Origin of Coffee
I wake up every morning and thank the coffee gods for the luscious and abundant coffee trees that they have so graciously planted on this earth. Without them, I don’t know where I would be, probably asleep for another three hours.
On average, over 107 million Americans drink coffee each and every day, many of them more than 2 cups. That’s a lot of caffeine and a lot of trips to the toilet :) . I am constantly amazed how this one tiny bean can be such an integral part in our daily lives. From the morning Keurig cup to get ya going, to afternoon latte with a friend, or even the post-dinner digestif, coffee is a part of our culture and many cultures around the world.
So how did the small green coffee bean become a superstar in the beverage department?
Well let’s go back all the way to the 15th Century, where legend states that an Ethiopian goat farmer, named Kaldi, discovered that his goats would be incredibly energetic after consuming the berries from the coffee tree. He decided to make a beverage of these beans to try, and lo and behold, he also found himself to be alert and more animated after consuming this plant. Kaldi shared this information with his local monastery, and word spread from there.
Soon, stories about this magical bean traveled to the Arabian Peninsula, where coffee cultivation and trade began shortly after. As more countries and people developed a taste for this drink, small coffee houses began to appear. These shops quickly became hubs for intellectual exchanges and conversations.
Coffee then made its way to Europe, after travelers would bring back beans from their visits to the Arabian Peninsula. The Europeans had quite varied reactions to this mysterious beverage. Some would worship it, others were quick to call it the “Bitter Invention of Satan”. However, as many advocates began integrating coffee into their daily routine, it soon replaced beer and wine as the morning beverage of choice.
Coffee spread to the Americas in the 1600s when beans were brought over by British settlers. After the Boston Tea Party in 1773, coffee surpassed tea consumption in the New World. Americans today still prefer coffee over tea.
As coffee consumption increased worldwide, travelers and traders would bring the coffee seeds to new regions, and plantations began to thrive around the world. Coffee is now the second, most traded commodity, behind crude oil.
For more information about coffee be sure to check out the links below: