. Back home, widespread hoarding leads to coffee
rationing.
1945
Achilles Gaggia perfects the espresso machine with a piston that creates a high
pressure extraction to produce a thick layer of crema.
1946: In Italy, Achilles Gaggia perfects his espresso machine. Cappuccino
is named for the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin
order.
1969: One week before Woodstock the Manson Family murders coffee heiress
Abigail Folger as she visits with friend Sharon Tate in the home of filmmaker
Roman Polanski.
1971: Starbucks opens its first store in Seattle's Pike Place public
market, creating a frenzy over fresh-roasted whole bean coffee.
2002
Coffee is the worlds most popular beverage. More than 400 billion cups are consumed
each year. It is a world commodity that is second only to oil.