The History of Coffee Starts from 15th Century

The history of coffee dates back to the 15th century although the definitive origins of this popular drink remain unclear. One theory is that Ethiopian ancestors of today's Oromo people discovered and recognized the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant. But we don't know where in Africa coffee grew or who among the natives utilized it as a stimulant or knew about it earlier than the 17th century.

There are several legends about the origin of coffee. One involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Shaikh ash-Shadhili. It is said that while traveling in Ethiopia, he noticed goats that had unusual vitality. He attributed this to the berries that the goats had eaten after trying them himself.

Another "Legend of Dancing Goats" tells us that coffee was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. He supposedly found his goats dancing joyously near a dark green leafed shrub with bright red cherries in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Like Shadhili, Kaldi learned this was due to the stimulating effects of the cherries on the shrub. After ingesting the cherries, he experienced their powerful effect. The same berries were later used by monks at a local monastery to stay awake during long hours of prayer. They distributed this to other monasteries all over the world and coffee was born.

From Ethiopia, coffee reportedly spread to Egypt and Yemen. The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appeared in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen. It was here that coffee beans were first roasted and brewed, similar to how it is prepared today. By the 16th century, coffee reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. It also spread to Italy and to the rest of Europe, Indonesia and the Americas. Looking for the finest coffee in the world?

Ethiopia, the Land where Coffee was Discovered

Coffee legend claims Ethiopia as the land where coffee was first cultivated and discovered. A goatherd named Kaldi is said to have eaten some, or observed his goats acting very frisky after eating some of the red berries. There has been little to prove this as more than legend.

Monks in Ethiopia are said to have brewed the berries after first throwing them into the fire as "devil's work!" As the monastery filled with the heavenly aroma of roasting beans, they were raked from the fire and crushed to extinguish the embers. The remains of the crushed beans were placed in hot water to supposedly preserve their goodness. The Monks drank the brew throughout the night, and a legend was born.

Ethiopia is Africa's major exporter of Arabica coffee beans, and this is still the only variety grown there. Arabica accounts for over 70% of the World's coffee, and is grown in many countries around the World. Over 12 million people depend on Ethiopia's coffee industry.

The Ethiopian Coffee Export Enterprise controls approximately 50% of the coffee in the country. The focus is on quality products such as premium blends, organics varieties, and original unblended coffees from the plantations or farms where they are grown.

There are some special varieties in Ethiopia such as the Longberry, grown at the highest altitude in the region of Harar. This variety is the most popular, and has a winey flavor with a slight acidity. And it has been witnessed by many that an aroma of blueberry can be noted when roasting.

Another comes from the Southern Region from an area known as Sidamo. Washed Yirgacheffes beans are very popular from this region as are the Limmu, which are lighter in body and less earthy than dry processed varieties.

The Ethiopian coffees are unique in their flavor and character, and are some of the most highly quoted, washed Arabica beans on the International market. With close ties to the Yemen Mocha, it must not be subjected to a high temperature roast to preserve its character. A strong flavor yet mild acidity make these beans a great choice for the coffee connoisseur.

Relation between Monk and Coffee

About 850 A.D it is said that a lone shepherd and his flock came across a strange and mysterious plant growing upon a secluded and forgotten hillside. Before he could stop them some of his herd had began to gnaw away at this unusual berry. After about fifteen minutes or so the herder started to notice that his sheep were behaving in an odd manner. Not only were they unusually alert but they also appeared to be extremely hyperactive. Now being a little weary and extremely tired the shepherd decided to try the berries and see if the end results would be the same for him as they had been for his flock. To his pleasant surprise the shepherd began to feel wide awake and he too became very alert. After a few hours had passed along came a wandering monk who, after being informed of the plants amazing qualities proceeded to scold the poor shepherd and lecture him on his foolish indulgence. After he had finished telling the shepherd just what a sinner he had been the monk set upon his journey but not before he had added a little something to his backpack and supplies.

When the monk reached his monastery his fellow holy men also decided to try this new and enchanting beverage. Soon the endless hours of prayer no longer seemed so wearisome, in fact they became easy to endure with the help of this exciting new drink. Coffee had now well and truly arrived and the news began to spread! Its widespread consumption first commenced in the wilds of the Ethiopian outlands before then moving on to the heart of Arabia. Here it was to be held as a holy delicacy but was eventually to be unlawfully exported by a trader by the name of Baba Budan. In no time at all word of its qualities began to spread and coffee was to evolve into one of the most valued drinks ever known to the human civilization. It’s hard to believe that each year we consume a staggering four billion cups and there are many among us who would not contemplate starting their day without it.

Although coffee is usually thought of as a sleep suppressant there are many who think that it also has many health benefits. It is said that folk who suffer from the complaint of asthma and drink coffee have an average of at least 25% less symptoms due to a substance in the coffee named theophylline. This is known to be a bronchodilator which helps those who suffer with the disease to breathe a little more easily. Drinking coffee on a daily basis is also thought to help lower your chances of developing colon cancer. This is also by a figure in the region of about twenty five percent.

It’s curious that the vast majority of folk have no idea of the different tastes and delights that this king of all drinks has to offer us. One of the swiftest growing trends of the last few years has to be the rising popularity of buying coffee via the internet. Never before have we been able to so easily get hold of such a large and voluptuous variety of blends, tastes and tantalizing aromas from all over the world. With the aid of the wonderful web, trekking around the local neighborhood to try and find some new exciting coffee blends has became a thing of the past. Sitting at home I can now search out an almost infinite variety of coffees from all over the world and order them at the click of a mouse. I tend to place numerous orders via the web and I always make a point of recording blend, country, and from exactly whom I purchased.

Now you know the history of this magical bean I hope that if in the days to come you are thinking of visiting your local coffee shop you recall the information you have read on this website and make the most of this wonderful drink. Go on and try some new varieties. Not only will you impress your friends, your taste buds will be thrilled as well.

A Brief History of Coffee

Coffee is a fantastic dark beverage that wakes us up in the morning. For some of us, it keeps us up during the day, or for late night study sessions. We drink it out of habit, we drink it from addiction, we drink it for flavor; whatever the reason, it is surely a popular beverage. So where did this famed drink come from?

Coffee, for Americans, is three hundred years old. In the East it was widespread at every level of society, since the earlier era. The most notable dates point to around 800b.c. However, Homer, and according to Arabian tales speak of a mysterious bitter black beverage with powers of stimulation that could have been this drink.

About the year 1000, coffee was being used for medicinal purposes. In 1400 a Yemeni goat herder observed his flock eating reddish berries, then becoming excited and restless. After relating his observations to a monk, they boiled the berries and made a beverage that could disperse sleep and weariness. No matter how it actually was created, the fact remains that the coffee plant started in Africa, in an Ethiopian region known as Kaffa. From there it spread to Egypt, Yemen, and Arabia, where it became a part of daily life.

In the late 1500s coffee was a commodity, being sold in Europe. However, due to an increasing demand for the new beverage, and high taxes on shipping, there was experimentation with growing the crops in various other countries. Much later, around 1727 coffee growing started in Northern Brazil. By the 20th century, various forms of coffee were developed for the public.

Decaffeinated coffee was first founded in 1903 when Ludwig Roselius, a German coffee importer, gave a batch of damaged coffee beans to researchers. They developed the process of taking the caffeine out of the beans without losing any flavor. This was marketed in the 1920s.

Instant coffee was first mass produced from the invention of George Constant Washington, an English chemist living in Guatemala. While waiting for his wife one day to join him outside for coffee, he observed on the spout of the silver coffee urn, a fine powder, which looked to be the condensation of the coffee vapors. This excited him and led to his founding of soluble coffee.

In 1906 he started experiments and put his invention, Red E Coffee, in the markets in 1909. Nestle', in 1938, trying to aid Brazil with their coffee surpluses created freeze-dried coffee. Nescafe was started and first introduced into Switzerland. Instant coffee became a fad after 1956 when commercial television was the new craze.

And now in the US alone, 400 billion cups of coffee a year are consumed. Coffee is one of the world's largest commodities, second only to oil. From a remote area in Africa, to millions of shelves and homes worldwide, coffee has became a fixture everywhere.

The World History of Coffee

Did you know coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world? How did coffee get this ranking? What country first figured out coffee was safe for consumption? When was the first drink of coffee prepared? Where did the first coffee shop come in being?

There are many questions about the starting point of drinking coffee. It has been so long ago no one really knows all the facts. But, one thing is for sure, coffee is the most consumed beverage on the planet.

The Beginning of Coffee
It looks as if the first trace came out of Abyssinia and was also sporadically in the vicinity of the Red Sea around seven hundred AD. Along with these people, other Africans of the same period also have a history of using the coffee berry pulp for more than one occasion like rituals and even for health.

Coffee began to get more attention when the Arabs began cultivating it in their peninsulas around eleven hundred AD. It is speculated that trade ships brought the coffee their way. The Arabs started making a drink that became quite popular called gahwa--- meaning to prevent sleep. Roasting and boiling the bean was how they made this drink. It became so popular among the Arabs that they made it their signature Arabian wine and it was used a lot during rituals.

After the coffee bean was found to be a great wine and a medicine, someone discovered in Arabia that you could also make a different dark, delicious drink out of the beans, this happened somewhere around twelve hundred AD. After that it didn’t take long and everyone in Arabia was drinking coffee. Everywhere these people traveled the coffee went with them. It made its way around to India, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and was then cultivated to a great extent in Yemen around fourteen hundred AD.

Other countries would have gladly welcomed these beans if only the Arabs had let them. The Arabs killed the seed-germ making sure no one else could grow the coffee if taken elsewhere. Heavily guarding their plants, Yemen is where the main source of coffee stayed for several hundred years. Even with their efforts, the beans were eventually smuggled out by pilgrims and travelers.

Coffee Shops Appear
Around 1475 the first coffee shop opens in Constantinople called Kiv Han two years after coffee was introduced to Turkey, in 1554 two coffee houses open there. People came pouring in to socialize, listen to music, play games and of course drink coffee. Some often called these places in Turkey the “school of the wise”, because you could learn so much by just visiting the coffee house and listening to conversations.

In the sixteen hundreds coffee enters Europe through the port of Venice. The Turkish warriors also brought the drink to Balkans, Spain, and North Africa. Not too much later the first coffee house opens in Italy.

There were plenty of people also trying to ban coffee. Such as Khair Beg a governor of Mecca who was executed and Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire who successfully closed down many coffee houses in Turkey. Thankfully not everyone thought this way.

Coffee Tips Arrive
In the early sixteen hundreds coffee is presented to the New World by man named John Smith. Later in that century, the first coffee house opens in England. Coffee houses or “penny universities” charged a penny for admission and for a cup of coffee. The word "TIPS" (for service) has its origin from an English coffee house.

Early in the 17th century, Edward Lloyd's coffee house opens in England. The Dutch became the first to commercially transport coffee. The first Parisian café opens in 1713 and King Louis XIV is presented with a lovely coffee tree. Sugar is first used as an addition to coffee in his court.

The America’s Have Coffee
Coffee plants were introduced in the Americas for development. By close to the end of the seventeen hundreds, 1,920 million plants are grown on the island. Evidently the eighteen hundreds were spent trying to find better methods to make coffee.

The Coffee “Brew” in the 20th Century
New methods to help brewing coffee start popping up everywhere. The first commercial espresso machine is developed in Italy. Melitta Bentz makes a filter using blotting paper. Dr. Ernest Lily manufactures the first automatic espresso machine. The Nestle Company invents Nescafe instant coffee. Achilles Gaggia perfects the espresso machine.

Hills Bros. begins packing roasted coffee in vacuum tins eventually ending local roasting shops and coffee mills. A Japanese-American chemist named Satori Kato from Chicago invents the first soluble “instant” coffee.

German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turns some ruined coffee beans over to researchers, who perfected the process of removing caffeine from the beans without destroying the flavor. He sells it under the name Sanka. Sanka is introduced in the United States in 1923.

George Constant Washington an English chemist living in Guatemala, is interested in a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his silver coffee flask. After checking into it, he creates the first mass-produced instant coffee which is his brand name called Red E Coffee.

Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales suddenly increase.

Brazil asked Nestle to help find a solution to their coffee surpluses so the Nestle Company comes up with freeze-dried coffee. Nestle also made Nescafe and introduced it to Switzerland.

Other Interesting Coffee Tidbits
Today the US imports 70 percent of the world’s coffee crop. During W.W.II, American soldiers were issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their ration kits. In Italy, Achilles Gaggia perfects his espresso machine. The name Cappuccino comes from the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin order.

One week before Woodstock, the Manson family murders coffee heiress Abigail Folger as she visits with her friend Sharon Tate in the home of filmmaker Roman Polanski.

The Current Coffee Trends
Now in the 21st century we have many different styles, grinds, and flavors of coffee. We have really come a long way even with our coffee making machines. There’s no sign of coffee consumption decreasing. Researchers are even finding many health benefits to drinking coffee. Drink and enjoy!