**Where Does Coffee Come From?
**
In this first lesson, we will explore where coffee comes from and
where it grows.
The English term coffee evolved from the Arabic word qahwah, which
was translated into Turkish as kahve and then as café in French,
caffe in Italian, koffie in Dutch and kaffee in German.
Coffee grows on trees that flower and produce fleshy red fruit
called a drupe though it is popularly referred to as the 'berry' or
'cherry'. What we refer to as coffee beans are actually seeds,
which are produced in the centre of the drupe, often in pairs.
After harvesting, the flesh of the drupe is washed or dried and the
'beans' extracted.
The two major species of coffee are Coffea Arabica and Coffea
Canephora (Robusta Coffee). Robusta contains around double the
amount of caffeine found in Arabica, and as its name infers, is
easier to care for.
It is synonymous with the production of lower grade coffee blends
where it is typically used as a filler. It is also included in
'instant' coffee and in espresso blends to enhance the formation of
'crema', the silky froth that forms on top of a well extracted
espresso.
Arabica is believed to be the first species of coffee to have been
cultivated. It requires more care during cultivation and is
considered to produce better coffee than Robusta. Arabica plants
grow at high altitudes of around 1000 to 2000 metres,
approximately 3200 to 6500 ft, above sea level.
Arabica is the species most associated with speciality (sometimes
referred to as gourmet) coffees.
The only place where Arabica coffee grows indigenously is Ethiopia.
It is the birth place of coffee and also the only place in which it
truly grows wild. All countries that produce Arabica coffees have
transplanted plant stock directly from Ethiopia or from other
countries that have previously done so.
Even though hybrid varieties of Arabica have since been produced
with a view to making them resistant to pests and higher yielding,
the history of every plant can in some way be traced back to
Ethiopia.
The history of coffee is patchy and full of myth and hearsay. For
instance there is the tale of Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder who
is said to have discovered coffee.
The story goes that he saw his goats eating coffee 'berries' and
as a result becoming elated. So, Kaldi then tried them himself and
thus the potential of coffee was discovered.
It is far more likely that uses for coffee were developed over
time and were discovered by people tasting various parts of the
'cherry', nevertheless, the old fables do add a bit of romance and
are very cute.
Coffee requires a warm climate and lots of moisture, so it is
produced within a belt extending around the world between the
Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Although there are
now many countries producing coffee, most good quality beans are
grown in Latin America, eastern Africa, and Asia.
From its humble beginnings in Ethiopia, coffee has evolved to
become the second most traded commodity in the world after oil.
Our next instalment will be all about the history of coffee. We
will expand on some of the information contained in lesson one and
explore the rise of coffee in popular western culture.
There are many incomplete and occasionally contradictory records of
how coffee became popular and spread around the world. No-one can
be certain of all of the facts, but nevertheless it is still fun to
explore.
It is thought that some form of coffee cultivation may have started
as early as A.D. 575, though written references to it did not begin
until much later, with one of the earliest recorded being around
the 10th Century by the famous Persian physician and alchemist,
Rhazes.
However, it would be another four to five hundred years
before coffee really rose to popular acclaim, and having been
traded through the port of Mocha (in present day Sudan), we know
that by the 15th Century it was actively being cultivated in Yemen.
The early origins of coffee in the west had quite deep religious
links. For some it played an important ceremonial role, whilst
others considered it to be an evil concoction and wanted it to be
made illegal.
There is a story that suggests advisors asked Pope Clement VIII to
outlaw coffee as it was a favourite beverage of the infidel
Ottoman Empire that they considered such a threat. After
consideration, the Pope is said to have had a cup of this "evil
elixir" prepared for him and declared it "delicious". So he
baptised the brew, making it immediately acceptable and instantly
popular in Christian Europe.
Coffee reached the masses of Europe in 1615. It was introduced by
Venetian traders and initially sold by lemonade vendors, some of
whom promoted it as having medicinal qualities. The first of the
famous European coffee houses are not believed to have opened until
the middle of the 17th Century.
The popularity of coffee spread through Europe during the 17th and
18th Centuries. For example, from not long after their inception
around 1650 and for the remainder of the period, more coffee shops
existed in London than do so today.
Coffee shops were influential places, used extensively by artists,
intellectuals, merchants and bankers. Coffee houses became a forum
for political activity and a place where business was done. For
instance the great Lloyds of London insurance company began life
in a small London café, and flourished into the institution we
know today.
In 1616, realising the commercial advantages of cultivating the
plant required to produce this brand new drink, Dutch sea captain
Pieter Van der Broeck, ignoring a strict Arabian policy not to
export fertile beans in order that coffee could not be cultivated
anywhere else, stole a dozen plants from Mocha and returned home
with them to the Netherlands, where they were cultivated in
greenhouses.
Those plants gave birth to plantations in the Dutch colonies in
Java (now part of Indonesia), Timor, Sumatra, Ceylon and Celebes.
The French and Spanish soon followed the trend with plantations in
their respective colonies. Despite its enormous empire, the UK
didn't follow suit until 1730 when it began production in Jamaica.
It was 1840 before the UK began to grow coffee in India, where
historically it had always cultivated tea.
The story of how coffee reached the new world of the Americas is
another that is shrouded in uncertainty and conjecture. Gabriel
Mathieu de Clieu was a young French naval officer serving in
Martinique, who in 1720 whilst on leave, frequented a number of
Paris coffee houses and became passionate about the beverage.
It is said he developed a fascination with the idea of growing
coffee in the new world and somehow managed to acquire a coffee tree
seedling, probably from the botanical gardens where the Dutch had
gifted a number of plants to the French. The seedling went with him
when he set sail back to Martinique.
Whilst on the voyage the plant was a point of interest for many
passengers, some of whom actually tried to destroy it.
The voyage itself was also not without problems which resulted in
the rationing of drinking water. With the bare minimum needed to
survive, Gabriel shared his scant allowance with the seedling and
both survived.
The plant that grew was to become the father of all the coffee in
the Americas and Caribbean. Unfortunately, the story ends on a sad
note. Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, the man who introduced coffee to
Latin America, died a poor and destitute man in Paris during the
French revolution.
Coffee slowly spread south through Suriname and French Guyana, from
where it was introduced to Brazil by Portuguese military man,
Francisco de Melo Palheta. One account suggests that he smuggled
the seeds to Brazil in the heads of flowers given to him by the
wife of the Governor of Guyana, Mme d'Orvilliers.
By the early 19th Century, coffee had thoroughly established its
importance to the economies of many Central and South American
nations.
Coffee once again experienced an upturn in popularity by the late
20th and early 21st Centuries. Large coffee house chains
established an international footprint, introducing a multitude of
coffee based drinks to the population at large.
Speciality coffee became popular in many countries as committed
individuals sought to offer the world's finest blends and single
origin coffees to discerning customers.
Many specialist coffee bars and bean roasters have sprung up in UK
cities. In the USA, the boom is in full swing with numerous small
roasteries and independent retailers joining in the revolution. The
New Zealand and Australian speciality market is well established,
and mainland Europe is gaining pace.
In fact, coffee consumption in the whole world is on the up, and
despite our history of tea drinking, particularly so here in the
UK. With ever improving knowledge, education and most importantly
quality, gourmet coffee is here to stay.
So now we know where coffee comes from and a little about its
history. Our next instalment tomorrow will be about how coffee is
processed and the different methods used.
Enjoy your coffee!
