HISTORY OF COFFEE
Moca was also the main port of the only sea route to Mecca, the busiest place in the world at that time. The Arabs, however, had a strict policy of not exporting fertile coffee beans, so that it could not be grown anywhere else. The coffee bean is the seed of the coffee tree, but when the outer layers are removed it becomes infertile. Many were the attempts that were made to get some coffee trees or fertile grains, but that race was finally won by the Dutch in 1616, who managed to take some to Holland and there they grew them in greenhouses.
At first, the Yemeni authorities strongly encouraged the consumption of coffee, as its effects were considered preferable to the stronger effects of “Kat”, a bush whose leaves and shoots were chewed as a stimulant. The first coffee serving establishments were opened in Mecca and were called "kaveh kanes". Such an establishment quickly spread throughout the Arab world, and cafes became busy places where chess was played, gossip was exchanged, and singing, dancing, and music were enjoyed. Nothing had been like the coffee shop before: a place where you could socialize and do business in a comfortable environment and where everyone could go for the price of a coffee.
Arab coffee houses soon became centers of political activity and were suppressed. Then, in the following decades, coffee and coffee shops were banned several times, but they kept coming back. Eventually a solution was found: coffee and coffee establishments had to pay taxes.
The story of how coffee spread throughout the world, its cultivation and consumption begins in the Horn of Africa, in Ethiopia, where the coffee tree probably originated in the province of Kaffa. There are several fanciful accounts of how the attributes of the roasted coffee bean were discovered. One of them recounts that an Ethiopian goat herder was amazed by the lively behavior of the goats after chewing red coffee cherries. What is most certain is that the slaves brought from what is now Sudan and Yemen to Arabia through the then great port of Mocha ate the succulent fleshy part of the coffee cherry.
COFFEE COMES TO ASIA
The Dutch also began growing coffee in Malabar, India, and in 1699 brought some to Batavia, Java, in what is now Indonesia. A few years later, the Dutch colonies had become the main source of coffee supply to Europe. Today Indonesia is the fourth largest coffee exporter in the world.
COFFEE REACHES EUROPE
Venetian merchants were the first to bring coffee to Europe in 1615. The first coffee establishment opened in Venice in 1683, and it was the famous Caffè Florian in St. Mark's Square, which opened its doors in 1720 and is still open to the public today. two other great hot drinks: hot chocolate, brought by the Spanish from the Americas to Spain in 1528; and the other tea, which was first sold in Europe in 1610.
COFFEE REACHES THE AMERICAS
The first reference to drinking coffee in North America dates back to 1668, and soon after that date, coffee shops opened in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and a few other cities.
It was in 1720 when coffee began to be cultivated for the first time in the Americas, thanks to Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu; who was a French naval officer who traveled to Paris in 1720. With help he managed to acquire a coffee tree that he took with him on the sea voyage back to America. The coffee tree was installed in a glass box and left on the deck to keep it warm and not be damaged by salt water. The trip was full of incidents: Tunisian pirates chased the ship, there was a strong storm and the coffee tree had to be moored. In addition, De Clieu was confronted with an enemy on board who was envious and tried to sabotage the bush, there was a violent fight in which one of its branches broke, but the coffee tree survived all of this.
After these incidents, the ship was immobile due to lack of wind and drinking water was rationed. For De Clieu it was clear what was the most important of all and he gave up most of the water that corresponded to the coffee tree.
Finally, the ship reached Martinique and the coffee tree was replanted at Preebear, where it was hedged with thorns and cared for by slaves. The coffee tree grew, multiplied, and in 1726 the first harvest was made. It is recorded that in 1777 there were between 18 and 19 million coffee trees in Martinique. The pattern had been set for a new commercial crop that could be grown in the New World.
It was the Dutch, however, who first began to propagate the coffee tree in Central and South America, where today it reigns unrivaled as the main commercial crop on the continent. Coffee first reached the Dutch colony of Suriname in 1718, and later coffee plantations were planted in French Guiana and the first of many in Brazil, in Pará. In 1730 the British brought coffee to Jamaica, where today the most famous and expensive coffee in the world is grown in the Blue Mountains. By 1825, Central and South America were en route to their coffee destiny. That date is also important because it was when coffee was first planted in Hawaii, which produces the only American coffee and one of the best.
THE COFFEE TODAY
For Americans, the world's largest consumers, Seattle is the new spiritual home of coffee. The rainiest major city in the United States gave birth, in the 1970s, to a coffee or “Latte” culture that took hold in the United States and dramatically improved the overall quality of coffee that consumers drink. Americans. Today, in any public place in the United States there will be one or more coffee stands offering a variety of coffees, beverages, and snacks.
This newly discovered “coffee culture” has begun to spread to the rest of the world. In countries that already had a great coffee tradition, such as Italy, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, it added new converts to the pleasures of good coffee. Today it is possible to find good coffee in any major city in the world, from London to Sydney to Tokyo; tomorrow there will be more coffee around the world and, more importantly, better coffee.
COFFEE IS A GLOBAL COMMODITY
The importance of coffee in the world economy cannot be overstated. Coffee is one of the most valuable primary products, second in value for many years only to oil as a source of foreign exchange for developing countries. The cultivation, processing, trade, transport and marketing of coffee provides employment for millions of people around the world. Coffee is of crucial importance to the economy and politics of many developing countries. For many of the world's least developed countries, coffee exports represent a substantial part of their foreign exchange earnings, in some cases more than 80%. Coffee is a commodity that is traded on the major commodity and futures markets, most notably in London and New York.
Bibliographic references:
* http://www.ico.org/ES/coffee_storyc.asp / International Coffee Organization - History of Coffee