COFFEE HISTORY
Origin of Coffee
Where on earth is coffee grown? When & how was it discovered? How long have we been consuming this motivational brew whose popularity and ever-changing flavors seem to reach higher levels all the time? Not to mention all those new funky names that try to explain the complexity, region, and food pairing of each delicious blend.
Most old time coffee “purists” would step into a modern-day coffee shop and simply ask for a cup of coffee but the barista would inquire, “What flavor?” To which the purist’s response would most likely be, “Hmmm—coffee?” Needless to say, we have come a long way with the precious bean. But just how far has coffee really come?
Let’s take a trip through time. According to most athorities, coffee was first discovered around 800 A.D. in Ethiopia - one of the worlds oldest countries. The most popular account of this ancient legand begins with a goat herder by the name of Kaldi. He noticed his goats were dancing & frolicking in a spirited fashion after hanging out by a grove of small bushes that were full of cherry-red berries. Kaldi was intrigued by the dancing goats, so he picked some of the berries and give them a try. One account takes the legand further with Kaldi disposing of the bitter, hard berries into his fire. Then he noticed a wonderful aroma as they popped and toasted. He retrived the beans and coverd them with water to cool and then enjoyed the first brewed coffee in history.
 After a while Kaldi picked a basket of the berries, and took them back to a near by monastery to share with the other monks. It was soon discovered that the cherry-like fruit, once opened, contained two beans. The monks noticed that their consumption energized them, and made them more alert. They were able to hold longer prayer vigils and to study for longer periods of time and now no one fell asleep!
Soon word to spread about this stimulating bean. Arab traders brought the beans back into their country where they then planted them in their own soil. The Arabs gave the beans the name, Kahwah which either means “keep one from sleep.”
Early methods of consuming coffee beans range from eating the beans after they were soaked in water to soften then mixed with spices and herbs for flavor. Another was to allow the beans to ferment with the leaves and cherry-like fruit intact, then processed and used like wine.
The story has also been told of how coffee beans were mixed with other substances, like butter or honey and used by workers in the field for energy. After a while, kahwah had grown so popular that traders brought it into Yemen, Turkey, Armenia, Persia, and Northern Africa. From there, trading ships traveling north brought their new discovery to Italy and all of Europe. Next the coveted beans found their way to Indonesia, and finally the Americas, where it became popular in the early 1800s.
While our legend of Kaldi has him roasting the beans when he first discovered them this was not a popular methoud of consuming coffee until the thirteenth century when Arabs were said to be the first to discover roasting coffee beans. They roasted them over an open fire after noticing that applying heat to coffee beans changed their flavor, aroma & shape. After roasting the beans puffed up while the oils and natural sugars of the beans are released giving the coffee beans a wonderful flavor and complexity. Roasting coffee beans is both an art and a science. Lighter roasted beans are mellow and smooth while darker roasts are bold, rich and full-bodied.
While the Arabs used open fire coffee roasting, Europeans learned to roast their coffee beans in closed ovens. Finally in 19th century, large roasting equipment was developed, turning coffee roasting into the huge commercial operation that is today.
That's the history of coffee!
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Coffee History