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| The History of Coffee By James Grierson Part I - Africa and Arabia The coffee plant originates from the highland forests of Ethiopia. It is believed that the first plants were found growing wild in the region of Kaffa, where coffee derives its name. A popular legend tells of a goat herder named Kaldi. One day he noticed his goats behaving in a strange manner. They were full of energy, playfully chasing each other and bleating loudly. He noticed they were eating red berries from the bushes nearby. Feeling tired and slightly curious, Kaldi decided to try some of the berries. To his delight his fatigue quickly faded into a fresh burst of energy. Kaldi was so impressed by the berries, that he filled his pockets with them and ran home to show his wife. "They are heaven-sent" she declared, "You must take them to the Monks in the monastery". At the monastery, Kaldi told the Abbot how these berries had had a miraculous energizing affect on his goats. The Abbot hurled the berries into the fire and proclaimed them as the "Devil's work". Within minutes the berries started to smoke and the monastery was filled with the heavenly aroma of roasting beans. The other Monks quickly gathered to see what the commotion was. One Monk swiftly raked the beans from the fire and extinguished the embers by stamping on them. The rich smell of coffee obviously agreed with the Abbot's nose as he ordered the Monk to place the now crushed beans into a jug and cover it with hot water to preserve their divine goodness. He then took a sip from the jug and sampled the rich and fragrant brew that is coffee. From that day on the Monks vowed to drink coffee daily to keep them awake during the long, nocturnal devotions. No one is exactly sure when coffee was discovered. There is evidence to suggest that coffee beans were used to make a primitive "energy bar" before they were actually brewed as a hot drink. Sometime between 575AD and 850AD, a nomadic mountain tribe known as Galla, used to mix ground coffee with ghee. These bars were consumed by the tribe's warriors to heighten aggression and increase their stamina during battle. To this day, these bars are still eaten in Kaffa and Sidamo (Ethiopia). Some authorities claim that coffee originated from the Arabian Peninsula rather then Ethiopia, stating that coffee was cultivated in Yemen from around 575AD. An Islamic legend tells of how Sheikh Omar discovered coffee growing wild while living as a recluse near the port of Mocha (Yemen). He is said to have boiled some berries and discovered the stimulating effect of the infusion. He then administered the brew to locals who were stricken with a mysterious illness and cured them. However it is more likely that coffee spread to Yemen through Sudanese slaves. These slaves are thought to have eaten coffee beans to help them stay alive as they rowed ships across the Red Sea between Africa and Arabian Peninsula. Evidence suggests that coffee was probably not enjoyed as a beverage until around the 10th Century. It is at this time that the oldest known documents describing the beverage coffee were written. Two Arabian philosophers: Rhazes (850-922AD), and Avicenna of Bukham (980-1037AD); both refer to a drink called "bunchum", which many believe is coffee. By the late 16th Century, the use of coffee was widespread throughout the Arabia, North Africa and Turkey. The nutritional benefits of coffee were thought to be so great that coffee was considered as important as bread and water. So much so that a law was passed in Turkey making it grounds for divorce if a husband refused his wife coffee. Wherever Islam went, coffee was sure to follow. With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, coffee quickly spread to the Eastern Mediterranean. However, it is believed that no coffee seed sprouted outside Africa or Arabia until 17th Century, as coffee beans exported from the Arabian ports of Mocha and Jidda, were rendered infertile by parching or boiling. Legend has it that this changed when a pilgrim named Baba Budan, smuggled fertile coffee beans out of Mecca, strapped to his stomach. Returning to his native India he successfully cultivated the beans in Mysore. Part II - Spread of Coffee to Europe   It was not until 1615 that Europe was formally introduced to coffee. Venetian traders, who had strong trade links with the Levant (historical term referring to a large area of the Middle East incorporating the countries of: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) started to import coffee into Italy. Once in Europe, the consumption of coffee soon spread. The first person recorded to have brewed coffee in England was an international student named Nathaniel Conopios from Crete, who was studying at Balliol College, Oxford. This simple act, which happened in May 1637, was recorded by both scholar John Evelyn and historian Anthony Wood. Shortly afterwards Conopios was expelled from college, but his influence had a lasting effect on Oxford. It was in Oxford that the first English coffeehouse was opened in 1650 by Jacob, a Lebanese Jew. Even though Jacob moved to London a few years later to repeat his success, he had begun a trend that saw many more coffeehouses open in Oxford during that decade. It is thought that the custom of tipping originated in English coffeehouses. There would often be a small boxes hung near the counter in establishments with the words "To Insure Promptness" (TIP) inscribed on them. Customers would drop a coin in the box to encourage swift service. The early growth of coffeehouses was largely due to support by doctors promoting coffee for its supposed healing abilities. Before the introduction of coffeehouses, there was a widespread problem with public drunkenness as beer was consumed with almost every meal. But with public knowledge of the health benefits of coffee, and with coffee being significantly cheaper then beer, coffeehouses began to replace the tavern as the meeting place of choice. Needless to say, tavern owners were not going to let their profits dwindle without a fight, and many of the most aggressive attacks against coffee came from them. They claimed that coffee was an Arabic drink not suitable for well-mannered Christian men, unlike beer which had been brewed by Monks' for centuries. Tavern owners were not the only group to attack coffee. Women upset that their men spent more time at coffeehouses than in their homes, soon started to protest. In 1674, the 'Women's Petition against Coffee' was published. In this document, women protested that coffee reduced the male sperm count and would lead to a decline in the population: "coffee makes a man as barren as the dessert out of which this unlucky berry has been imported; that since its coming the offspring of our mighty forefathers are on the way to disappear as if they were monkeys and swine." It was understandable that women were aggrieved. At the time, they were banned from setting foot in a coffeehouse. The "Men's Answer to the Women's Petition against Coffee" was published later that year. The document defended coffee claiming that women should be thankful for coffee, as it was in fact an aphrodisiac. Part III - Colonization of Coffee  By the 17th Century, with the popularity of coffee ever increasing in Europe, the interest of the then World Superpowers - Britain, France, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain - also grew. Up until this point, coffee imported into Europe had come from the Arabian Peninsula, over which none of these nations had any control. The Europeans had sampled coffee and liked it, and now they wanted to start producing it for themselves. The race was on to establish their own coffee plantations in their respective colonies.It was the Netherlands who took an early lead in this race. In 1616, Dutch spies successfully managed to smuggle a coffee plant out of Mocha (Yemen). At first, they were only involved in small scale cultivation. This changed in 1658 when they defeated the Portuguese to take control of Sri Lanka. Very soon coffee plantations spread all over Sri Lanka and into Southern India. Then in 1699, the Dutch started production in Indonesia, when cuttings were successfully transplanted from Malabar (India) to Java. Without help from the Dutch, the other Superpowers would not have got out of the starting blocks. By 1706, the first coffee beans from Java had reached Amsterdam along with a coffee plant for the Botanical Garden. From this plant, a number of successful cuttings were made. These new plants soon found their way into various botanical gardens throughout Europe as they were given as gifts to visiting dignitaries. The coffee plant had become a very desirable object. In 1727, the Brazilian government decided it was time they joined the coffee market. Using the guise of an intermediary in a boundary dispute between the French and Dutch in the Guianas, Brazil sent Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Mello Palheta on a mission to steal a coffee plant from the French. Using his charm and charisma, Palheta befriended the governor of French Guiana's wife. Once the dispute was resolved, the governor's wife presented Palheta with a farewell gift, a coffee cutting concealed in a bouquet of flowers. From this scant shoot grew the world's largest coffee empire. The British did not seriously compete in the coffee race until 1796 when they took control of Sri Lanka from the Dutch. With the arrival of the British, even more land was cleared for coffee plantations. So much so that the relatively small island of Sri Lanka briefly became the world's largest coffee producer in the 1860s. However in 1869, a lethal fungus known as coffee rust arrived on the island. This fungus causes premature defoliation of a coffee plant, seriously weakening its structure and reducing its yield of berries. Since rust was not considered to be a serious disease, the British continued to clear more land for coffee plantations during the next decade. It was not until 1879 that they realized the seriousness of the situation. Unfortunately by then it was too late. The productivity of the plants had declined so greatly that they were no longer economically viable. Luckily for the British, a successful marketing campaign led by the British East India Company for tea entitled "the cup that cheers" had laid the foundations for tea to become the British national drink. Between 1700 and 1757, the average annual tea imports into Britain more than quadrupled and consumption continued to grow steadily for the rest of the century. So when coffee rust devastated the coffee plantations of Sri Lanka, and later India, production simply switched and the coffee plants were uprooted and replanted with tea. Although Britain continued to cultivate coffee on a limited amount of colonial land, mostly in Jamaica, Uganda and Kenya, by the end of the 19th Century tea had surpassed coffee as their beverage of choice. Part IV - Commercialization of Coffee  For many connoisseurs, the period from the mid-19th Century to the late 20th Century is the "Dark Age" of coffee. During this era, coffee lost its Middle-Eastern mystical charm and became commercialized and, quite frankly, ordinary.When coffee was first introduced into Britain during the 17th Century, it was a drink enjoyed by every social class. While the rich would enjoy coffee almost ceremonially in their social clubs, the poor saw coffee as an essential nutrient - a hot drink to replace a hot meal or hunger suppressant. With the advancement of technology, it was only a matter of time before large companies formed to take advantage of the coffee commodity. Traditionally, coffee was roasted in the home or in the coffeehouse. A practice imported from the Middle-East was to simply stir-fry green beans in an iron pan over a fire until brown. Some coffeehouses used a more sophisticated method of a cylindrical unit hung above a fire with a handle to rotate the beans inside. Both these methods were only capable of roasting small batches of coffee - a couple of kilos or several pounds at most - which ensured that the coffee was always fresh. With the onset of the industrial revolution and mechanization, coffee roasting technology soon improved. Commercial coffee roasters were being invented which were capable of roasting much larger batches of coffee. It was now possible for the few to meet the coffee needs of the masses. It was in the United States where coffee first began to be commercialized. In 1865, John Arbuckle marketed the first commercially available packages of ground, roasted coffee. His brand, "Ariosa", was sold over a far larger area then any other coffee roaster. Instead of being confined to a small area close to the roasting factory, Arbuckle was able to establish his coffee as a regional brand. Others soon followed suit and, by World War I, there were a number of regional roasters including companies such as Folgers, Hill Brothers, and Maxwell House. These companies offered customers consistent quality and convenient packaging for use in the home, but at a price: freshness. It could be several weeks, or even months, before the end product would reach the customer. Once ground, coffee quickly loses its flavor and therefore should be consumed as soon as possible (at the very latest within 48 hours). But this was the age of the brand, where consistency ruled king over quality. Local roasters would often produce excellent coffee, but they could also produce foul coffee, occasionally containing a number of adulterations. Customers wanted to trust what they were buying. They wanted their coffee to taste exactly the same, time and time again. Worse was to come to the brew known as coffee. As regional roasters grew into national roasters and then into international roasters, their pursuit of profit intensified. Traditionally, coffee came from the 'arabica' variety of coffee bush. But in the 1850s, the French and Portuguese began to cultivate a different variety of coffee bush, known as 'robusta', on the west coast of Africa between Gabon and Angola. Robusta beans were (and still are) cheaper then arabica beans as they are easier to grow and have an inferior flavor. Coffee roasters looking to minimize their production costs started blending robusta beans with arabica beans in increasing quantities. They also used shorter roast times to reduce weight loss and thus stopped the coffee from fully developing its complex flavor. However the lowest point for coffee came with the introduction of instant coffee - a drink bearing little resemblance in taste to actual coffee. |
| With the coffee industry focused on price rather then quality, it was little wonder that coffee sales became stagnant. Coffee drinking was now more about a caffeine fix rather then about savoring the taste. It was something to be gulped during a break from work, rather than a treat to be enjoyed over conversation or while reading the newspaper. Unsurprisingly the younger generations born in the 70s and 80s turned their back on bitter coffee, preferring sugary soft drinks such as Coca Cola and Pepsi for their caffeine kicks. |
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