Coffee, Coffee, Coffee
Hearing about this amazing fruit, Monks 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 Leaves Africa
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 beans were crushed, and then boiled in water, creating a crude version of the beverage we enjoy today.
Coffee Arrives in Europe
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.
Coffee Travels to America
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
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.
Coffee in the 21st Century
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. http://coffeeuniverse.com/world_coffee.html
The History of Coffee in Italy
A great contribution to the diffusion of the beverage was obtained by the spread of Islam in North Africa, Europe and South Asia, first under the expansionist policy of the Ottoman Empire, and later thanks to the development of trades favoured by voyages of discovery.
In the second half of the XVI century coffee crossed the Eastern borders to land up in Europe, from many directions: the age of huge sailing-vessels ploughing the Mediterranean Sea, of the navigators developing their increasingly thriving trades, and importing every kind of merchandise from end to end of the known lands, were responsible for introducing coffee into the major ports of our continent.
That is how, in around 1570, it made its appearance in Venice along with tobacco. The merit of its introduction into Italy is ascribed to the Paduan Prospero Alpino, a famous botanist and physician, who brought with him some sacks from the East and, having observed the plant’s characteristics, described it in his book "De Planctis Aegyptii et de Medicina Aegiptiorum", printed between 1591 and 1592.
Venice, more than the other sea towns, was "the Eastern market"; in its port docked European vessels coming from the Arabic and Asian countries. Coffee soon found its way there, and could rapidly be found in plenty. Venetians were the first, thus, to leam to appreciate this beverage. At the beginning, however, the price of coffee was very high, and only rich people could afford to buy it, since it was sold only at chemist’s shops.
G. Francesco Morosini, high judge of the doges’ city, Venice, and ambassador of the Venetian Republic to the Sultan, in 1582, in his report from Constantinople, related that in the East there were numbers of public businesses where people were used to meeting each other several times a day over a dark and boiling hot beverage.
Coffee became thus the object of trade and commerce. In consequence of travellers’ reports, some premises open to the public began to appear in Venice, too. Here they served a beverage which was by now making everybody curious! In 1640, the first "coffee shop" opened in Venice. Others followed in many Italian towns, among them Turin, Genoa, Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples. By 1763 Venice numbered no less than 218 outlets!
Just as coffee had been met by the hostility of devoted Muslims, so in Italy too its introduction collided with some Church representatives’ beliefs. So it came about that some fanatical Christians urged Pope Clemente VII to forbid the faithful to drink the "devil’s beverage" – as they called it!
The Pontiff, before giving judgement, asked for a cup of the black but fragrant beverage. They say that at its sight he cried out: "This beverage is so delicious that it would be a sin to let only misbelievers drink it! Let’s defeat Satan by blessing this beverage, which contains nothing objectionable to a Christian!" Once the Pope’s approval and blessing had been obtained for coffee, a "beverage for Christians, too", its success was assured! By the late XVIII century, many Italian towns had adopted the same Venetian habit. Served in elegant coffee shops or on rough common tables, the beverage was everywhere very much appreciated.
And what about a little chit chat, while you drank? To raise one’s spirits, and banish worries! Seated at the table, in fact, they would drink, eye each other, and gossip about the other customers: it was another key factor in the unexpected success of these shops. Eighteenth century men of culture so loved it that it was called an "intellectual beverage". Coffee aroused interest not only as a "refreshing infusion" but also for its healing powers; so that in a leaflet, printed in Milan in 1801, high credit was given by some physicians to coffee as a "cure-all".In Italy the temples of coffee are still open, and old and picturesque atmospheres recreated. The Cafe Florian in Piazza San Marco in Venice may be the most illustrious of all! Ruby-coloured velvets, unobtrusive lights and small tables are still the lures of the Caffe Greco in Rome, the Pedrocchi in Padua, the Michelangelo in Florence and the Baratti in Turin!
The tradition is still intact today, as testified by the current splendour of so many old coffee shops, in every large European capital. Coffee is therefore a great invention, based on the art of processing and blending it; a specialty that has become a typically Italian tradition. http://sovrana.com/libstory.htm
A Social Drink
The proliferation of coffeehouses established a pattern that continues through to this day. First, coffee is a social drink, often enjoyed in public. Second, countries whose climate doesn't allow them to produce coffee are the greatest consumers of coffee beans (to use botanically incorrect term). Coffee grows at high altitudes within the tropics - think of mountainous countries that hug the equator, like Colombia and Kenya, or India and Indonesia - but coffee culture is strongest in United States, Europe (especially northern countries like Denmark and Sweden) and, in what might come as a surprise to many, Japan, which recently leapfrogged Italy and France to become the world’s third-largest coffee importer. The notable exception is Brazil, which is the world’s largest producer of coffee and the second-greatest consumer. www.nytimes.com
Coffee or Tea?
At first, coffee was more like tea than the drink we know today. The leaves were soaked in hot water, as were the dried fruits. By the time coffee traveled through the Arab world to the Ottoman Empire and Istanbul, it had been transformed into what is now a more familiar form: the fruit’s raw, dried seeds (no, they’re not beans) were roasted, crushed and steeped in hot water. The first coffeehouses opened in Istanbul in the 16th century; by the middle of the 17th century the fashion had spread to Venice, then London and Oxford before arriving in Paris. New England followed shortly after: in 1678, the city records of Boston note that John Sparry was granted the right to sell coffee. www.nytimes.com
Roasters' Common Characteristics
No matter the name, these roasters have many characteristics in common.
• Sourcing. Beans are sourced not just by country but by farm and varietal. So coffee isn’t just from Guatemala, it’s bourbon beans from Finca el Injerto; sometimes, coffees are even are labeled by latitude, longitude and elevation.
• Seasonality. Coffee is a seasonal crop, and the selections at good roasters reflect what’s available rather than keeping beans in storage. For example, the harvest in Brazil starts in May, which means by late fall the new South American crop is coming from Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala.
• Roast Profile. A lighter roast has more character than a darker roast. Rather than mask coffee’s distinct flavors with a dark roast profile (a longstanding practice by many), now roasters are using a light hand with their well-sourced, seasonal coffee. You want to taste what’s distinct about each.
• Freshness. Coffee should be consumed shortly after roasting – some say within seven days, others allow for up to two weeks. (By comparison, it’s not unusual on supermarket shelves to find coffee six to nine months old.) www.nytimes.com
Community Coffee
The first coffee ever served in America was served in Boston in 1697. Since then we have been consuming it at super high rates. There are many benefits to drinking coffee, but is this why we drink so much of it? Or maybe, just maybe, is it where we go for coffee that keeps us coming back for more. Cafe's have been popping up since the American debut in '67, just a few short years before the summer of love, but it's where we go for coffee that is just important to us as how much we consume a day.
More and more people are demanding better coffee as it is something we share together as a community. We gather at these cafe's, and for what? The caffeine not only stimulates us, but the surroundings do as well. Great art, great conversations and people watching are just some of the reasons why coffee is consumed so much. We desire such stimulants in combination. Coffee after all brings us together as a community and this is why coffee has more benefits than strictly those pertaining to health.
Quote:
Over second and third cups flow matters of high finance, high state, common gossip and low comedy. Coffee is a social binder, a warmer of tongues, a soberer of minds, a stimulant of wit, a foiler of sleep if you want it so. From roadside mugs to the classic demi-tasse, it is the perfect democrat.
~Author Unknown
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