ORIGIN - A BRIEF HISTORY OF COFFEE

Coffee has started wars, cured illness, raised spirits and suspicion, sealed deals, and been equally revered and condemned since it first appeared over a thousand years ago in Ethiopia. The nomadic Oromo people of East Africa were the first coffee enthusiasts, but they didn’t drink coffee as we know it today; they crushed the berries and leaves, mixed them with animal fat, and rolled the result into small balls which were eaten as an invigorating snack before heading into battle. They also made wine out of the fermented pulp, and sometimes roasted the husks to make a sweet, woody liquid. It wasn’t until much later, sometime in the 6th century that coffee beans were roasted, ground and infused with hot water. Coffee as we know it today was finally made!

From Africa, beans crossed the narrow strip of the Red Sea to Yemen; where the plant quickly took root in the land and culture. The prophet Mohammed proclaimed that under the influence of coffee he could “...unhorse forty men and possess forty women.” Sufi monks drank the brew to stay alert for long nightly prayer sessions, and coffee quickly became a popular everyday beverage. The Arabs began seriously cultivating coffee, calling it qahwa, the Arab word for wine, from which some claim the word coffee is derived. By the end of the 15th century, Muslim pilgrims had spread coffee throughout the Islamic world. Persia, Turkey, Egypt and North Africa all enjoyed the uplifting brew. The busiest port in the ancient world, Al-Mokha became synonymous with coffee, and many simply referred to the drink as Mokha. (Or Mocha, a trend which continued in the coffee industry for over a century.) The Arabs jealously protected the young, lucrative coffee industry. Coffee plots were guarded, and cherries that were still capable of germination were not allowed to leave the country. Sometime in the early 17th century, a Muslim pilgrim smuggled some seeds and successfully cultivated them in Mysore, India. From there the Dutch, who dominated the world’s shipping trade, transplanted seeds to Indonesia. Java, Bali, Sumatra, and Timor began producing coffee for export.

In Europe, coffee was still viewed as an exotic elixir, consumed by the very wealthy, or sold as an expensive cure-all. The Venetians were the first Europeans to truly take an interest in the drink, coffeehouses opened there as early as 1645. In 1652 the first printed coffee advertisement ran in a London paper “It will prevent Drowsiness, and make one fit for business, if one have occasion to Watch; and therefore you are not to Drink of it after Supper, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will hinder sleep for 3 or 4 hours…” Upright English women protested against the foreign drink, claiming, “…the excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called Coffee, which has so Eunucht our Husbands…” Despite the controversy, the dark drink became popular and profitable, and by 1700 London had over two thousand coffeehouses. These venues, whether in London, France, Italy, or Yemen, became gathering places for intellectuals, as well as popular public spaces that broke down previously strict class barriers. Doctors and lawyers were seated next to laborers and servants. Coffee was clearly not just a beverage; and from these early coffeehouses many new ideas were born. Edward Lloyd’s, a London café that catered primarily to sailors, began making “Ship’s Lists” for underwriters. Thus began Lloyd’s of London, the famous insurance company. The Stock Exchange, the Bankers Clearing House, and the first tabloids all rose from the new, bustling coffeehouse culture.

General Mathieu de Clieu An artists rendition of the General bringing coffee to the new world.

In America, The Green Dragon opened in Boston in 1697. John Adams, James Otis and Paul Revere met there years later to enjoy coffee and discussion. In 1773 in response to high tea taxes, it became an American's unspoken duty to renounce tea and embrace coffee as the colonial drink of choice.

In 1714, the Dutch gave a coffee plant to the French government as a gift. A few years later, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, a French naval officer, decided to transport a seedling across the Atlantic. After surviving a pirate attack and a brutal storm, water supplies grew dangerously low. De Clieu nurtured the plant, protecting it from a jealous shipmate, and sharing his meager water ration with the burgeoning botanical wonder, Coffee Arabica Typica. After the long and perilous journey, the tree took root in Martinique, and from that single plant, much of the world’s coffee supply originated.

By the turn of the century, coffee was successfully cultivated in Brazil, Guatemala, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Around 1900, the English began cultivation in East Africa, having earlier established coffee plantations in India and El Salvador. Coffee had quickly become one of the world’s most lucrative commodities, and today it is second only to oil. From the massive fazendas of Brazil to small, humble gardens in the mountains of East Africa, coffee cultivation is as diverse as the lands from which it derives.