Although not introduced to Europe until the 15th century coffee has been around for a long time. It was first consumed in the highlands of Ethiopia in the 9th century, where one species of the small evergreen like bush grew like weeds. From there its use spread over the Muslim world like a caffeine addict scratching and itch, first to Egypt and Yemen and then onto Azerbaijan, Persia, Turkey and Northern Africa. Northern Africa by the way is the first place the bushes were mass cultivated and grown. Its first foray into Europe was Italy and then quickly from there to France, Germany, Poland and Spain. It looks like the first recorded reference to coffee being drunk in North America is from 1668 but I find it hard to believe, although maybe I shouldn’t, since the bushes will not grow on the North American continent and without Hawaii and Puerto Rico we would be coffee barren.
The word coffee, I found, entered the English vernacular in 1598 via the Italian word caffè. The Italian word caffè was a translation from the Turkish word kahve, which in turn came into being via Arabic qahwa, this was truncated version of qahhwat al-bun or wine of the bean. There are many legendary stories about the origins of the drink itself. One account involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Shaikh ash-Shadhil and it seems that while he was the traversing the highlands of Ethiopia he observed goats of unusual vitality. After watching and experimenting he found that if he ate this one particular berry that the goats were eating he to experienced a renewed vitality. A similar myth attributes the discovery of coffee to an Ethiopian goat-herder named Kaldi and the Legend of Dancing Goats, the dancing goats are a story for another day though. Another possible origin of both the beverage and the name was the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated, its name there is bunn or bunna. As you may or may not know Bunn is today a leader in commercial coffee brewing machines, coincidence – I think not. Since in Islam the use of alcohol as a beverage is prohibited coffee seemed to provide a suitable alternative to wine, or so it would seem.
Originally coffee was not consumed in the form we know it today. It was not until 1000 A.D. that it was brewed into something that resembles what we drink today for the caffeine boost. Before that the Arabs used it exclusively for medicinal or religious purposes. Obviously the feeling of exhilaration from the caffeine of the drink became a widely sought-after side effect. One popular legend tells of Sheik Omar experimenting with brewing some coffee from raw wild coffee berries. Thanks in part to the beneficial effects of the caffeine, the Sheik survives his exile and upon his return to Mocha, introduced his new way of preparing the drink. Bless Sheik Omar is what I say! The Arabs continued to refine their methods of preparing the drink for many years, over 300 to be exact. Originally coffee drinkers drank the grounds right along with the boiled water, talk about a caffeine buzz. Eventually they figured out how to get just the liquid, by letting the grounds to settle at the bottom of the cup. It did not take long for coffee to become so important in their lives that in Turkey a husband who refused to provide his wife with the drink could be divorced by her!
The coffee berries, which contain the coffee bean, are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the genus coffea. The two most commonly grown species are coffea robusta and coffea arabica. Some of the less popular species include Liberica, Excelsa, Stenophylla, Mauritiana, Racemosa and are cultivated in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried, once the bean has been extracted they are then roasted. Those processes actually create several physical and chemical changes in the beans. Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation, as it is with everything, because of the perception by some of its negative impact on the environment. As a counter to those claims others have studied it to death looking for a relationship between coffee consumption and certain medical conditions - the overall effects of whether coffee has a positive or negative impact is still heavily disputed.
These more recent debates are not the first for coffee, it has played an important role in many societies throughout history. It was used in religious ceremonies in Africa and Yemen and as a result the Ethiopian Church banned its secular consumption. It was not until the reign of Emperor Menelik II that it allowed back into society. Coffee became more widely accepted in Europe after it was "baptized" by Pope Clement VIII in 1600 despite appeals to ban the Muslim drink. It was banned in the Ottoman empire in the 17th century for political reasons because it was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe. At one time women were banned from even going into the coffee houses of the day. Although the practice was not universal, it does appear to have been common in Europe. Who knew is what I keep asking myself as I write this.
I was surprised when I found Germany to be the second largest consumer of coffee, 16lbs of the beans per person per year. I was not, however, surprised by the fact the United States is the world's largest consumer of coffee. We caffeine addicts import a mere 16 to 20 million bags annually, or 2.5 million pounds of the beans. This represents one-third of all coffee exported worldwide. I found that more than half of the United States population consumes coffee, that is like 152 million people, and considering the typical coffee drinker slugs down 3.4 cups of coffee per day I am glad that half of China’s population does not consume coffee. Imagine what 665 million people drinking 3.4 cups a day would do to the price and availability of our godly nectar. I was surprised, although I shouldn’t have been, that coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum. World wide coffee production tips the scales at about 6 million metric tons. Another limited resource that us Americans are addicted to and considering it takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity and the average yield from one tree is the equivalent of one roasted pound of coffee we could be in serious trouble if the coffee fields fall into the wrong hands. I say we send troops to Brazil in a preemptive attempt to secure the over 3,970 million coffee trees currently planted and producing there. After we get those plants secured we need to move onto Colombia, they are second in production with approximately 2646 million plants. You know what on second thought, since coffee is the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value I say we go ahead - invade and secure the 12 counties where it is the top agricultural export.
I mean seriously can you imagine a day without coffee?
The word coffee, I found, entered the English vernacular in 1598 via the Italian word caffè. The Italian word caffè was a translation from the Turkish word kahve, which in turn came into being via Arabic qahwa, this was truncated version of qahhwat al-bun or wine of the bean. There are many legendary stories about the origins of the drink itself. One account involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Shaikh ash-Shadhil and it seems that while he was the traversing the highlands of Ethiopia he observed goats of unusual vitality. After watching and experimenting he found that if he ate this one particular berry that the goats were eating he to experienced a renewed vitality. A similar myth attributes the discovery of coffee to an Ethiopian goat-herder named Kaldi and the Legend of Dancing Goats, the dancing goats are a story for another day though. Another possible origin of both the beverage and the name was the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated, its name there is bunn or bunna. As you may or may not know Bunn is today a leader in commercial coffee brewing machines, coincidence – I think not. Since in Islam the use of alcohol as a beverage is prohibited coffee seemed to provide a suitable alternative to wine, or so it would seem.
Originally coffee was not consumed in the form we know it today. It was not until 1000 A.D. that it was brewed into something that resembles what we drink today for the caffeine boost. Before that the Arabs used it exclusively for medicinal or religious purposes. Obviously the feeling of exhilaration from the caffeine of the drink became a widely sought-after side effect. One popular legend tells of Sheik Omar experimenting with brewing some coffee from raw wild coffee berries. Thanks in part to the beneficial effects of the caffeine, the Sheik survives his exile and upon his return to Mocha, introduced his new way of preparing the drink. Bless Sheik Omar is what I say! The Arabs continued to refine their methods of preparing the drink for many years, over 300 to be exact. Originally coffee drinkers drank the grounds right along with the boiled water, talk about a caffeine buzz. Eventually they figured out how to get just the liquid, by letting the grounds to settle at the bottom of the cup. It did not take long for coffee to become so important in their lives that in Turkey a husband who refused to provide his wife with the drink could be divorced by her!
The coffee berries, which contain the coffee bean, are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the genus coffea. The two most commonly grown species are coffea robusta and coffea arabica. Some of the less popular species include Liberica, Excelsa, Stenophylla, Mauritiana, Racemosa and are cultivated in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried, once the bean has been extracted they are then roasted. Those processes actually create several physical and chemical changes in the beans. Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation, as it is with everything, because of the perception by some of its negative impact on the environment. As a counter to those claims others have studied it to death looking for a relationship between coffee consumption and certain medical conditions - the overall effects of whether coffee has a positive or negative impact is still heavily disputed.
These more recent debates are not the first for coffee, it has played an important role in many societies throughout history. It was used in religious ceremonies in Africa and Yemen and as a result the Ethiopian Church banned its secular consumption. It was not until the reign of Emperor Menelik II that it allowed back into society. Coffee became more widely accepted in Europe after it was "baptized" by Pope Clement VIII in 1600 despite appeals to ban the Muslim drink. It was banned in the Ottoman empire in the 17th century for political reasons because it was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe. At one time women were banned from even going into the coffee houses of the day. Although the practice was not universal, it does appear to have been common in Europe. Who knew is what I keep asking myself as I write this.
I was surprised when I found Germany to be the second largest consumer of coffee, 16lbs of the beans per person per year. I was not, however, surprised by the fact the United States is the world's largest consumer of coffee. We caffeine addicts import a mere 16 to 20 million bags annually, or 2.5 million pounds of the beans. This represents one-third of all coffee exported worldwide. I found that more than half of the United States population consumes coffee, that is like 152 million people, and considering the typical coffee drinker slugs down 3.4 cups of coffee per day I am glad that half of China’s population does not consume coffee. Imagine what 665 million people drinking 3.4 cups a day would do to the price and availability of our godly nectar. I was surprised, although I shouldn’t have been, that coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum. World wide coffee production tips the scales at about 6 million metric tons. Another limited resource that us Americans are addicted to and considering it takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity and the average yield from one tree is the equivalent of one roasted pound of coffee we could be in serious trouble if the coffee fields fall into the wrong hands. I say we send troops to Brazil in a preemptive attempt to secure the over 3,970 million coffee trees currently planted and producing there. After we get those plants secured we need to move onto Colombia, they are second in production with approximately 2646 million plants. You know what on second thought, since coffee is the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value I say we go ahead - invade and secure the 12 counties where it is the top agricultural export.
I mean seriously can you imagine a day without coffee?
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