BEHOLD THE POWER OF COFFEE!
First I would like to say that National Geographic
online (http://www.nationalgeographic.com) did a
Stint on coffee and I just happened to steal this
history from them. I in no way mean to take
credit for their hard work and say THANK YOU
to them for doing the great work on coffee
that they did...it was wonderful, informative
and really interesting to read, so I'm posting it
up here, as well as some of the great
links that they had as well. Great magazine
combined with great taste...Gotta love them for that.
AFRICAN ORIGINS (Circa A.D. 800)
Goats will eat anything. Just ask Kaldi the
legendary Ethiopian (map) goatherd. Kaldi, the
story goes, noticed his herd dancing from one
coffee shrub to another, grazing on the cherry-red berries;
berries containing the beans. He copped a few
himself and was soon frolicking with his flock.
Witnessing Kaldi’s goatly gambol, a monk
plucked berries for his brothers. That night they
were uncannily alert to divine inspiration.
History tells us other Africans of the same era
fueled up on protein-rich coffee-and-animal-fat
balls-primitive PowerBars-and unwound with
wine made from coffee-berry pulp. Coffee later
crossed the Red Sea to Arabia,
where things really got cooking...
ESCAPE FROM ARABIA
(Circa 1000 to 1600)
Coffee as we know it kicked off in Arabia, where
roasted beans were first brewed around A.D.
1000. By the 13th century Muslims were drinking
coffee religiously. The "bean broth" drove
dervishes into orbit, kept worshippers awake,
and splashed over into secular life. And
wherever Islam went, coffee went too: North
Africa (map), the eastern Mediterranean, and
India (map).
Arabia made export beans infertile by parching or
boiling, and it is said that no coffee seed
sprouted outside Africa or Arabia until the
1600s-until Baba Budan. As tradition has it, this
Indian pilgrim-cum-smuggler left Mecca with
fertile seeds strapped to his belly. Baba’s beans
bore fruit and initiated an agricultural
expansion that would soon reach Europe’s colonies...
EUROPE CATCHES THE BUZZ
(1615 to 1700)
"The Turks (map) have a drink of black color....I
will bring some with me...to the Italians".
Thus a merchant of Venice introduced Europe to
coffee in 1615. But the end product didn’t amount
to a hill of beans to many traders-they wanted
the means of production. The race was on.
The Dutch cleared the initial hurdle in
1616, spiriting a coffee plant into Europe
for the first time. Then in 1696 they founded the
first European-owned coffee estate, on colonial
Java, now part of Indonesia.
Business boomed and the Dutch sprinted
ahead to adjacent islands. Confident beyond
caution, Amsterdam began bestowing coffee
trees on aristocrats around Europe...
A SWASHBUCKLING SCHEME
(Circa 1714 to 1720)
Louis XIV received his Dutch treat around
1714-a coffee tree for Paris’s (map) Royal
Botanical Garden, the Jardin des Plantes.
Several years later a young naval officer, Gabriel
Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean.
Imagining Martinique as a French Java, he
requested clippings from his king’s tree.
Permission denied.
Resolute, de Clieu led a moonlight raid of the
Jardin des Plantes-over the wall, into the
hothouse, out with a sprout.
Mission accomplished, de Clieu sailed for
Martinique. He might have thought the hard part
was over. He would have been
wrong...
CROSSING THE ATLANTIC
(Circa 1720 to 1770)
On the return passage to Martinique, wrote de
Clieu, a "basely jealous" passenger, "being
unable to get this coffee plant away from me, tore
off a branch."
Then came the pirates who nearly captured the
ship; then came a storm which nearly sank it.
Finally, skies grew clear. Too clear. Water grew
scarce and was rationed. De Clieu gave half of
his allotment to his stricken seedling.
Under armed guard, the sprout grew strong in
Martinique, yielding an extended family of
approximately 18 million trees in 50 years or so.
Its progeny would supply Latin America, where a dangerous
liaison would help bring coffee to
the masses...
COFFEE BLOOMS IN BRAZIL
(Circa 1727 to 1800)
1727: Brazil’s emperor wants a cut of the coffee
market; but first, he needs an agent to smuggle
seeds from a coffee country. Enter Lt. Col.
Francisco de Melo Palheta, the James Bond of
Beans.
Colonel Palheta is dispatched to French Guiana,
ostensibly to mediate a border dispute.
Eschewing the fortresslike coffee farms, suave
Palheta chooses a path of less resistance-the
governor’s wife. The plan pays off. At a state
farewell dinner she presents him a sly token of
affection: a bouquet spiked with seedlings.
From these scant shoots sprout the world’s
greatest coffee empire. By 1800 Brazil’s monster
harvests would turn coffee from an elite
indulgence to an everyday elixir, a drink for the
people.
************Links**************
Coffee.com
http://www.coffee.com/
Peet’s Coffee and Tea presents an interactive
guide to brewing coffee you’ll love.
Coffee Recipes
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/java/recipes.html
Exchange your favorite coffee recipes.
Coffee Science Source
http://www.coffeescience.org/
The National Coffee Association’s site
presents coffee, caffeine, and health
information.
JavaLink
http://thunder.ocis.temple.edu/~ghinkle/java.html
Come here for links to "Steamin’ Hot Coffee Sites."
National Coffee Association
http://www.ncausa.org/
Coffee information for the public,
coffee industry, and association
members. Great coffee updates and top stories.
Specialty Coffee Association of America
http://scaa.org
Visit this site for "people and businesses
that have dedicated their lives to
coffee."