Coffee

Background And History of Coffee
by: Alison Benjamin

With all the drinks for sale to consumers at present, few are as well-liked as coffee. Probably the greatest source of caffeine short of the new energy products currently being marketed, coffee is definitely widespread in many different places, from the home to the office, from small coffee houses to swanky dining establishments. The history of coffee can be tracked for a little more than a thousand years, a somewhat short time period in comparison with alcohol based drinks, which have been consumed since prehistory, and tea, that goes back more than one thousand years BC. Not surprisingly, coffee has spread throughout the world as a popular drink. A look at the history associated with coffee will show the way it has gained its recognition. Ethiopian Origins A history of coffee as a drink began in Ethiopia some time around the 9th century. Legend has it that Ethiopian herders remarked that their goats became particularly perky after consuming the berries of a specific bush, and for that reason had the notion to eat it as a stimulant. The truth is that coffee probably had already been produced as a beverage by the 9th century as a natural result of cultivation associated with vegetation. From Ethiopia, the drink spread to North Africa, including Egypt. Middle Eastern Success The introduction of coffee to Egypt caused it to be readily available at ports with trade to the remainder of the Middle East, where coffee became a common drink by the 1500s. Shortly after its introduction, authorities put a ban on the drink because of its stimulant qualities. But like prohibition in the US, the ban on coffee didn’t survive and was later rescinded. At this time in history, though, tight controls on the commodity were in place. Although coffee in its roasted form began to be exported to Italy as well as other European nations, export of the unroasted coffee beans and plants was banned. Colonization And Coffee This restrictive control over the export of coffee plants could not survive. This period in the history of coffee ended when Dutch traders smuggled coffee seeds out of the Middle East during the 1600s, where it was planted on the island of Java, which is still a major exporter of coffee in the present day and also shares its name with the nickname for the particular beverage. Oddly enough, as coffee plants spread to other European colonies, another century into the history connected with coffee, in the 1700s, the plant was smuggled to Brazil, which is still the biggest exporter of coffee beans. Coffee in the US The history of coffee in US follows that of early wars. Introduced there during the 1700s, the popularity of coffee didn’t take off until the Revolutionary War, when tea became scarce and colonists looked to other drinks. Coffee again increased in popularity through the war of 1812 for similar reasons. However, the time when coffee drinking developed to where it was an American fixture appears to be during the time of the Civil War, when demand was high enough that it became a permanent fixture as a beverage in a great many American households. Through colonization and wars, the history of coffee appears to follow that of the history of people, and its widespread popularity all over the world demonstrates that it's genuinely a global experience.