Coffee History - Legends and Reality
There is no other drink that elicits as much curiosity and a sense of history from people than coffee. Coffee is interesting because it is so intertwined with many peoples’ cultures from the East to the West. It means a lot of different things for different people and even its history is filled with stories and legends both grounded and amazing.
The history of coffee is peppered with details ranging from serendipitous events to deliberate actions, from intriguing truths to incredible legends. All stories form part of people’s love affair with coffee, an affair that has transcended geography and time to form part a global coffee-drinking culture.
The use of coffee has been traced back to as far as the 10th century in Ethiopia. Before the 1000AD, the members of the Galla tribe consumed the coffee berries with animal fat and experienced a boost in energy from the recipe. How the Galla tribe came to make use of coffee is unknown except for a legend saying a sheep herder named Kaldi noticed changes in his herds behavior after the animal ate the red cherries from the tree.
It was in 1000 AD that Arab traders began cultivating the crop in their homeland. It was also the Arab who started to brew coffee into drinks they called ‘qahwah’. The Arabs kept coffee a deeply-guarded secret. Coffee was illegally brought to India by an Arab named Baba Budan.
In 1453 coffee was first introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. In 1471, the first coffee house was opened in Instanbul, the establishment was named Kiva Han.
In Europe, Venetian merchants introduced the drink to the members of society. They had gotten the coffee from Muslim traders from North Africa and Egypt. In Italy, in 1600, advisers of the Pope advised the Pope to banish the popular Ottoman drink then believed by some Christian as the devil’s brew. Pope Vincent III decided to baptize the drink after trying it himself. It wasn’t until more than four decades later when a coffee house first opened in 1645.
It is believed that it was Captain John Smith who brought coffee to North America in 1607. In 1652, a coffee house opened in England, the coffee became part of forums and discussions, much like how people discuss business and issues over coffee today. The coffee houses were dubbed as “penny universities” (a cup of coffee went for a penny at that time) for stimulating discussions among educated and non-educated people.
In 1668, Edward Lloyd opened his coffee house in England. The establishment frequented by maritime insurance agents, became the predecessor for the company Lloyd’s, a business conglomerate that today offers maritime insurance, stages maritime events and others.
In 1675, after Turkish army left a sack of coffee in Vienna, Franz Georg Kolschitzky, a Viennese opened his coffee house and started the practice of filtering coffee, adding milk and sweetening it.
In 1727, the coffee industry in Brazil started. By 1907, much of the coffee production worldwide came from Brazil. In 1938 Nestle invented the process of freeze-drying to make use of Brazil’s production surplus.
It wasn’t long before coffee spread throughout other parts of the world. The Dutch began transporting coffee commercially in Ceylon and Java. It was seedling from the Dutch that started the whole coffee industry of France. In 1886, Joel Cheek named his coffee blend Maxwell House, a brand that exists up to this day. The Hills Bros started selling packed coffee in 1900. By 1901 the soluble instant coffee had already been invented.