The History of Coffee!
The history and development of the beverage that we know as coffee is varied
and interesting, involving chance occurrences, political intrigue, and the
pursuit of wealth and power.
According to one story, the effect of coffee beans on behavior was noticed by a
sheep herder named Kaldi as he tended his sheep. He noticed that the sheep
became hyperactive after eating
the red cherries from a certain plant when
they changed pastures. He tried a few himself, and was soon as overactive as
his herd. The story relates that a monk happened by and scolded him
for
partaking of the devil's fruit. However the monks soon discovered that this
fruit from the shiny green plant could help them stay awake for their
prayers.
Another legend gives us the name for
coffee or mocha. An Arabian was
banished to the desert with his followers to die of starvation. In
desperation, Omar had his friends boil and eat the fruit from an unknown plant.
Not only did
the broth save the exiles, but their survival was taken as a
religious sign by the residents of the nearest town, Mocha. The plant and its
beverage were named Mocha to honor this event.
One
early use for coffee
would have little appeal today. The Galla tribe from Ethiopia used coffee, but
not as a drink. They would wrap the beans in animal fat as their only source
of nutrition while
on raiding parties. The Turks were the first country to
adopt it as a drink, often adding spices such as clove, cinnamon, cardamom and
anise to the brew.
Coffee was introduced much later to
countries beyond
Arabia whose inhabitants believed it to be a delicacy and guarded its secret
as if they were top secret military plans. Transportation of the plant out of
the Moslem nations
was forbidden by the government. The actual spread of
coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled beans to some
mountains near Mysore, India, and started a farm
there. Early in this century,
the descendants of those original plants were found still growing fruitfully in
the region.
Coffee was believed by some Christians to be the devil's drink.
Pope Vincent
III heard this and decided to taste it before he banished it. He
enjoyed it so much he baptized it, saying coffee is so delicious it would be a
pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.
Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that
small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.
Excerpt from UTNE READER, Nov/Dec 94, by Mark Schapiro,
Muddy Waters
Prior to 1000 A.D.: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice
that they get an energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and
mixed with animal fat.
1000 A.D.: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and
cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to
boil the beans, creating a drink they call qahwa(literally, that which
prevents sleep).
1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The
world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes
it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with
her daily quota of coffee.
1511: Khair Beg, the corrupt governor of Mecca, tries to ban coffee
for feat that its influence might foster opposition to his rule. The
sultan sends word that coffee is sacred and has the governor executed.
1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs
attention in high places. In Italy, Pope Clement VIII is urged by his
advisers to consider that favorite drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the
infidel threat. However, he decides to baptize it instead, making it an
acceptable Christian beverage.
1607: Captain John Smith helps to found the colony of Virginia at
Jamestown. It's believed that he introduced coffee to North America.
1645: First coffeehouse opens in Italy.
1652: First coffeehouse opens in England. Coffee houses multiply
and become such popular forums for learned and not so learned - discussion
that they are dubbed penny universities (a penny being the price of a cup
of coffee).
1668: Coffee replaces beer as New York's City's favorite breakfast
drink.
1668: Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse opens in England and is frequented
by merchants and maritime insurance agents. Eventually it becomes Lloyd's of
London, the best-known insurance company in the world.
1672: First coffeehouse opens in Paris.
1675: The Turkish Army surrounds Vienna. Franz Georg Kolschitzky,
a Viennese who had lived in Turkey, slips through the enemy lines to lead
relief forces to the city. The fleeing Turks leave behind sacks of dry
black fodder that Kolschitzky recognizes as coffee. He claims it as his
reward and opens central Europe's first coffee house. He also establishes
the habit of refining the brew by filtering out the grounds, sweetening it,
and adding a dash of milk.
1690: With a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha,
the Dutch become the first to transport and cultivate coffee commercially,
in Ceylon and in their East Indian colony - Java, source of the brew's
nickname.
1713: The Dutch unwittingly provide Louis XIV of France with a
coffee bush whose descendants will produce entire Western coffee industry
when in 1723 French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu do Clieu steals a seedling
and transports it to Martinique. Within 50 years and official survey
records 19 million coffee trees on Martinique. Eventually, 90 percent of
the world's coffee spreads from this plant.
1721: First coffee house opens in Berlin.
1727: The Brazilian coffee industry gets its start when Lieutenant
colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta is sent by government to arbitrate a border
dispute between the French and the Dutch colonies in Guiana. Not only does
he settle the dispute, but also strikes up a secret liaison with the wife
of French Guiana's governor. Although France guarded its New World coffee
plantations to prevent cultivation from spreading, the lady said good-bye
to Palheta with a bouquet in which she hid cuttings and fertile seeds of coffee.
1732: Johann Sevastian Bach composes his Kaffee-Kantate. Partly an
ode to coffee and partly a stab at the movement in Germany to prevent women
from drinking coffee (it was thought to make them sterile), the cantata
includes the aria, Ah! How sweet coffee taste! Lovelier than a thousand
kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee.
1773: The Boston Tea Party makes drinking coffee a patriotic duty in
America.
1775: Prussia's Frederick the Great tries to block inports of green
coffee, as Prussia's wealth is drained. Public outcry changes his mind.
1886: Former wholesale grocer Joel Cheek names his popular coffee
blend Maxwell House, after the hotel in Nashville, TN where it's
served.
Early 1900's: In Germany, afternoon coffee becomes a standard
occasion. The derogatory term KaffeeKlatsch is coined to describe women's
gossip at these affairs. Since broadened to mean relaxed conversation in
general.
1900: Hills Bros. begins packing roast coffee in vacuum tins,
spelling the end of the ubiquitous local roasting shops and coffee mills.
1901: The first soluble instant coffee is invented by
Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago.
1903: German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turn a batch of ruined
coffee beans over to researchers, who perfect the process of removing
caffeine from the beans without destroying the flavor. He markets it under
the brand name Sanka. Sanka is introduced to the United States
in 1923.
1906: George Constant Washington, an English chemist living in
Guatemala, notices a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his
silver coffee carafe. After experimentation, he creates the first
mass-produced instant coffee (his brand is called Red E Coffee).
1920: Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales
boom.
1938: Having been asked by Brazil to help find a solution to their
coffee surpluses, Nestle company invents freeze-dried coffee. Nestle
develops Nescafe and introduces it in Switzerland.
1940: The US imports 70 percent of the world coffee crop.
1942: During W.W.II, American soldiers are issued instant Maxwell
House coffee in their ration kits. Back home, widespread hoarding leads to
coffee rationing.
1946: In Italy, Achilles Gaggia perfects his espresso machine.
Cappuccino is named for the resemblance of its color to the robes of the
monks of the Capuchin order.
1969: One week before Woodstock the Manson Family murders coffee
heiress Abigail Folger as she visits with friend Sharon Tate in the home of
filmmaker Roman Polanski.
1971: Starbucks opens its first store in Seattle's Pike Place public
market, creating a frenzy over fresh-roasted whole bean coffee.
1979: Mr Cappuccino opens for business!
2003: Mr. Cappuccino still going strong
2007: Italian Roaster by STA Italy
2007: New Warehouse Showroom
2008: Still awaiting the" third wave", the so called coffee experts have predicted
2009: 30th year in business Happy Birthday June 30/09
Westroast Coffee Company Ltd. o/a Mr Cappuccino
B1, 416 Meridian Road S.E. Calgary, Ab. T2A 1X2
Phone: (403) 230-8636 Toll Free: 1-800-813-5336
Fax: (403) 277-2874
You
can contact us at: coffee@telusplanet.net