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The History Of Coffee |
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Coffee was
first discovered in Eastern Africa in an
area we know today as Ethiopia. A
popular legend refers to a goat herder
by the name of Kaldi, who observed his
goats acting unusually frisky after
eating berries from a bush. Curious
about this phenomena, Kaldi tried eating
the berries himself. He found that these
berries gave him a renewed energy. The
news of this energy laden fruit quickly
spread throughout the region.
Monks hearing about
this amazing fruit, dried the berries so
that they could be transported to
distant monasteries. They reconstituted
these berries in water, ate the fruit,
and drank the liquid to provide
stimulation for a more awakened time for
prayer.
Coffee berries were
transported from Ethiopia to the Arabian
peninsula, and were first cultivated in
what today is the country of Yemen.
From there, coffee
traveled to Turkey where coffee beans
were roasted for the first time over
open fires. The roasted
coffee beans were
crushed, and then boiled in water,
creating a crude version of the beverage
we enjoy today.
Coffee first arrived
on the European continent by means of
Venetian trade merchants. Once in Europe
this new beverage fell under harsh
criticism from the Catholic church. Many
felt the pope should ban coffee, calling
it the drink of the devil. To their
surprise, the pope, already a coffee
drinker, blessed coffee declaring it a
truly Christian beverage.
Coffee houses spread
quickly across Europe becoming centers
for intellectual exchange. Many great
minds of Europe used this beverage, and
forum, as a springboard to heightened
thought and creativity.
In the 1700's, coffee
found its way to the Americas by means
of a French infantry captain who
nurtured one small plant on its long
journey across the Atlantic. This one
plant, transplanted to the Caribbean
Island of Martinique, became the
predecessor of over 19 million trees on
the island within 50 years. It was from
this humble beginning that the coffee
plant found its way to the rest of the
tropical regions of South and Central
America.
Coffee was declared
the national drink of the then colonized
United States by the Continental
Congress, in protest of the excessive
tax on tea levied by the British crown.
Espresso, a recent
innovation in the way to prepare coffee,
obtained its origin in 1822, with the
innovation of the first crude espresso
machine in France. The Italians
perfected this wonderful machine and
were the first to manufacture it.
Espresso has become such an integral
part of Italian life and culture, that
there are presently over 200,000
espresso bars in Italy.
Today, coffee is a
giant global industry employing more
than 20 million people. This commodity
ranks second only to petroleum in terms
of dollars traded worldwide. With over
400 billion cups consumed every year,
coffee is the world's most popular
beverage. If you can imagine, in Brazil
alone, over 5 million people are
employed in the cultivation and
harvesting of over 3 billion coffee
plants.
Sales of
premium
specialty coffees in the United States
have reached the multi billion dollar
level, and are increasing significantly
on an annual basis.
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