Coffee History

First coffee from Ethiopia

The history of the origin of coffee as a drink goes back to ancient times. It is shrouded in numerous legends and fiction.

There are bold assumptions that man and coffee have been linked for about 2.8 million years. They are based on the fact that the remains of human ancestors and traces of their habitat are found in East Africa, in the area that is the birthplace of wild coffee.

The answer to another question is based on guesses and assumptions: how and when coffee got through the Red Sea to Yemen, with which, in fact, the whole story of its origin as a drink is connected.

In the first centuries of our era, the kingdom of Aksum was formed on the territory of Northern Ethiopia. In the IV & mdash; VI centuries, it reached its peak and extended its hegemony to many lands, including South Arabia.

The Aksum kingdom disintegrated only in the first half of the 11th century. Over the thousand-year history of the kingdom, close trade, economic and political ties have been noted between the peoples inhabiting the Ethiopian Highlands and the Arabian Peninsula.

Moreover, one of the Ethiopian tribes moved to South Yemen. Therefore, it is not surprising that coffee was brought to this country (there is a version that coffee was brought to Arabia by black Sudanese slaves who were delivered through Ethiopia).

It should be emphasized that coffee grows wild only in Ethiopia, where it has never been cultivated before, since coffee has not been consumed here.

Even after his "domestication" in Yemen, Ethiopians have long respected the ban on coffee drink imposed by the Christian church and Negus, who rejected this Mohammedan invention. At that time, some Ethiopian tribes, as well as Nubian Berbers, still consumed coffee in secret.

Ripe coffee beans were pressed, mixed with animal fat and rolled into round balls. It was a food that had exciting properties. She helped to survive in difficult natural conditions.

As for the more developed Ethiopian tribes, they made wine from fermented coffee berry pulp. This drink was called kawah, which means & laquo; hoppy drink & raquo;. From this word, perhaps, the modern word & laquo; coffee & raquo; came from.

It is only natural that Arab nomads crossing Ethiopia learned from local tribes about the exciting properties of coffee. First of all, they learned to make balls & mdash from coffee grains and fat; the simplest road food, supporting yourself with it during constant desert crossings.

Later they learned to drink coffee by insisting on green grains in cold water. But in the early Middle Ages, such a drink was not widespread, since coffee beans could only be brought from afar & mdash; only from Ethiopia and neighboring Somalia.

Mocha, Mokka History

We can safely say that in the history of coffee there is no louder geographical name than Mocha (one of the variants of the name of this port & mdash; Moss, it is most commonly used from the Middle Ages to the present day).

This small Yemeni port on the Red Sea has given its name to a coffee variety produced in Arabia.

Until the end of the 17th century, the world as a whole (albeit to a limited extent) received coffee only from Yemen. It was that real and celebrated Mocha or Mokka coffee.

Until the middle of the 17th century, Turkish and Egyptian merchants came to Yemen and received the best grains. They bought crops right on the trees, ensured its collection and processing of seeds. Coffee was prepared by dry method, i.e. dried in the sun.

The Arabs were extremely proud of the new drink and kept the secret of its preparation secret. They forbade exporting grains from the country if they are not dried. This measure was aimed at ensuring that not a single grain capable of sprouting fell into the hands of foreigners, who, of course, were forbidden to visit coffee plantations.

However, full control was very difficult to comply with. Arabia has always been visited by many pilgrims who arrived in Mecca from afar, and a wonderful drink one day inevitably had to become known to everyone.

This happened around 1650, when a Muslim pilgrim named Baba Budan managed to get seven green coffee beans and secretly take them to the Chikma-galhur area in southern India. From these seeds grew excellent coffee trees, which marked the beginning of coffee production in this country.

Countless attempts by the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Venetians, Spaniards to steal seeds from the Arabs failed.

Finally, in 1690, the Dutch managed to get some coffee sprouts, which were carefully grown in the botanical gardens of Amsterdam. From there, in 1699, coffee trees were brought to the Dutch colonies on the islands of Java and Sumatra.

In tropical climates, trees grew well. A few years later, the colonies became the main supplier of coffee in Europe, which is the main merit of the Dutch East India Company founded in 1602.

Amsterdam soon became not only a hub for the spice trade, but also a global hub for the coffee trade. Experienced merchants, the Dutch artificially maintained monopoly high prices for a variety of spices, including coffee. Without the slightest hesitation, they burned the accumulated stocks of spices for the sole purpose of keeping them as high as possible.

People in Dutch cities quickly appreciated coffee, but unlike foreigners, they preferred to use it mainly at home.

Proud of their turnover and high income from the sale of coffee, they even showed rare indulgence to their longtime competitors & mdash; French.

In 1714, the burgomaster of Amsterdam, Nicholas Whitson, donated a one and a half meter coffee tree to Louis XIV.

By this time, the Sun King was already well acquainted with the merits of a new drink that consumed his entire yard. They even say that the idea of ​ ​ sweetening coffee with sugar came to the mind of one of his many mistresses (however, this idea was not new: at the beginning of the 15th century, the Egyptians already drank coffee with sugar).

 

Coffee growing geography expands

While the global market depended entirely on Mocha Arabian coffee, its import into Europe could not be sufficient.

But at the beginning of the 18th century, European countries with colonies rushed after the Dutch to plant coffee trees and grow their coffee plantations.

The French also successfully mastered the production of coffee on the islands of Bourbon, Madagascar, Guadeloupe, in French Guiana, where they pursued a rather tough line, purposefully achieving their goal.

This is clearly seen in the example of Bourbon Island. The local local colonial authorities were so imbued with the idea of ​ ​ creating coffee plantations as soon as possible that they obliged each resident to grow 200 coffee trees.

According to a specially adopted law, anyone who dares to cut down a coffee tree faced the death penalty - the death penalty.

In 1730, the English brought coffee trees to Jamaica, the Spanish & mdash; in 1731 to the island of Santo Domingo.

Many researchers have led the history of coffee in Brazil since 1727, (some researchers point to 1717).

Some argue that coffee plantations were first founded in this country back in 1722 & mdash; 1726, others attribute the time of their laying to a much later time & mdash; for 1735.

Be that as it may, but one thing is certain: a humid local climate and loose fertile red soil & mdash; terra rocha & mdash; turned out to be ideal for this culture, which brought Brazil the well-deserved fame and gratitude of the whole world.

Brazil is rightfully called the second homeland of coffee. However, until the end of the 18th century, in many Brazilian cities (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and others), coffee was considered a medicine and sold in pharmacies.

The coffee boom did not arrive until the early part of the next century, when global demand for it soared and sugarcane plantations gave way to coffee trees.

By 1770, coffee was becoming a globally recognized commercial culture, and the fame of coffee houses gradually pushed the popularity of cabaret into the background.

The fashion for coffee and coffee shops was common in almost all European countries, especially in France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Portugal.

By the end of the 18th century, coffee began to be delivered to the international market in Guatemala.

In 1779, Don Francisco Javier Navarro delivered a coffee tree to Costa Rica.

Since 1784, coffee began to be grown in Venezuela, since 1790 & mdash; in Mexico.

The 19th century was a period of further spread of coffee. In this regard, a truly epochal event was the opening on November 17, 1869 of the shortest waterway between the ports of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans & mdash; Suez Canal. This made it possible to reduce the route and delivery time of goods from Asia to Europe by 8-15 thousand kilometers.

Although coffee, as a wild crop, comes from Africa, its cultivated variety of arabica began to be introduced in East Africa only at the end of the 19th century.

In Kenya, this case has been dealt with since 1878 by British settlers, in the former German East Africa (today's Tanzania) & mdash; since 1891, German colonists.

In 1887, the French founded the first coffee plantation in Vietnam, and in 1896 the British planted the first coffee trees in distant Australia.

Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, coffee began to be cultivated on four continents:

• Australia;
• Eurasia;
• Africa;
• South America.

Coffee has become a favorite drink of mankind and has become one of the most prestigious products on the international market.